List Price: $599,900
The Property: The latest asking price on this contemporary four-bedroom home in Glen Ellyn is about what the sellers paid for the place in 2004—before they spent an additional $75,000 to add a little more than an acre to what was a half-acre lot. The listing is now a short sale (where the lending bank approves selling the property for less than what’s due on the mortgage).

The postmodern gridwork of the house’s exterior is the first indicator of the home’s 1981 vintage. Inside, there is a two-story living room wrapped in built-in carpeted seating, white pipe hand rails, interior window cutouts, and a glass-block shower that also hark back to that era. A cutout appears in the master bedroom; buyers might opt to cover it up, either with wallboard or with glass, for privacy. There would be little loss of light, since there are skylights in the room’s high ceiling. Two children’s bedrooms have ladders up to a playroom that is tucked beneath the roof.

As you will see in the video, numerous skylights and big windows let in lots of daylight and views of the hilly Lake Ellyn neighborhood. The family room, the kitchen, and the adjacent three-season room all open onto a deck that overlooks a large pond (hidden by snow when I was there) and the big wooded parcel of land out back. The grandkids of the original owners “thought of this yard as their campsite,” says Pattie Murray, the agent for the present sellers.

Price Points: The sellers first listed the house conventionally last summer for $747,000. They had paid $592,000 for it in 2007, Murray says, and expected to stay for several years, but were forced to close a business because of the recessionary economic climate. They cut the price into short sale territory this month.

Listing Agent: Pattie Murray of Koenig & Strey GMAC, 630-842-6063; pmurray@ksgmac.com. You can see more images of the house are available on their site.