A Vintage 3-Bedroom Duplex Down Reduces $50,000: 3166 N. Cambridge in Lakeview
This 3-bedroom at 3166 N. Cambridge in Lakeview came on the market in January 2022.
Built in 1910, this building has 6 units. There’s no parking.
This duplex down has some of its vintage features including high ceilings, crown molding, a stained glass window in the family room and a wood burning fireplace in the living room.
There are hardwood floors throughout the main level.
It has a spiral staircase that goes to the lower level.
While it’s listed as a three bedroom, one of the main floor bedrooms was converted into a 13×9 walk-in-closet that is adjacent to the primary bedroom.
The second bedroom is in the lower level along with a bonus space/family room, a full bath and the washer/dryer.
The primary bathroom is not en suite but has been updated since the 2017 sale and has custom tile work, a double vanity and separate tub and walk-in-shower.
The kitchen has wood cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances and is open to the family room (was the dining room in prior listing) which has a dry bar with a beverage fridge.
There’s a dining room with exposed brick walls and internal windows.
There are wall air conditioning units.
There is no parking with the unit but its available to lease in the neighborhood.
This building is near the shops and restaurants of East Lakeview and near the Mariano’s.
Listed in January 2022 for $689,000, it was quickly reduced $50,000 to $639,000.
This unit has as much square footage as many townhouses.
Is this a townhouse alternative in the Nettlehorst school district?
Matt Laricy at Americorp has the listing. See the pictures, floor plan, video and 3D walkthrough here.
Unit #1S: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2186 square feet, duplex down
- Sold in October 1992 for $256,000
- Sold in July 1996 for $177,000
- Sold in July 1998 for $207,000
- Sold in July 2002 for $385,000
- Sold in July 2013 for $445,000
- Sold in July 2017 for $535,000
- Originally listed in January 2022 for $689,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $639,000
- Assessments of $385 a month (includes heat, exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes of $10,700
- No central air- wall cooling units
- Washer/dryer in the unit
- No parking- but rental is available to lease in the neighborhood
- Wood burning fireplace
- Bedroom #1: 13×9 (main level)
- Bedroom #2/ Walk-in-closet: 13×9 (main level)
- Bedroom #3: 11×9 (lower level)
- Living room: 18×16 (main level)
- Dining room: 11×19 (main level)
- Sunroom: 19×11 (main level)- was the dining room in other listings
- Family room: 14×12 (lower level)
- Foyer: 8×8
the bars over the windows sure are a nice touch
the basement level is just very depressing looking and who wants to lug their laundry up and down a spiral staircase? no thank you
also this is essentially a 2 bedroom as currently configured, why are lying realtors allowed to lie in this day and age?
“why are lying realtors allowed to lie in this day and age?”
——————————
because there wouldn’t be any otherwise.
Looked a lot better in the 2017 list photos. I don’t know what the current owner was thinking when they converted a main floor bedroom to a giant WIC.
Lots of signs of HVAC issues in the walkthrough tour — plastic over the AC units, supplemental space heaters. Also appears to be occupied by renters which won’t help sell it.
550K max.
What a shitshow
At this price I’d expect, ney demand sophisticated chips in my wall units
Not 2200sf
Its like the decision-making process was to make the dumbest design choices possible. They took a perfectly workable home and shit all over it
Nice plastic covering over the DR wall unit
The electric space heater in the kitchen screams quality.
Baseboard heat, Radiators and electric space heaters, oh my.
Also you’d have to be a complete shill to call this vintage.
“the bars over the windows sure are a nice touch”
Hell yeah. I sometimes wonder if you ever really lived in Chicago sonies.
Hasn’t everyone lived on an alley at some point in Chicago? I know I have and those bars are definitely needed and welcome. So much craziness goes on in the alleys. From people going through the garbage bins, to pissing, to trying to break in through the lower level windows. I once heard the guy hitting the windows in my building with a hammer at 11 pm on a Sunday night in a side alley just like this building has. We had the super thick bubble window in the lower level (not the bars) so it was laughable that he thought he could get in there. He gave up within about 5 minutes and moved on before the police could show up.
