Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Doorman and the Door

Brunhilda here:


We have a nice penthouse listed in a high rise building. It's in a lovely building and the views are spectacular. One day while showing the unit, Randee finds a note from the management office slipped under the front door. The building needed to change the garage door openers. They are running an exchange program, owners should turn in their current opener at the front desk for a new one. Not too hard, right? Randee's owners don't live in the unit and it would be inconvenient for them to come down to the South Loop to exchange the garage door opener, To be helpful, Randee decides she will go to the front desk and see if she can get the exchange done for them.

The doorman was on the telephone when she arrives. He was loudly complaining about two large dogs that live in the building. He was telling someone on the other end that those big dogs bark at him every time they see him. He even claimed that they have fangs. I guess the poor guy is afraid of dogs. I, Brunhilda, rather like feisty dogs. They seem to like me too!

Randee waited for him to get off the telephone. When he did, she showed him the garage door opener from her listing and asked if she can exchange it for a new one. He told her he cannot do that for a real estate agent. He told her the owner must do it themselves. Randee asked for the forms needed so that perhaps she can get it done with faxes and the building manager. He grudgingly gave her the form. It's just a form, dude. What's going to happen if he gives it to a Realtor! Oh my!

Later that same day, she relayed the whole garage door exchange rules to her owners. They aren't pleased, but what can they do? They say that they will take care of it  A week goes by and still, they haven't had time to come down to exchange the darn garage door opener. Pretty soon they will miss the deadline for the "free exchange" and will get charged for the new one.

So, Randee decides that she will trot on down to the building and visit the manager's office. She's going down to do a showing anyway. As she walked in, she sees there is a different doorman on duty that day. She walks up to this doorman and asks if she can exchange the garage door opener for the new one. He asks for the unit number, hands her a form to fill out, which she does and writes the owners name in the blank. He gives her the new garage door opener, just like that! Done! Pleased as can be, Randee informs her owners that the whole thing is taken care of.

The next day, Randee gets a last minute showing request and goes back down to the building. The first doorman is there. Randee greets him and says nothing about the garage door thing. She just goes about her business and shows the unit. On our way out, I couldn't help myself! I had to do something. Didn't he have it coming? I told him that there was a weird noise coming from the door to the garage. It's a side door that only employees have access to. He said he'd check it out. As he went into the garage I sort of had to shove the door closed and it accidentally locked. I know this because I accidentally locked it.. I also knew that the dogs were just about to walk right past that door. The barking got really crazy and so were the screams!

This is Brunhilda signing off for today. Woof!




Friday, November 6, 2009

The Chicago Gold Coast: They'll Just Die To Live Here!


Brunhilda here:

I have been living happily in the Chicago Gold Coast for a few years now. Most people say they would just die to live in this neighborhood! This is why I am so thrilled to hear about a proposed new use for a historic neighborhood building nearby. The Three Arts Club once housed as many as 110 women artists in the landmark building located at 1300 N Dearborn Street. Just thinking about the clubhouse filled with all those women studying the arts back then gives me a chill. Independent women, all together for the sake of the arts, in the early 1900’s! What a scene it must have been. I would love to get in there and do some friendly ghost busting! Maybe there are a few talented lady ghosts that Brunhilda could befriend. Yummy!

Now the Three Arts Club, a property revered by preservationists, sits vacant and useless, basically, dead. Many vultures, (I mean developers) have proposed different uses for the building. For a while Randee and I thought it would become a condo or hotel. But the neighbors fought hard against the congestion and noise that those would bring their beloved neighborhood. Then the real estate market nose-dived, and the developers disappeared.

Now I hear of a proposal for an ingenious way to use the building. A group of investors headed by Chicago architect Bill Bickford has a unique concept. They will turn The Three Arts Club into a “columbarium”. Don’t know what that means?  Brunhilda does! Basically, it’s a permanent home for the cremated remains of loved ones. Yep! It’s a proposal to turn this building into a big, giant vault to house the ashes of as many as 15,000 souls. Brunhilda likes! How perfect! There won’t be any noise makers, it won’t create traffic congestion. You would love it if you lived right next door. No parties! Maybe once in a while some one will come by to visit Granny’s urn. But mostly, their family members will pay the cost of maintaining the place.

Just imagine the well-to-do Chicagoans jumping on the cremation bandwagon, shopping for urns to house here. I see a future where Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton offer pricey designer urns. Think of the possibilities, older men at the Viagra Triangle indulging in booze and beauties, suffering instant heart attacks and a few days later they can wind up living for all eternity in the Gold Coast! Lucky Schmos!

This is Brunhilda signing off for today feeling like they finally might be getting something right. My Randee, she’s not so sure…..so don’t tell her that I love it!


Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween...What Humbug!


Brunhilda here:                                                                               

You would think that a woman with my inclinations would be reporting her excitement over yesterday's holiday.  Not so much! What's with all of the kids dressed up in my image?  I am the one and only witchy woman in the Gold Coast!  I don't take kindly to your pointy hats and green face paint. You're just so obvious!
There was the annual Halloween party in Goudy Park on Astor Street that afternoon. You don't know about Astor Street? This is where the hoity toity live and breathe. The mansions are fab, the street is gorgeous. Even the dogs are dressed to the nines on Astor Street. So one expects the costumes would be oh so adorable! My Randee side just loves to take a peek. To my utter joy, it was an unseasonably cold day in Chicago.Most little trick-or-treater's costumes were covered up by their winter coats and hats. Their parents accompanied them as they skipped down the tree lined sidewalks to their neighbor's doors. There, children were greeted by household employees passing candy purchased at the best candy stores. Meanwhile, the parents were served wine from crystal wine goblets. A long standing tradition on Astor Street. It's a whole other world there. I can't tell if I was sickened or envious. I think I should skip both emotions. as they could make me turn green, in public, which would not be good.
By the time we headed home, the city streets were populated with strange creatures. Adult sized people, wearing things like white jumpsuits, bunny ears, devil horns and such. Some had painted faces others just wore silly hats. Did they not see how utterly silly they looked? They were headed to the local bars, of course. We live just off of Division Street. There are several famed establishments with years and years of Halloween party stories. Randee was not about to witness any new ones, thank the spirits. So we headed into the condo where she lives to review properties one more time before our buyer's tour scheduled for tomorrow. We will be going to the South Loop to see 1 bedroom condos with a first time buyer. Randee enjoys first time buyers and is looking forward to the day.
After a lovely dinner with her terrific husband we settled in for a quiet night watching on-demand movies. The noises from the Halloween nonsense were muted by the closed windows and television.This year, Halloween happened to coincide with the end of daylight savings time. So before bed Randee turned all the clocks back one hour. That means shorter days ahead and winter won't be far behind.
Wouldn't you know that someone forgot to turn their clocks back?. What a surprise! Our tour today was nearly ruined by one agent who messed up his own schedules, and ours, by not turning his watch back. Didn't he look at his cell phone? For heaven's sake, everyone has a cell phone! So, the agent had arrived an hour early, not knowing about the time change, and called angrily, accusing us of standing him up. We pointed out his error and he agreed to meet us at the correct hour. He said he just couldn't imagine how he messed up his timing. When we met, he appeared to still have some white makeup on his face and hands from the night before. I don't know what I hate worse, little kids begging for candy or meeting over-indulged Halloween party goers the day after. Both!
On our way out of the showing, the agent offered his hand in an apology handshake. Of course Randee accepted. But somehow I left with an extra mobile phone. Those don't handle deep water well, do they?

Brunhilda signing off for now! Glad that Halloween is over, for this year, anyway.