Warranties for products are simple to understand, most people might think. You go to the store, buy a computer or a DVD player or a TV, or even a larger appliance like a refrigerator, and you get a piece of paper describing a one-year …
Brickwork is everywhere across the Chicagoland area. Around since the early 1600s, the popular building material is commonly used not only because of its aesthetic appeal, but also because of its practicality. Naturally weatherproof, b…
If phones can be “smart,” why not buildings? With the ever-expanding array of consumer technology available today, it should come as no surprise that residential buildings are incorporating more and more cutting-edge technology into the…
Despite the due diligence of boards and property managers, building code violations can occur during routine inspections—be it a faulty pipe, broken step or rusted fire escape. It is the speed and accuracy of addressing these infraction…
As we go about our busy lives, we often forget about everyday physical facts—like the unceasing tension gravity places on the materials we assemble into buildings and other structures, for example. Whether or not we are paying attention…
Few things are as important to our health and well-being as the air we breathe, especially inside our own homes. That is why it is so important for individual homeowners as well as management to stay up-to-date on issues of indoor air …
Sooner or later, every co-op or condo owner will have to deal with the inconvenience of living through a major capital improvement project—a roof replacement, an elevator rehab, serious exterior work, or something of that nature. No mat…
According to some sources, the word “tips” is actually an acronym—it's short for “To Insure Prompt Service,” and the list of people who are commonly tipped—at least in the United States—includes everyone from hair and nail salon workers t…
Most people assume that as soon as they buy their first home, they will finally have the freedom to paint their decks purple, to hang fluorescent window treatments and colorful sconces, or to litter their lawns with political or yard s…
As any good condo administrator knows—either through common sense or painful experience - failing to clean up snow or ice promptly can result in injuries, acrimony, and expensive lawsuits. Any one of those is reason enough to get seriou…
If you want to make a good impression, nothing quite says luxury and elegance like a vast expanse of polished marble—particularly in the lobby of an upscale condominium or co-op building. Marble has been used in palaces, temples, and ho…
You may not realize it, but your building may be hemorrhaging money. Not in the form of disastrous lawsuits or maintenance crises like a collapsed roof or exploded boiler, but in a steady trickle coming from your method of ordering sup…
With the price of gasoline rising, daily traffic snarls, a desire to live a healthier life and the responsibility to lessen the effect of one's carbon footprint, there are many reasons to own a bike. Buying the bike is just the beginnin…
Aurora is known as the City of Light, a homage to the fact that the city was the first city in the nation to install electric streetlights. Though overshadowed by its big brother Chicago, Aurora can easily stand toe-to-toe with the Wind…
The Streeterville neighborhood in Chicago’s Near North Side is home to tens of thousands of Chicagoans, important cultural, educational and medical institutions, some of the area’s greatest retail and dining, and a destination for countl…
In a community association or HOA meeting, without procedural rules and organization, it’s amazing how quickly a room full of adults can devolve into a room full of toddlers—everyone talking over one another and no one listening, insuri…
Q Our upstairs neighbors always have loud noises coming from their unit: TV, music, video games, etc. Our condo building is older and everything can be heard from above. Our bylaws don’t really specify any rules about noise except that …
Q We have a small condo association and it is difficult, as I assume it is for most, to get people to serve on our board. The idea we came up with is to have one person serve as the treasurer/secretary. In Illinois, is this legal? Is it…