If They Build It, You Will Buy It: 6-Bedroom SFH at 1542 W. Nelson in Lakeview

Several of you have shown an interest in this 6-bedroom new construction home at 1542 W. Nelson in Lakeview.

1542-w-nelson.jpg

On the market since May 2011, it has been reduced $251,000 to $1.999 million.

Built on an oversized 35.8×124 lot, it has 4 bedrooms on the second floor, 1 bedroom on the third floor and 1 bedroom in the lower level.

All bedrooms have ensuite baths.

It has 4 terraces and a 3 car garage.

The kitchen has white cabinets and granite counter tops with stainless steel appliances.

The house has detailed expected at the luxury level including crown molding, built-ins and wainscotting.

There is also a lower level family room and media room.

What price will sell this house?

Dusanka Verschuur at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.

1542 W. Nelson: 6 bedrooms, 5 full baths, 2 half baths, no square footage listed, 3 car garage

  • Old frame house being sold for the land value originally listed in September 2008 for $745,000
  • Reduced numerous times
  • Sold in January 2010 for $480,000
  • New construction home listed in May 2011 for $2.25 million
  • Reduced
  • Currently listed at $1.999 million
  • Taxes are “new”
  • Central Air
  • Bedroom #1: 18×18 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #2: 17×13 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #3: 14×13 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #4: 12×12 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #5: 21×15 (third floor)
  • Bedroom #6: 18×15 (lower level)
  • Media room: 15×12 (lower level)
  • Recreation room: 28×18 (lower level)

59 Responses to “If They Build It, You Will Buy It: 6-Bedroom SFH at 1542 W. Nelson in Lakeview”

  1. “Steps from Art of Pizza and all the marvels of Ashland Avenue”

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  2. gringozecarioca on August 26th, 2011 at 6:06 am

    Looks like a schoolhouse. Those garbage dumpster pickups should be really annoying.

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  3. gringozecarioca on August 26th, 2011 at 6:09 am

    and… can’t believe I am going to say this.. never said before.. get some freakin color up on those walls. This is painful. Even for me.

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  4. What is the point of having 5 full and 2 half baths? Are they planning on turning this into a flop houses on Lolla weekend and renting out to 50 people?

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  5. The windows look stark to me from the outside. Small but no room for shutters or detail. Might have been better just to use double windows.

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  6. God – I must be a real weirdo – because everything I like everyone here hates!!! I actually really like the inside of this place – A LOT!!!! Sure the outside isn’t great and I don’t really like the neighborhood that much, but the inside is great!! I would MUCH MUCH MUCH rather live in this space than that crappy place on lincoln park west showcased yesterday.

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  7. i like it too, but i think a non white kitchen would have done better. it is too bland and i like them bland.

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  8. I can actually appreciate the interior, eventhough it is not my style at all. Deal breaker is the location. Too close to Ashland

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  9. sorry but i will never pay 2mil to live on a chicago alley that has its dumpsters from a restaurant and other commercial business.

    then next to one of the top 5 shytiest intersections of chicago.

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  10. “What is the point of having 5 full and 2 half baths?”

    Every bedroom has a bathroom (although two of the bedrooms apparently share a bath.) For many buyers- that is incredibly important.

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  11. RE: living on or near busy streets.

    I have always LOVED living on a busy street for many reasons:

    1. Convenience – a shorter walk to the stores. Also, much much much easier to get a cab or take public transportation. Plus, better lit and safer than most shaded desolate areas.

    2. There is always activity and life right outside your window.

    3. Your street is always one of the first to be plowed.

    4. The white noise from the busy streets mask your neighbors’ conversations. When I had a weekend house in new hampshire, we all lived on 1 acre lots in a very very very very quiet part of the woods -and I tell you I could hear every conversation of my neighbors. Also, every frickin bird chirp or twig snap was magnified. White noise is nice!!!

