Chicago

This past weekend we ventured north and west to the City of Chicago to spend some time with Amber on her 26th birthday. It looks like she will have a minimum of two more years there while she completes her two Masters degrees in Public History (Loyola) and Library Science (Dominion). So the plan was to eat well, celebrate, and enjoy Chicago.

We started at Amber's apartment with - drum roll please- PRESENTS- of course!

I think Don looks especially nice with the bag!

And then it was off to dinner- vegetarian of course! You can check it out at: http://www.greenzebrachicago

And then a BIG FINISH with CUPCAKES!

On Saturday morning we met Evan for breakfast- Now Don says this so very casually- "we met Evan for breakfast"- But there's more to this- WE MET AMBER'S NEW BOYFRIEND FOR THE VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY FIRST TIME FOR BREAKFAST. I think you get the picture- and then headed to the city center. We started by walking out onto Navy Pier and just enjoyed the sites and the sunshine. I've kept you in suspense haven't I? You thought I'd put a picture right at the beginning- but no- as you well know I am a patient person- so I waited 60 words- keeping you in this heightened state of anticipation. But here it is!

Evan and Amber by the Navy Pier!

And then we paused by the statue of the American Gothic for a picture:

Amber had made reservations for us to go on the Chicago River Architecture Tour, something that I had considered any number of times while visiting Chicago, but never really had the time to do. But Saturday was a beautiful day and we had nothing but time on our hands, so the tour was a great idea. I think this particular Saturday was so beautiful that I would have loved meandering down the river even if I hated architecture. But I don't- so this was a real treat. Chicago has such a wide variety of buildings that represent a wide variety of architectural styles. As we left on the tour boat which started at Michigan Avenue, the number of different styles is pretty mind numbing. Our docent was amazing in that she described every building along the river, who designed it, what architectural style it represented and the history of who occupied it. There is no way to remember which were which and since architecture is not one of my strong point, I will only add pictures of the various buildings. The perspective of all of these will be from below, looking up, because we were on the river and these building all were located either on the river bank or near by.

On the Chicago River at Michigan Avenue stand some very stark contrasts of architecture. Across from the street from each other are the Chicago Tribune building and the Wrigley building.

The Tribune building is a neo-gothic building (front facade above) with a high tower and the Wrigley building is in the French Renaissance style with a clock tower.

The Tribune tower above and the Wrigley clock tower below

They compliment each other beautifully, but right next door and looming above the Wrigley building is the new Trump tower that is a high spire of glass and steel.

As our boat moved down stream away from the lake (now that's another story) we passed an amazing variety of building styles, some that were built to take advantage of the river and others that were built to provide a specific function without regard to form. Below are twin apartment towers with the lower levels for parking. If you back too far into your parking space, your car falls into the river many stories below.

This next building has an amazing Greek columned top

The next two buildings were separated from each other, but both were built to emphasize the curve of the river and the blue of the water reflecting the surrounding..



The story behind this next apartment building was that the architect had always built structures using right corners and parallel lines, but decided to abandon that style for curves. At the base below the parking lot was a mooring site for residents boats.

But for the most part, architects stayed with those right angles and straight lines to produce a variety of different styles, which I know all have names, but for the life of me I can't remember any of them.

Thought I might break up the pictures of the buildings with a picture of Amber and Evan on the boat...

This next building is the Merchandise Mart, which claims to be the largest commercial building in the world with 4.2 million square feet of space.

And at the far end of the tour we were provided with a view of the Willis Tower (formally known as the Sears Tower and still called that by the vast majority of people). It was at one time the worlds tallest building, but is now ranked 3rd in the world and will be 4th if the new "Spire" is built by the lake in Chicago. The building next to the Willis Tower is small in comparison (only 65 stories compared 108 for the Willis Tower), but the angle here makes it look almost as big.

Now it is important that what I know about architecture styles is even less than zip! Why we might judge it zippo minus- but the building on the above right is an "Art Deco" And that is my absolute favorite building style- And it is the style of my high school in Tulsa- So it has a particular fondness. So mostly as we meandered down the river I just kept looking for my favorites- I think maybe it is the only style I can actually identify with a modest degree of accuracy.

Art Deco buildings were built in the US primarily in the roaring 20's and then continued by the WPA during the GREAT DEPRESSION. Our high school was built by the WPA during the depression- 1938- you can read about it at:

http://www.tulsapreservationcommission.org/nationalregister/buildings/index.pl?id=71

Somehow I just don't think our current "stimulus money" is going to result in these glorious monuments that last through the decades. I guess I'll always be glad I walked the halls of this grandeur built from despair.

And finally this high rise apartment that sits right on Lake Michigan next to the Navy Pier. This building has three "petals" extending from the center providing a glass exterior that provides privacy from neighbors because the line of sight does not extend from one apartment to any other.

So after the boat tour we were off to dinner- pizza and beer- beer brewed right on site! You can check it out at: http://www.piecechicago.com.

And of course there was certainly desert - not with the beer- we headed for a restaurant called "Hot Chocolate" for the desert!

But the night was still young so it was off to the local bar to finish the evening.

This weekend wasn't quite finished though. On Sunday after breakfast out (Have I mentioned how wonderful breakfast out is in Chicago!). We traveled to the Chicago Art Institute to finish our visit here.

Don's favorite- the Impressionist Gallery.

