Do You Have a Firehouse Fantasy? A SFH at 2100 W. Eastwood in Lincoln Square
This 4-bedroom single family home at 2100 W. Eastwood in Lincoln Square originally came on the market in March 2018.
It’s a genuine former Chicago firehouse which was bought in 2013 and converted into a single family home.
It’s on an oversized lot measuring 37×122 and has 3-covered parking spaces and a side yard.
There’s a 20 foot folding door to the side yard.
The house has radiant heated concrete floors and 10.5 foot ceilings with walnut stairs.
The hose room has been turned into the foyer.
The kitchen has stainless steel cabinets, a 60″ red Wolf range and other stainless steel appliances with white quarter counter tops.
The first floor has a family room in addition to the living/dining and kitchen.
All four bedrooms are on the second floor, which is the preferred layout for family buyers.
There’s a master suite with 2 walk-in closets and an office.
There’s a laundry room on the second floor.
The house also has central air.
The listing says there are triple pane windows.
Originally listed in March of 2018 at $1.45 million, it has been on, and off, the market since then and has reduced $75,000.
Converted firehouses are popular “homes” in television and movies (Princess Diaries anyone?).
This one is also in the popular north side neighborhood of Lincoln Square, near the shops and restaurants as well as the Brown line Damen El stop.
Is this your chance to live the fantasy?
James Buczynski at Compass has the listing. See the pictures here.
2100 W. Eastwood: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 3,800 square feet
- Sold in June 2013 for $350,000 (according to Zillow but the CCRD doesn’t list a price)
- Originally listed in March 2018 for $1.45 million
- Reduced
- Withdrawn in November 2018 listed at $1.375 million
- Re-listed in January 2019 for $1.375 million
- Currently still listed at $1.375 million
- Taxes of $18,813
- Central Air
- 3-car covered parking
- Oversized yard
- Bedroom #1: 17×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 14×10 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 13×10 (second floor)
- Bedroom #4: 11×8 (second floor)
- Office: 10×10 (second floor)
- Family room: 21×17 (main level)
- Laundry room: 9×8 (second floor)
This might be a good building for some sort of club headquarters, but I can’t imagine living in it. There’s something very un-homey about it. Maybe it’s the huge rooms or the high ceilings. Maybe a good decorator could make it work, who knows. You definitely get a lot of floor space (no pole, alas).
Unlike the guys in Ghostbusters, I’ve never fantasized about having a firehouse to call my own. This one is right on the el, which doesn’t help, either. Love the front door, though.
Agree with Dan #2 but the place just needs really good staging to warm it up and perhaps new ceilings. I don’t like the pattern.
as a person that loves to cook and loves cold, modern, minimalist utilitarian spaces this place is my super jam
city seems to think its worth about 900k, thats probably closer to reality than the current ask
too bad its right on the el tracks though đ
So, I thought that you couldn’t call a room a bedroom unless it has a closet???
I see *one* closet on the second floor. That makes this a 1 bedroom, right?
One of the “bedrooms” appears to have neither a closet *nor* a door.
Too rich along the tracks, unfortunately, bc I dig the space.
too expensive for a “house” that backs right up to the El. And frankly, it looks more like a commercial storefront grey-box on the first floor.
The couple that did this renovation purchased the firehouse from the city and gut renovated it, so the $350K sales price is the cost of the building shell. They need to recoup all of the related costs of a conversion to residential from a historic, commercial space. It is next to the el, but I know they made a point to put in triple-glazed windows and additional insulation throughout.
I’d be interested to know why they’re selling.
So, I thought that you couldnât call a room a bedroom unless it has a closet???
i’ll have to check the ruling from the Chatarati, but I think you need a window, not a closet, though both help the cause.
“Do You Have a Firehouse Fantasy?”
Not this one in particular, but I like the concept. In early 2000, I had just started as a real estate broker in Manhattan. On a total fluke I got a client who was looking to rent a place for upwards of I think $6 or $7k/month (ceo of a dot com that had just relocated from CA to NYC). I found them a place in a highrise that they loved, they signed the lease, and gave us the commission check – 15% of a year’s rent, of which I’d get half, so I had suddenly gone from having like $20 to my name to having $5k or so in the bank. Before the managing broker had a chance to cash the check, the general counsel of the client’s company called and said that our client had found something they liked better. Apparently his delivery of this news was compelling enough to cause the managing broker and the apartment building to agree to tear up the lease and for us to return the commission. It being paid via a cashier’s check, I was asked to return it to the client. I did so in person, to the place they had leased instead, a converted firehouse (I think in SoHo or NoLita? can’t remember), where the client’s wife was busy meeting with a decorator. That was a crushing loss, but was fun to see such a cool place.
“So, I thought that you couldnât call a room a bedroom unless it has a closet???”
————————–
Chicago building code does not require a closet in the bedroom.
Soundproofing would take care of the L noise, but the deal killers for me is price (I can see $900k) and the pole removal. All my hedonist fantasies crushed.
“iâll have to check the ruling from the Chatarati”
could you also check on whether the use of the word “jam” is acceptable? when did that come into existence? did people not say “jam” (w that connotation) at some point and then one day they started saying it?
“Soundproofing would take care of the L noise”
that doesn’t help when you are utilizing your 20′ folding door to the side yard.
“Chicago building code does not require a closet in the bedroom.”
What? For *years* teh CC has said that a closet was required.
“when did [sonies use of jam] come into existence?”
Long enough ago that it’s a Ben & Jerry’s flavor:
https://www.amazon.com/Ben-Jerry-Core-Thats-frozen/dp/B00LEFWHUG
Now, “super jam” is something else. gthooi, it seems that someone named “Pashmina” used it to describe a Saint Etienne song in 2014. So even that has been around for a few yewrs.