    5. In the burbs or more remote areas, if you live on a high-speed road, people/cars can’t stop and park in front of your house and peer in. Burglars can’t park on the street and try to rob your house. It affords you a privacy you wouldn’t otherwise get.

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  12. Have to agree with clio on both the interior of the house AND the advantages of living on busy streets. I really don’t like living more than a block away from one.

    The advantages are having everything you really need within 2 blocks, including transit, groceries, library, restaurants, dry cleaners, theaters, and a large assortment of other retail and entertainment. As clio mentioned, the snow plows get the busy streets first and so do the road workers.

    Disadvantages are rather more noise and the street is the conduit for all the emergency vehicles, but everything has a cost.

    I like the interior of this house much better than the exterior, which is rather stark.

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  13. I like the interior and the white kitchen. I like how they put the windows about open shelves…it’s really symmetrical and breaks up a wall of cabinets. It looks like the dining room floor is diagonal however…hate that, so 80s. Would have added a little color in places, more dynamic lighting (could be added later).

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  14. The interior of this house is beautiful (although the enormous dark wood vanity in the bathroom, if that’s real wood anyways, seems like a bad idea due to warping, etc). The outside is bleh, and the location quite honestly, sucks. Its on the alley. All day and night degenerates will be entering and leaving the alley honking their horn so as to not hit any pedestrians coming around the corner. The garbage means rats, roaches, and other vermin, and quite possibly, line cooks smoking cigarettes right outside your window all day. The builder managed to use up nearly every squarefoot of the lot and put pavers instead of grass! ug! $1,999,000? I’m so sick of this ‘luxury’ phase of building, i wish it would just end. everythign is high end, luxury, expensive, and now it doesn’t even sell, yet they keep building it.

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  15. Lets not forget drunks using the alley as a urinal and also if one of those commercial establishments is a bar you will hear the homeless people clanking the bottles when they collect them and that happens around 8am. The early hobo gets the mad dog.

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  16. “The early hobo gets the mad dog.” Haaaa haaaa, I like that one Bob.

    Place is very nice but although they staged it a bit it still feels to stark and I am a minimalist. I am sure that the right buyer can warm that place up quickly and easily. Should be a great home. Hope I know the buyers as they can have some awesome parties here.

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  17. I live near here and have followed this place closely for quite a while. The interior is huge and stunning. However, it’s a pretty aggressive project and price point for this block. I believe that this is the only double lot property on this block and Nelson is a lot more mixed housing with lots of 2 flats and rentals there compared to most of Wellinton, Oakdale, George and Wolfram on that same stretch. The rest of the high end SFHs on Nelson are in the $1 – $1.2 million range, so this is far and away the biggest, nicest house on the block, but it really sticks out a bit.

    While being by Ashland doesn’t bother me at all (I also like being near busy streets and it’s really quite quiet on Nelson here – and it’s trivial to avoid the traffic in this area no matter which may you are going, but going the right way), I think that the location right next to AoP on that alley is a little crappy. There’s also a new SFH at the other end of the block on the alley on that side of Nelson, and that one’s a little quieter, but there are still a lot of pass-through drivers through both of these alleys. Also, there is a massive mulberry tree in the front, so the sidewalk is covered with rotting mulberries and the attendant fly population for several months out of the year. That stuff will stain your shoes and your house.

    My guess would be that this one will eventually sell for around $1.65 million or so. Good bellweathers will be the pending nice but standard SFH just around the corner on Greenview (listed for $1.1, I think) and the aforementioned brand new SFH at the other end of the street on the alley. That place is listed at $1.3 million. If either of those goes for within 7% or so of list, this monster might have a chance around $1.8 or so.

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  18. If this was 2-3 blocks east of here (east of lincoln), it would be much, much more attractive.

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  19. Looking to buy on August 26th, 2011 at 8:36 am

    It’s a SFH in Burley. I think the corner of Wellington/Ashland is a bar but there is no heavy concentration of bars. So if you do have a drunk it’s one or two. You need to expect that in the city. If not, the suburbs exist.