But on the first floor, yeah, you need the bars because someone could just drive their F-150 by and bust right in. This is really secure. I like it.
“Also you’d have to be a complete shill to call this vintage.”
It’s built in 1910. That is vintage any way you look at it. Even if they stripped out everything in the interior, which they didn’t, it would still be considered vintage.
“to pissing”
I thought you said that never happens in alleys?
“It’s built in 1910. That is vintage any way you look at it. Even if they stripped out everything in the interior, which they didn’t, it would still be considered vintage.”
Like I said a complete shill
You should just own it
Bars on windows are kind of useless when only half the windows have them. The sunroom turned dining room appears to provide plenty of points of entry for a criminal.
This place is a savvy buyer’s dream in a way. The 2017 photos show a nice and well kept home. It’s been minimally shat on for just a few years and just to an extent that it’ll turn off a lot of buyers and drive the price down. It wouldn’t take a ton of work or funds to get this place back up to par.
“Easy street parking” – Doubtful, unless its zoned.
Poor feng shui in this unit.
For 600k+, a dedicated parking spot is a must.
“Hasn’t everyone lived on an alley at some point in Chicago? I know I have and those bars are definitely needed and welcome.”
I’ve lived in basements with bars on the windows too, and yes, the bars were indeed welcome. But I was paying a few hundred a month and sleeping on a futon placed directly on the floor, with the rest of my worldly possessions piled in the corner of the room. I hadn’t paid $639k (plus $400/mo and $10k/yr taxes).
“This place is a savvy buyer’s dream in a way. The 2017 photos show a nice and well kept home. It’s been minimally shat on for just a few years and just to an extent that it’ll turn off a lot of buyers and drive the price down. It wouldn’t take a ton of work or funds to get this place back up to par.”
At what price point?
Any ideas as to what the “crystals” hanging off the brick in the DR are for
“At what price point?”
See above: 550K max.
This unit seems short on steam radiators. And picture 10/15 in the old listing shows what appears to be an electric baseboard heater.That basement is probably pretty cold this time of the year.
“That basement is probably pretty cold this time of the year.”
especially if you keep a coffee table (and part of a bed) in front of one of the 4 electric heaters down there.
Only way it’s not cold all the time is if there is in-floor heat.
Does look like the kitchen peninsula is hiding the 4th rad (over the spiral, bedroom, hidden in closet, peninsula). That’s like a Bay Area level of heating.
Funny that they framed an Apple poem that’s misattributed to Kerouac. Bottom of the spiral, trying to conceal the lack of storage.
It does have a nice vintage exterior, I’ll say that for it. “Easy street parking” on a $630,000 list price is embarrassing and offensive.
The upstairs units are almost certainly brighter, cheaper and lacking the prison-cell barred windows. Maybe they even still have some interior vintage touches.
Upstairs unit sold for $200,000 less than this one in 2018. Still a pretty bland-looking place.
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3166-N-Cambridge-Ave-60657/unit-3S/home/13373561
“It’s been minimally shat on for just a few years and just to an extent that it’ll turn off a lot of buyers and drive the price down.”
The renovated primary bathroom is a BIG upgrade. Didn’t even have a double vanity before. Lovely choice of finishes.
“Bars on windows are kind of useless when only half the windows have them.”
Clearly, none of you have ever lived in a property that is actually ON an alley like this (where your windows look out on it.)
And no, the sunroom doesn’t provide plenty of points for entry because it’s likely the old porch. We can’t tell but there could be a fence that extends from the actual building towards the back (is what it looks like in the pictures).
I can’t even begin to tell you how easy it is to pull up and force open one of those old vintage windows that is in the building portion.
But, again, I guess you have to live in a vintage building on an alley like this (which I have) to understand that the bars are definitely needed and would make me feel SO much better. I didn’t even blink at seeing them there.
I would be more concerned if they weren’t there. I also notice that they DO use the bubble glass, which is basically unbreakable.
“ I can’t even begin to tell you how easy it is to pull up and force open one of those old vintage windows that is in the building portion.”