But our final stop was a visit with the "original" American Gothic:

A new view from the Window

The view from the Windows on Wentworth has suddenly become a lot clearer. As part of our upgrade of porches, we also decided to upgrade our windows. This old house's windows have been in place for 114 years. They are large double hung wooden single pane windows, many of which had broken ropes on their counter weights. These last few years I just hadn't gotten around to replacing those ropes, and consequently many of them required Herculean efforts to raise them and then a prop to hold them up. We did have aluminum storm windows on the outside, but over the years some of them have also separated at the corners and become leaky or even not usable.

In the winter on a windy day, we usually had a nice cool breeze blowing in when sitting by a window. The other problem is that since the aluminum storm window frames were attached to the house by wood screws, I never took them off when I repainted the house, and thus the outsides of these old wooden windows were looking absolutely terrible. So the windows are being replaced, all of them except for the ones with stained glass in them.

These old windows were heavy and consequently required large counter weights and pulleys to allow you to raise and lower them without straining yourself.

As they take out these old iron counter weights, they reflect a technology that is as old as the buggy whip and about as useful today. I'll probably save some of these counterweights, just to have them, and who knows, I may actually think of a new application for them. Consider it the greening of double hung counter weights.

I must admit, although they were drafty, I really did like these old windows with their unique locks and decorative shoulders. You just can't get windows with that kind of character in something that is energy efficient, at least without paying an arm and a leg for them. So they will be going away with both a certain amount of sadness and a certain amount of relief.

So the Window on Wentworth will have a new look, one that will be displayed in a future post. Because in addition to the construction and the windows, the outside of the house is now being painted. The white that it has been since I bought it 22+ years ago will be covered with a new color, but you will have to wait until the job is completed to see it.

Porches

This construction project on our house has been going on since January. But this last week we finally finished the last of the real construction project. The new windows still need to be installed, but those will just replace these old drafty windows that were original in the house 114 years ago. This last construction phase was the replacement of our back porch. Below are pictures of this porch prior to the start of construction.

So, the porch was removed along with most of the brick patio that extended beyond the porch.

One additional problem we ran into was the old cistern that sat just behind and under the current kitchen. Unfortunately, one of the piers for the new porch needed to be placed in a place above this cistern. Consequently, 30 cubic yards of a mixture of cement and sand had to be pumped into this hole before we could proceed. At last we were able to pour the piers and place the foundation beams for the porch. This took a while and the entire porch was removed only after the piers for completed. Poor Brutus was used to charging out the back door and thus the first time he did this without warning the porch was gone, he fell the four feet and landed on his head. It didn't seem to hurt him too much, but he has been a bit more cautious in going out since then.

As the porch went up, Max and I started dreaming of actually getting it done. Below Max is sitting on our porch in progress, enjoying a glass of wine and imagining the finished product.

With good weather the porch continued up and showing us what we were hoping to see.

Day by day it looked more and more like the view our two dimensional blue prints.

The new brick work was put in place so the final steps could be put on

And the final wrap around steps were completed putting this phase behind us.

The final stage of our project is to get this old house painted. We've picked the colors and the painters start this week. It will be nice to get this old house looking its best again.

A big hug all around

Well, I held this post up for over a week hoping Max would have time to chime in, but she has been pretty busy finishing up her work and getting ready to leave for a week at piano camp. She flew out this a.m. so I am posting without her.

These last two weeks were pretty trying to say the least, but last weekend provided a big dose of family, something that always brings a real sense of belonging and security. With Sarah, Deseree and Anthony safely at our house, we also welcomed Kelly and Pat's crew from Bluffton and visits from Mary, Kevin, Taylor and Samantha as well as Michael and Liz. It was a house full, but well worth every minute of it. Kelly et.al arrived for dinner on Friday and stayed until Sunday afternoon. It was so nice to have everyone at the house spending time catching up, eating, drinking, resting, and just being there.

Saturday morning Darby provided assistance in making our pancake breakfast. My previous helper, Bailey, has become a full fledged teenager much more interested in sleeping in than flipping pancakes with her uncle Don. But Darby has grown into the job and did a most excellent job at that. She is growing up into what is sure to become a beautiful young lady, just like her sisters.

Darby also demonstrated how grown up she really is by helping with the fruit salad. Little did Max know that Darby is rarely allowed to even approach a butter knife, much less one of our sharp paring knives. But once again she was up to the task and came away with all of her fingers intact and the strawberries nicely cut up.

A good bit of time was spent just sitting around with the children, making new and renewing old connections.

And Max got to put her new double rocker to the test. She insisted that we really needed this rocker so she could rock grandchildren in it it.

It proved to be just perfect for those evening occasions

And our new "Sun Room" or "Side Porch" was put to great use providing plenty of room for everyone to sit or to gather to eat. Of particular popularity was the corner over stuffed chair, my personal favorite place in the whole room. Kelly and Lucas seemed to appreciate it just as much as I do.

But the best part was just being there with everyone else, enjoying a glass of wine or just enjoying being with each other.

Even we old folks enjoyed trying out our new family room "double overstuffed chair with room for two.

And occasionally room for three.

or even a comfy place to lie down for only one.

The real hit of the weekend was the tool bench and tools that Kelly and Pat brought. Anthony, Taylor, and even Lucas enjoyed using the array of tools provided.