373 Park had been a sad, unmaintained, multi-unit for all the years I have lived in the neighborhood. A flipper bought it and with grants totaling over $100,000 from the city did a good job of bringing it back to a nice single family home. It is now owned by a great couple with kids […]
We bought our first old house in 1975 only because that was all we could afford. I calculated what I could afford and it was $30,000. This one cost $29,500. With 10% down my monthly payment was $250. At the time it was tough to make the payment as a teacher I was only making$9000 […]
128 College was covered with aluminum siding. The Gifford Park Association has a program they call the Great Unveiling. The name and program was borrowed, with their permission, from Rock Island, IL. It is an old fashioned barn-raising event where volunteers take off the substitute siding. When the Gifford Park Association started the program they […]
352 Prairie has been an eyesore and problem property in our neighborhood for a long time. It looked bad as seen at right and had a lot of police calls. A flipper bought it and applied for downsizing and architectural rehabilitation grants from the city. He was set to get over $100,000 in grants to […]
This home was foreclosed upon and purchased by two flippers from Chicago for $78,400 in July of 2017. The porch had a lot of rotten parts that needed replacing and I was hired to do that. Some of the curved rails were rotten. The previous contractor had done some good work but did not […]
The Resurrection of 12 Hill 12 Hill was designed by prominent Elgin architect David Postle. Most of his houses in Elgin are a lot larger and fancier. Like this one on Douglas: Here is a Postle designed house on Rugby Place. The Historical Society museum has the original plans which were used to bring 12 […]
After the crash President Obama funded a huge program called the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Cities nationwide were given money to buy and rehab properties made vacant problems by the crash. Elgin received over 2 million dollars. With it they bought eight properties. One they tore down as it was too far gone. Just […]
Porches recreated by Neighborhood Housing Services In the early 80’s Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) and the city of Elgin bought 326 E. Chicago with the upper level to be for the NHS office and the bottom floor to be rented out as an apartment. It was purchased for $55,000. A neighbor came forward with an […]
In 1975 we inherited a nice rocking chair from my wife’s grand parents. It was missing a spindle. We looked everywhere for someone to make one spindle for us. We found places that would make 100 but not one. I was starting to get into woodworking as a necessity in rehabbing our first house so […]
This house on Douglas Street in Elgin has four columns with unusual large beading on the top 18 inches. The two in the rear got a lot of water from the roof and were rotten. I was hoping that some epoxy could give them several more years. When they were taken down the top […]