List Price: $1,124,000
Sale Price: $1,051,282
The Property: After years of working separately on rehabbing vintage buildings, two Lake View builders, Bryan Hansen and Sharon Pratt, have come to “believe in details,” says Hansen. In their first collaboration on a new house, they indulged that belief, creating a warm, distinctive house that sold relatively quickly in the current slow market.

The sunny transom windows that punctuate the stone and cedar façade re-appear inside the house, both above interior doorways and as decorative transoms over the white kitchen cabinetry. Working from a design by Avatar Architects, the builders also installed dark wood floors and extensive crown moldings and wainscoting.

There were challenges. The lot is only 108 feet deep (the norm is 125), making the now-standard rooftop deck even more necessary here than with some other new city homes. And the block, while pleasant, does sit next to the Metra tracks, which are quieter than the El tracks but by no means silent. On the up side, the house is roughly equidistant from the dynamic Southport and Lincoln Avenue shopping and dining corridors. “The neighborhood is great,” Hansen says, “but with the smaller lot and the train tracks, we needed to build a better-value house.”

Price Points: The builders first listed this house for sale in November with an asking price of $1,149,000, which at the time they thought was very competitive, Hansen says. They later cut $25,000 off the asking price, and in mid-March they negotiated a sale with a buyer (whose name has not yet appeared in public records). The deal closed April 9th.

Listing Agent: Bryan Hansen of Marvin Grahn Real Estate, (773) 665-0400

Photos courtesty Wil Taubert – Avatar Architects