A Windy City Wonder

What: Three bedrooms, three baths in 2,500 square feet on 3,125-square-foot lot

Where: Lincoln Park, Chicago

Amenities: Two floors, two-story atrium with skylights, spiral staircase, exposed brick sidewall. Backyard garden with small deck and barbeque, ivy-covered fences and two-car garage.

Asking Price: $1.4 million.

Opening Bid*: $1.2 million.

Agent: Lynne Jackson, Rubloff Residential Properties 773-572-4404

Due Diligence: This late-1800s house is on a tree-lined, one-way street in the DePaul University area, four miles from downtown Chicago. Ms. Jackson -- who is also the current listing agent for the property -- owned it for 15 years and registered it with the Illinois Film Office. In 1998, she says, the BBC filmed part of a TV show in the living room, which has an exposed brick wall. (The show dealt with a 1979 plane crash in Chicago to which the house had no connection.) Scott Kumskis, vice president of a small steel company, and his wife Nicole bought the brick cottage in 2002 for $825,000. They remodeled the kitchen and master bathroom, among many other things, replaced the roof and gutters, refinished the floors, replaced the windows, built two walk-in closets to the master bedroom, and added structural support below the kitchen -- all for about $250,000, Mr. Kumskis says. "Now we have three kids and the house has gotten too small," he adds. The family hasn't decided whether to move outside the city or buy a larger house in the area.

Additional Photos

-- Photo credit: Joe Compean.

*The opening bid is Weekend Journal's estimate of a reasonable starting point for negotiations to buy the property, based on past sales, prevailing market conditions and interviews with local real-estate experts.

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