Should You Restore That 1960s Vintage Kitchen? 1300 N. Astor in the Gold Coast
This 1-bedroom in Astor Tower at 1300 N. Astor in the Gold Coast recently came on the market.
The listing says this is a designer-owned corner unit.
It has new porcelain tile throughout.
And instead of ripping out the original 1960s kitchen, this home owner chose to restore it instead.
Yes, those are yellow mid-century modern cabinets.
The bathroom also has the original vanity mirror with lights going all the way around it.
The unit has central air but no parking and no washer/dryer in the unit. There’s coin laundry in the building.
When should you ditch the old kitchen and when should you try and save it?
Helen Beller at Berkshire Hathaway KoenigRubloff has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #18C: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 800 square feet
- Sold in April 1988 for $42,000
- Sold in November 1991 for $67,000
- Sold in July 2000 for $164,500
- Sold in October 2006 for $234,000
- Currently listed for $275,000
- Assessments of $795 a month (includes heat, doorman, cable, exercise room)
- Taxes of $4399
- Central Air
- No in-unit washer/dryer (coin laundry in the building)
- No parking
- Bedroom: 14×12
- Living room: 21×14
Should you have a door to your bathroom?
I could live with that kitchen. It’s ugly, but at least it’s unique. It’s also tucked away, so you don’t have to see it very often.
The bathroom is a massive failure. Where is the bathtub and shower? Why no pictures of it? It looks like there might be a pocket door to the toilet section, but I can’t tell for sure. The sink is outside of the toilet area. This is what drives me crazy about bathrooms in Paris. You’re in a room with just a toilet when you have to do your business, but without a sink to wash your hands after. You have to touch a door to get to the sink. Yes. This is how public bathrooms are also set up, but I don’t want this set up in my house.
I don’t have a problem with the kitchen cabinets but the appliances need to go.
Unless you can switch the stove to gas, it isn’t as if changing the appliances gets you anywhere. Cooking with electric blows no matter what. I love the kitchen and hope that whomever buys this, leaves it alone. Coin laundry and $800 assmts put this in pied a terre territory. This is a temporary home or a second home so investing too much on interior renos (unless you redo the floor or bath) isn’t really worth it IMHO.
I love the kitchen.
What I don’t like is the books stacked on the floor and the layered rugs. Talk about dust bunny habitats. (Obviously you’re not buying the decor, but I really hate this particular trend!)
I think the place looks nice. Tastefully decorated. The restored kitchen looks great. Much more original and better than the grey/white trend going on right now. Truly unique. I assuming the appliances function well and probably were refurbished.
The assessments seem reasonable. Lack of laundry and parking could be an issue, but I’m sure someone will snap this place up.
did they spend so much on the renovation/restoration that they couldn’t afford a couple of bookcases for those stacks of books?
Is pic #3 photoshopped? The TV looks stretched out beyond a normal ratio.
“Cooking with electric blows no matter what.”
You can replace the electric range with induction. And I agree that the restored kitchen looks great. No parking will be the big issue in selling this place. I believe the spots in this building sell for around $50k and few if any are available for rent.
yikes this place is terrible
I also dislike the blind/drapery combo. Blinds are pain in the butt dust collectors and drapes just look ugly to me. I prefer simple roller shades.
I assume this place is heavily staged. Who the hell puts rugs on top of rugs and just piles books in a stack. I also just noticed that there are no pictures that show closets. Hmm…
What do you guys think about the possibility of Amazon setting up shop in Chicago? Personally, I don’t see it happening but it would certainly spark the Chicago RE market. 50,000 jobs plus new businesses to support those people is huge.
I personally want to keep Amazon as far away from Chicago as possible. Amazon is a horrible company and it’s owner would sell you and your family in to slavery if he thought he could get away with it. Bezos’s WaPo is nothing but a fake news access journalism rag. I don’t purchase anything Amazon anymore and I’ve, sadly, stopped shopping at Whole Foods too, on the principle that I hate Amazon scum. I’d rather see the foxconn factory on the southside before I give Bezos another penny of any of my transactions. As for the Chicago real estate market, the last thing Amazon needs is billions in tax breaks from our broke ass state anyways, so that bezos can buy more fake news rags. Amazon wont’ be moving jobs they’ll just be recruiting from the area, poaching employees. Area employers should be scared, not happy Amazon is thinking about coming to town.
Think I have mentioned this before , but I used to live here as a single guy- unit 23c to be exact. Loved the unit, loved the building, hated the parking garage ( self operated parking elevator , sucked ).
Super high assesments for essentially no amenities. Roofdeck had insane views though. I miss living here, if I was looking for an ‘in town’ I would bite.
On a more fun note, I’m in Paris this week. Anyone have any food and bar recs?
FYI my unit had a washer and dryer ~ very very tiny ones next to the bathroom sink.
Hd – valid points amigo…but there has to be some benefit to Amazon coming here, right? Lots of well paid new recruits will boost the economy a bit won’t it?
Admittedly I know nothing about this stuff,just wondering.
Almost forgot to mention the best part!
My unit had the same color toilet – bright bright green. Apparently the building used to be a hotel, and the Beatles had a press conference in a hotel room on the 23rd floor. The guy I rented from was convinced my unit was the one john Lennon stayed in – the only original feature was the toilet, so he kept it. Lol.
Amazon has changed my life for the better. I don’t care if Bezos is a jerk. I’ve saved a huge amount of time because Amazon can deliver goods to me without having to waste my time going to brick and mortar stores. It would be interesting to quantify exactly how much time Amazon saved me, perhaps thousands of hours since I started shopping.