    38.5ft wide is massive. That’s going to attract a buyer. You probably can’t find anything else like that nearby. I like the finishes and color. Price point is high for the area, I bet the builder is trying to capitalize on the lot width and corner placement, I bet he’s into the place for around $1.7m. Will it sell around $1.85??

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  20. “If this was 2-3 blocks east of here (east of lincoln), it would be much, much more attractive”

    true, but it would also be a lot more expensive…..

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  21. Looking to buy on August 26th, 2011 at 8:38 am

    I didn’t see JJJ’s post. But looks like we are close at 1.8 to 1.85.

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  22. For what it’s worth, Art of Pizza closes earlier than most pizza joints in the city, around 10 or 11 pm I think. So at least the dumpster and delivery driver noise dies down early and you don’t get the super drunk late night eats crowd. Although the Chicago’s Pizza drivers do go through that alley sometimes I bet (open till 5).

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  23. The windows on this place are way too small though. I mean I guess I don’t really want a huge view of the alley and Ashland, but I still don’t like it. How about some bigger windows in the front?

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  24. I had Art of Pizza once and enjoyed it very much. It’s worth driving out yonder a couple of times a year.

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  25. Ahh chicago’s pizza–where the rich west lakeview set so overtips the delivery drivers even they drive acuras and lexuses.

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  26. Walking distance to Art of Pizza? Sold.

    Seriously though, i love this house. a lot of haterz up in here.

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  27. Groove77 on August 26th, 2011 at 7:30 am
    sorry but i will never pay 2mil to live on a chicago alley that has its dumpsters from a restaurant and other commercial business.
    then next to one of the top 5 shytiest intersections of chicago.

    +1!!!

    I couldn’t stand the smell of the pizza’s constantly nor the dumpsters and all the issues that goes along with that. No issues on the house.Did they seriously put up a 2M house that sides to a Pizza Restuarant. Unbelieveable.

    Looks like they paid 480K for the Lot. I would have probably put 400K into a new Single family and listed it at 1.2 or 1.1

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  28. “38.5ft wide is massive.”

    It’s “only” 35.8′. Still big, but less so.

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  29. I was actually going to say I agree with Clio…until I read about his liking of busy streets. While I’ll agree the outside is odd and the alley location is sad, I think this is one of the nicest new construction homes I have seen lately on the inside. Yeah, it needs some paint, but it is nice being able to choose your own paint/colors rather than having to deal with or cover up the developers decision of color.

    Even so, $2 million is a lot…I’d bet it goes for under 1.75.

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  30. At least nobody is complaining about access to the El, considering that someone that owns this could afford a monthly spot in the Loop. I believe the Jewel on Ashland is the highest-grossing Jewel in the entire chain. It always has hot women in there. How is the Temple Bar? it’s stumbling distance, you’re not going to get that in lake forest. $4-$5 breakfast at El Presidente.

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  31. I fucking hate the mulberry tress.

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  32. on white noise – yes, love it. but this is too close to Ashland. if I can tell the make of your car because the engine sounds are that close you can make a distinction, nuh-uh. a block from a big street is great – half block or less, not so much.

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  33. How much does something like this cost to build? Does anyone have a ballpark figure? I am just trying to figure out how much a developer makes on a deal like this.

    Also, the kitchen island should be painted black – it would provide a nice contrast in the kitchen and it would mask all of the shoe scuffs that will happen the first time someone sits down.

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  34. This lot was meant for apartment buildings.

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  35. “the location quite honestly, sucks. Its on the alley. All day and night degenerates will be entering and leaving the alley honking their horn so as to not hit any pedestrians coming around the corner. The garbage means rats, roaches, and other vermin, and quite possibly, line cooks smoking cigarettes right outside your window all day”

    Couldn’t have said it any better.

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  36. what about the lonely charlie brown tree growing out of the deck? Once that tree grows and the roots embed, the deck is going to buckle and be all screwy.

