It is the hometown of current mayor Rahm Emanuel, actor Rainn Wilson and actress Virginia Madsen. But with its 14 miles of brick-paved streets, circa1925 street lamps, a plethora of trees, a top notch school system and a sprawling lakefron…
Of all the responsibilities that come with being a board member or manager of a residential building, few are as important as ensuring the safety of your residents. Making and clearly communicating emergency plans, marking entrance/egress …
When it comes to work in, on, or around a residential building, there’s really no such thing as a small job. Whether a minor fix or a major capital improvement, there are a slew of factors that determine the success of a project, particula…
Walk down any street in Chicago and you’re likely to go under or around one of the ubiquitous steel-and-plywood structures that shade the city’s sidewalks, more often than not festooned with wheat-pasted posters for everything from the hot…
Remember the old jingle, ‘it takes a licking and keeps on ticking’? It was the famous tagline from the Timex watch advertisements. The gist of the ad is that no matter what you threw at it, a Timex watch kept working. If you think ab…
Living in a dense urban area like Chicagoland can be something of a dirty job. And the task of cleaning off months (or years) of accumulated grime and dirt from the exterior of a building takes much more than a scrub-brush and a bottle of …
It’s 6 pm. on a Tuesday night when the Chicago Cubs are in town and it’s game night in Lakeview’s Wrigleyville neighborhood—just streets away from where the beloved Cubs play at Wrigley Field. Parking throughout most of Wrigleyville …
Olivia Pope, the main character on ABC’s Scandal, is a professional fixer. If you have a problem—any problem—she can fix it. Over the past two seasons plus, she’s rigged elections, covered up murders, employed professional hit men, exposed…
As jugglers of multiple and oftentimes complex tasks, property managers must be adept at mediating between board members and unit owners, as well as resolving all manner of maintenance and legal issues. To this end, property managers don’t…
The condominium’s swimming pool was 30 years old. It needed a renovation. That would trigger a legal requirement that it be in compliance with current regulations—and would cost $1 million. The association’s board of directors, aghast at t…