I love this building and I love this unit, but because 1300 was a built as a residential hotel, the apartments have tiny closets. The configuration of the bathroom in this unit is reminiscent of the motels I remember from the 1960s.
“Amazon has changed my life for the better. I don’t care if Bezos is a jerk. I’ve saved a huge amount of time because Amazon can deliver goods to me without having to waste my time going to brick and mortar stores.”
For years Amazon sold without paying local taxes, undercutting local retailers. Amazon is still allowing unregistered sellers to sell all over the UK without paying VAT taxes, costing the government literally billions of pounds. We already know about the toxic work environment that is Amazon thanks to recent articles; we also know they pay their warehouse workers – who by the way aren’t even Amazon employees, but rather, contractors – a shit wage, often $12.00 an hour, to work in hot, dangerous environments because they think it’s too expensive to pay for AC. They are serial tax dodgers and while the guy down the block from you jenny is just trying to make a buck, and paying his taxes, Amazon is undercutting him with tax schemes like the “double irish”. That’s tax money that should have gone to replace our bridges, keep our water clean, and keep our streets safe. Instead it goes into Bezos’s gilded lair of billions. They are also subsidized by the USPS who delivers the local packages to rural areas – at a loss to the tax payer.
But hey, Jenny’s life is easier! That’s all that matters, right?
“I’d rather see the foxconn factory on the southside before I give Bezos another penny of any of my transactions.”
Homedelete, you’re like a programmed Republican white guy bot these days. All of your “tirade” against Amazon is what the Republicans (and even Trump himself) have been saying for the last year.
Give me a break.
Every company you order things off of or even use on the Internet probably uses Amazon’s AWS so you’re supporting Amazon whether or not you want to. And Foxconn? Really? The Chinese? The company where its employees are leaping to their deaths so they put up suicide nets?
Sure.
And no one, here in the United States, is being forced to work at an Amazon facility. Last I looked, it was a free country. If you don’t want the $14 an hour job, there’s Walmart. There’s McDonald’s. There are plenty of places you can work. Especially in this economy which is at full employment. These employers are DESPERATE for employees (but then, your family members who only have CVS as a work option, should have told you this.)
If you don’t know what’s going on there- check out this excellent behind-the-scenes account of how Amazon hires retired RVers to work the holiday shifts.
https://www.wired.com/story/meet-camperforce-amazons-nomadic-retiree-army/
Otherwise, the next time you’re in an Uber or a Lyft, why don’t you ask what the drivers are really making working there? They are underpaid taxi drivers.
And what about the food delivery companies? Ever ask what those guys make to deliver people’s food in under an hour? It’s nothing. Although, I do know someone who was paid $40 to bring a bottle of bourbon to a 70 year old in Southport at 8 pm one night while working for Postmate. Lol.
“Foxconn? Really? The Chinese?”
Didn’t realize that you took the One China policy that seriously.
“Otherwise, the next time you’re in an Uber or a Lyft,”
I don’t use those other. I try to avoid the ‘gig’ economy as much as I can.
I’m not a (R) bot as much lately as I am pissed off that people shop amazon for convenience, not realizing the detriment this awful company has caused. It’s like people saying they smoked winston cigarettes for the taste, not realizing that it was polluting their lungs. Just pure ignorance. Amazon has become the market place because people are too lazy to buy Prana clothing through Prana’s website, so they buy it off Amazon instead. There’s nothing wrong with shopping online, I do a lot of shopping online, but online isn’t Amazon, and unfortunately, too many people think buying online is. to all of our detriment. I’m not trying to be an (R) bot, really, I’ve come to these conclusions on my own, regardless of what Trump’s twitter feed says.
My money is on Amazon landing in the Dallas or DC suburbs.
I think Amazon will land in Chicago. Bezos is obviously going to a blue state, and Chicago is the best transportation hub. Anyway, I love the apartment. I wish the vintage kitchen was red or blue though. The yellow seems cheap and it’s hard to decorate around it. The rooftop deck is severely lacking. The furniture sucks, no greenery, etc.
“For years Amazon sold without paying local taxes, undercutting local retailers. Amazon is still allowing unregistered sellers to sell all over the UK without paying VAT taxes, costing the government literally billions of pounds.”
I am happy to deny sales tax (or any type of revenue) to Illinois whenever possible. I’m sick of this money grubbing state, city, and county. I already pay income tax and property tax amounting to thousands of dollars for services I will never use. Why should I also pay sales tax? I shouldn’t have to fund the retirements of teachers and police officers. I shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s kids to go to school. I shouldn’t have to pay for politicians to hire their friends and family. I shouldn’t have to pay a premium so that a minority or women owned company can get a city contract.
Kuddos for Amazon for holding out against paying these wasteful taxes for so long.
Amazon also sold for years without making a profit, as well, however wall street gave them unlimited access to capital, and this is the behemoth you see today when that sort of thing happens
consumers win with low prices, governments lose… boo freakin hoo
its going to be deliciously ironic to see these pinhead politicians lineup to splooge all over this new HQ idea
“before I give Bezos another penny of any of my transactions”
Avoiding Bezos is as impossible as avoiding the Koch brothers.
“Amazon also sold for years without making a profit”
That doesn’t tell the whole story. Amazon didn’t make a profit not because of a bad business model, but because Bezos plows almost every last penny the company makes right back into the company.