Art Nouveau Marvels in a Buena Park Condo

List Price: $424,900
The Property: Originally the main living rooms of a mansion built in 1903, this second-floor condo has some original design elements that have been carefully preserved and restored. The most noteworthy of these features is an Art Nouveau fireplace, where flared columns flank a tile mosaic depicting yellow roses. The mantelpiece is a mirrored glass cabinet that bows outward. Nearby are…

Lofty Ambitions Deliver an Urbane Home—Near North Side

List Price: $3.4 million
The Property: It must have been blind optimism that convinced Tom Tremback back in 1991 that he could turn a fleabag of an apartment building into a loft-style home. Whatever it was, he bought a 100-year-old structure on LaSalle Street that held five decrepit apartments and started renovating. It took ten years of work before he could move in—and a few more before he could call the entire place a…

A Foreclosure with a Happy Ending

Three years ago, Stephanie and Bob Walker paid $799,000 for a three-bedroom house on a ridge in the Silverlake section of Los Angeles with a view of the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Park Observatory. This summer, they were camped out in the Barrington home of Stephanie’s mother, having lost a yearlong struggle to hang onto their house in…