To “jam” musically first meant “to play without any arrangement.” From the chapter “The 1930s: The Joe and the Jerk,” in “Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang” by Tom Dalzell (Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, Md., 1996). Page 38.
âChicago building code does not require a closet in the bedroom.â
True. Most homes before the 1940’s had dressers, not closets for storing clothes.
The building code requires that a bedroom have certain egress requirements. There should be two ways to escape the room. The most common two ways is a door and a window (a balcony exit works too) The window has to be large enough for a firefighter to carry out a person. Typically, 6 square feet of opening.
As was previously noted by someone else, the MLS requires a closet in the bedroom for the bedroom to count, a requirement observed in the breach. Chicago code has no such animal.
BTW — e-mails and names in the sending fields are back.
“BTW â e-mails and names in the sending fields are back.”
Thanks. I saw it. I don’t know why. I haven’t done anything different with the site. I can’t figure out why it’s doing it other than as soon as I loaded Guttenberg it started malfunctioning. There’s no way to get rid of that now though.
“What? For *years* teh CC has said that a closet was required.”
The MLS requires a closet. I’ve never said anything about Chicago building codes.
“iâll have to check the ruling from the Chatarati, but I think you need a window, not a closet, though both help the cause.”
It has to have a closet and some form of natural light- which is why the lofts did 3/4ths walls. Otherwise, isn’t it just a big closet if it’s 4 walls, no windows and nothing else? I would say so.
Of course, some people also call that space a “den” if the fourth wall is missing.
Here are the MLS rules regarding bedrooms:
BEDROOM
? Basement bedrooms (50% below adjacent grade level) may NOT be counted in the total bedrooms count.
? A bedroom is defined as a private room closed off from other living space, which does not have its only entrance from
another bedroom.
? This definition will meet appraiser standards for bedrooms and would exclude tandem rooms.
? A room without a closet is countable as a bedroom.
Building code is irrelevant for MLS listings.
Sabrina,
Since it now appears that subscriptions are not the culprit of emails and names appearing can we have them back?
Basement bedrooms (50% below adjacent grade level) may NOT be counted in the total bedrooms count.
Doesn’t every duplex down listing break this rule?
“The MLS requires a closet.”
Per Gary, no it doesn’t.
But if it did, this place violates the rule, and should be listed as a *ONE* bedroom.
But the 4th “bedroom” here doesn’t have a door, either, so *still* isn’t a bedroom.
We’re using a den adjacent to our master bedroom as a 4th bedroom right now (to keep the baby near and have a dedicated playroom in the larger third bedroom). It has no closet, so we made a double closet with two of the Ikea Pax systems bolted together and added sliding doors. It’s a much more functional closet than a regular closet (apart from our walk-in master closet) and takes up less space.
Clearly it would have been better for them to include closets in the first place, but it’s not the end of the world.
Oh, re this:
“Most homes before the 1940âs had dressers, not closets for storing clothes”
The plaster/lath closets in the pre-WW-One two-flats around me belie that assertion.
Interesting history of the closet…
“Because people then had a lot less clothing, they were more likely to store their clothes in a wardrobe, chest, or armoire than hang them on pegs in a closet. The coat hanger wasnât invented until 1869 and did not become common until years later.”
I can assert that my grandfather’s house, built circa 1920, had no bedroom closets. It was built in a wealthy subdivision, near current day Andersonville.
“But the 4th âbedroomâ here doesnât have a door, either,”
———————
That is all part of the firehouse fantasy. . . I can’t BELIEVE they took out the pole.
“Since it now appears that subscriptions are not the culprit of emails and names appearing can we have them back?”
I’m still not sure that plug-in isn’t it though. I think people have to clear out their cache because they are seeing the same name in the form as they were seeing a week ago.
So I’m keeping it turned off for now until I get further clarification.
“Doesnât every duplex down listing break this rule?”
Good question and you will see a similar issue with SFHs with basement bedrooms. So, technically, the MLS has a separate indicator for the number of bedrooms below grade. Any bedroom that is in the basement is automatically put in the below grade bucket and searches can be set up to count or not count below grade bedrooms.
Clever listing agents know how to get around this – and that’s all I’m saying đ
FEMA agent once told me that the define a bedroom as “a room with a bed in it”. Since we had just moved in six months earlier and kiddos weren’t even a gleam in our eyes, we only had our bedroom and a guest bedroom set up. The other room was being used as an office, therefore we qualified for fewer relief funds apparently.
Had I know that I would have set up an air mattress in the attic, basement, and office! Maybe in the living room too!
This is pretty great and I could live here in a heartbeat. Funny that before the photos they removed the ladder to the top bunk in one of the bedrooms đ
Agree on all fronts with MMMM regarding closets. My old home had none. You used armoires. It is a great way to not become a packrat.
My current home – – very modern but also no closets. We were running out of money after addressing every other detail in the house and went with Ikea and it was so cheap we got all the bells and whistles in terms of drawers / organizers etc thinking that we would have a professional custom – build done a few years later. Here we are seven+ years later and the Ikea closets are looking great and holding up great and totally functional / sleek / modern looking. We just haven’t had any real motivation to drop the coin on new custom build closets for our space since the Ikea ones are functioning like a dream for the price. When they start to break down we will definitely commission something custom and sturdy but just no real need right now. I am actually shocked these folks didn’t put something like that in this space.
The clothes rack in the kid’s room looks like an Ikea product. Not the one I would choose, tho.
maybe they just dislike closets as much as window treatments and mirrors in the bathroom. it’s almost like they just ran out of money.