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  37. They should have built apartments here. This place outpriced the neighborhood, I don’t think it will sell for even $1.75. Who is going to pay $1.75 million for a house on an alley right next to a restaurant on street full of $300 to $600 thousand dollar houses? It is a beautiful house though, I wouldn’t change anything except the location.

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  38. “Who is going to pay $1.75 million for a house on an alley right next to a restaurant on street full of $300 to $600 thousand dollar houses?”

    Really? Many people wish that were the price of SFHs here.

    Average price of a house on this street is probably $750k to $800k (unless it’s a tear down- and even the house they tore down to build this one sold for $480k.) The new construction are $1 million+ and there are plenty of those in this neighborhood.

    You have to be rich to live in this neighborhood now (in a SFH.)

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  39. re: living on or near a busy street. Sure, when you’re 23. If you’re buying a 5 bedroom house for 2mm, you probably have kids. Being close to everything means everything is close to your kids. You walk out the door and your kids are a soccer-ball-chase away from an alley, dumpsters and Ashland traffic. That means you never let them get more than 10 feet away from you. Not everyone can afford a quiet, tree lined street in LP. But anyone buying this house can… Pass.

    As an aside, anyone notice that the Coldwell Banker listing has an embedded BING map that for some reason shows 1542 half-way down the block (aka not on an alley or Ashland)? MSN and Google maps show different locations. Convenient error for the listing agent.

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  40. I live nearby, and this is actually a great block for families (app. 20 kids on the block). It helps that Nelson runs one way east, and it is a huge plus that Burley is one block away (& St. Alphonsus is 2 blocks away).

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  41. Yeah, the range is a lot higher than I thought.

    This one sold for $760 earlier this year. http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1527-W-Nelson-St-60657/home/13366618

    This one on the street North is listed for $800 (4BR/3.5 BA) http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1523-W-Barry-Ave-60657/home/13365589

    It looks like a tear down went for $360 and is coming on the market for $1.285 million (5 BR/3.5 Ba). http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1514-W-Nelson-St-60657/home/13366438

    I missed the new listing for this last one (I just saw the sale for $360) and screwed up the price for the other ones.

    While the price difference may not be as great as I mentioned, this $2 million house is still a bit out of place–plus it’s right on an alley. I think that spells trouble.

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  42. I think this house is gorgeous.

    That said, NO WAY would I pay that much to be 1. on an alley, and 2. that close to Ashland. I made that mistake before when I naively paid way too much for a (beautiful on the inside) 3 bedroom triplex up right off Ashland and on an alley. Thank God I was able to unload it.

    The noise of Ashland is not the issue, it is the filth! I’m convinced that your place gets so much dirtier living so close to the traffic from the main drag, and so much more garbage makes it’s way to your doorstep. Plus, living on the alley behind a restaurant is just plain gross. After I brought my first child home to our condo, I cried because I was housing him next to garbage. (Funny how you just don’t seem to care so much about that kind of stuff when no kids are involved). There were rats and other nasty stuff. By the time we moved, I didn’t give a rat’s ass (no pun intended) about the interior finishes of our place or how convenient the place was to the supposedly hip and cool restaurants and shops.

    I’m not trying to be a hater (I love the house itself), but it is what it is. Good luck to the seller.

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  43. I wonder who did the staging though, because I love it. And I actually like the light neutral colors.

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  44. “After I brought my first child home to our condo, I cried because I was housing him next to garbage”

    It has nothing to do with housing. This was post-partum blues/depression. I’m not trying to be funny – but whenever a new parent starts “crying” because of something so irrational and idiotic, it is almost always due to hormonal changes.

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  45. Spoken like a true male physician —

    You’re quite possibly right (about the hormones), but still, I don’t care to have my toddlers trying to make “friends” with alley vermin or exploring last week’s “special” menu item.

    But hey, if the developer can get the asking price for this place, more power to him. I’m all for people making money.