Cause it’s made up?
“ I also notice that they DO use the bubble glass, which is basically unbreakable.“
WTF is “Bubble Glass”
“ The renovated primary bathroom is a BIG upgrade. Didn’t even have a double vanity before. Lovely choice of finishes.”
Should have sold w/o a price cut then, right?
Or is LV not HAWT(tm)?
“one of those old vintage windows”
Wait–hadn’t notice that those are likely 100 yo windows. That place must be about 48 degrees this morning.
“We can’t tell but there could be a fence”
There’s a button that says “Street View” that happens to take you straight to the alley side, where you can see the dumpster directly under the sunroom/old porch windows. For easy access.
“Wait–hadn’t notice that those are likely 100 yo windows. That place must be about 48 degrees this morning.”
How can you tell the didnt replace the casements? (Not saying they did)
They’ve got 3M window shrink on the back room windows which are likely 70’s vintage but nothing on any other windows
“How can you tell the didnt replace the casements?”
Single pane glass sucks for temp control, 100 yo single pane glass makes it worse. And the seal between the upper and lower is likely nonexistent.
“Single pane glass sucks for temp control, 100 yo single pane glass makes it worse. And the seal between the upper and lower is likely nonexistent.”
Not disagreeing (Replaced our 90+YO double hung windows and it makes a big difference), but how do you know that the casements werent replaced?
“how do you know that the casements werent replaced?”
How do you know they were?
Do they look like double pane glass in the walk thru?
I lived to a place similar to the main floor before. A very similar floorplan expect where the large bathroom and half bath are here, there were two small full baths and a laundry room. There were bars over the kitchen window that was next to the deck.
I did have a brick thrown through the window equivalent to the WIC (smaller bedroom for me) where there were no bars. In the time I lived there, three of the four basement units were either robbed or had their windows smashed. Both front doors were also smashed with bricks.
Between those crimes and the noise, I am not living in another walkup again.
“Between those crimes and the noise, I am not living in another walkup again.”
I hear that if you use bubble glass for the windows, it’s completely unbreakable. Probably pretty good for noise, too.
“How do you know they were?
Do they look like double pane glass in the walk thru?”
Cant tell for sure, hence the ?. Would think that if single pane, they’d 3M these before the newer windows out back, but thats conjecture for a space that has made numerous questionable decisions
And WTF is bubble glass?
“WTF is bubble glass?”
I dunno, but I’m guessing it’s about R-50, too. Seems like it’s a magical substance.
As to the windows in this place–at least some of them have been replaced with double pane glass–the hall bath is the key–the reflection of the lamp in the window couldn’t be like that with a single pane of seeded glass. Looking at all of them, looks like the bedroom & closet and the living room bay, at least. V. dubious about the big window over the spiral, tho.
As to the current occupants’ decision making on using plastic on certain windows–the only ac unit covered with plastic is on the porch, so I wouldn’t rely on plastic-here-but-not-there as an indication of much.
one more thing–mirrored backsplash has to go.
“WTF is bubble glass?”
The glass that is in all the bathrooms in this unit.
“I hear that if you use bubble glass for the windows, it’s completely unbreakable.”
It is. He had a big hammer. Even a sledgehammer isn’t getting through that stuff. I laughed at him. Not sure what he was thinking.
“Between those crimes and the noise, I am not living in another walkup again.”
I’m with you Lauren. I did my time in a walk up many years ago too. The things that happened in that alley. You could make a movie about all the stuff that went down. Not many people know because usually the alleys are in the back of the house, not along side it.
“ The glass that is in all the bathrooms in this unit.”
Ohhh you mean glass block
“ It is. He had a big hammer. Even a sledgehammer isn’t getting through that stuff. I laughed at him. Not sure what he was thinking.”
LOL, sure Jan
The goal isn’t to break the block, but knock it out.
“The goal isn’t to break the block, but knock it out.”
Yep. That bubble glass is indestructible. It was laughable. At least he figured it out within 5 minutes and didn’t wait for the police to arrive.
You need a sledgehammer to get through there.