    “It has nothing to do with housing. This was post-partum blues/depression. I’m not trying to be funny – but whenever a new parent starts “crying” because of something so irrational and idiotic, it is almost always due to hormonal changes.”

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  46. I don’t know I have to agree with Clio on this. I was crying about everything the first few weeks post partum and even a bit during my pregnancy and I am a very happy person.

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  47. Miumiu — First congratulations on your baby. I hope s/he is taking it easy on you and that you are feeling well.

    Whether or not I was emotional when I came home with my first baby to my old alley condo off Ashland is really not the point (which Clio plainly missed). Wait until your baby starts walking and suddenly is interested in every piece of nasty crap on the ground, I just hope that you don’t get a toddler who wants to put every piece of nasty garbage in his/her mouth.

    I also hope you don’t get a toddler that will bail on you the second you turn your head and take off out the front door to the nasty alley — or worse — the traffic on Ashland. (I highly recommend child locks. Ashland Lock & Security is great.)

    My point is that when I didn’t have kids, I never thought about this stuff, and as a result, made an expensive real estate mistake. Some people may be perfectly fine with living with their kids close to garbage and traffic in order to have a more luxurious interior and a bathroom for each bedroom and a couple more to spare. I’m just not one of them. That fact has nothing at all to do with whether I was “hormonal” or not after my pregnancy.

    Oh and thank you Clio for clearing up the hormone issue for me, because as mother of 3, I really had no idea. It all makes so much sense now!

    “I don’t know I have to agree with Clio on this. I was crying about everything the first few weeks post partum and even a bit during my pregnancy and I am a very happy person.”

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  48. New construction on Wolfram at $1.6M …

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YXZqUuJZhU

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  49. Year-old construction at 1544 Henderson at $1.7M … on the alley.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5rwqqTbUAo

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  50. You are absolutely right AOB definitely one’s perspective changes after having kids. I think Clio acknowledges your point too; he has many times said that once people have kids they move to suburbs and such…I also think the bubble was at fault too; when one could easily sell and move no one was thinking too carefully. Hind sight is 20/20 so all the people who did not buy at the time mostly because they were no at the point in their life to buy behave as it they were wiser or something. Now that the bubble has burst of course everyone is more cautious.
    But honestly I had no idea this hormone thing is so true. I always thought people exaggerate it until it hit me : )

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  51. There must be something wrong with my taste, I don’t like any of the houses Joe posted especially the second one is so dark. The first one is so guady. I don’t like the kitchen one bit.

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  52. FWIW, I didn’t move to the suburbs. I moved to a SFH in Andersonville and the alley that backs my garage is quite clean. I think the biggest problem that people have on my block are dog owners throwing dog poo in other peoples’ trash cans. But at least most of the dog owners in my hood are polite and clean up!

    “Clio acknowledges your point too; he has many times said that once people have kids they move to suburbs and such…”

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  53. The burbs are not all tree-less subdivisions. Just as the city is not all ghetto, nor all yuppie-ville. We actually have Metra train stations and houses built before 1950!

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  54. I still maintain given the alley location and the fact they paid 480K for the Lot. I would have probably put 400K into a new Single family and listed it at 1.2 or 1.1

    It probably would already be sold and the developer would make $200K after closing costs.

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  55. miumiu,

    The Wolfram house went under contract after little more than a week on the market.

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  56. Listed at $1.85MM now and under contract. Also the other new construction SFH down the street (1514 Nelson) is listed as under contract. Is this correct that I am seeing 8 properties listed over $1MM under contract in 60657? Per Redfin at least

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  57. “Is this correct that I am seeing 8 properties listed over $1MM under contract in 60657? Per Redfin at least”

    Check that, 9 SFH and 1 condo over $1MM listed as pending in 60657

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  58. It sold for $1.65 million.

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  59. This is supposedly going to hit the market again. I expect that it will go for something that starts with a 2 given the change in the market and the desirability of this place. We’ll see. Would be really surprising to me if it went on before 2 years passes but maybe they don’t care.

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