co-op remodeling update

I moved into the co-op last month, and a week later 6 of the 8 of us lived in the building. At that time only John’s floor and my floor we finished (re-finished, actually). We’ve then been spending out time interviewing contractors to do all 5 kitchens and 7 bathrooms. Tonight we decided on two contractors for 2 floors, 3 kitchens and 3 bathrooms. We’re still working with our architect on drawings for the other units (2 kitchens and 4 bathrooms) that will be duplexed. Progress!

The Great Mantle Caper

My timeline:

Sun 17 May 05: With help of friends, moved from 2149 W. Ohio to 2358 S. Marshall. Place left dirty and nearly empty.
Wed 20 May 05: Cleaned out Ohio St place, including remaining personal items and remaining dirt and trash. Locked place with keys inside around 6pm.
Thu 21 May 05: Flew from Chicago on 5pm flight to Amsterdam, on to Accra, Ghana next day.
Fri 22 May 05: Email from my attorney telling of problems at the closing of the Ohio St place sale.
Tues 26 May 05: Email from my attorney saying buyer claiming mantle stolen while place legally still in my possession.
Wed 4 May 05: I advised my insurance company that mantle was reported stolen and that I have no further information. Later same day, I spoke with Ohio St neighbor that says she saw empty space where mantle had previously resided. I notice that the back door that the buyer insisted was unsafe and needed to be replaced (I gave her money at closing to do so) still has not been replaced, over a week later.

So, this is how it seems things happened in chronological order:
Sun, I moved out.
Wed, I cleaned the place out.
Thur, they buyer had a pre-closing walk-through and mantle was present.
Fri, closing happened. Later same day buyer found mantle missing and called police. They came and said “Happens all the time, they knew exactly what they wanted. Could go for a couple of thousand dollars.”

Weird.

spring & community

Last week I was in Ghana and it was really hot there. :-) So then yesterday when I returned to Chicago, the cool spring temperatures were a welcome change. So I took a walk with my new neighbors from my housing co-op (2 of us had moved in before I left for Africa and 4 more moved in while I was gone) to visit a neighbor a few blocks away and pick up some bulbs. We shared tea and cookies and walked back to plant our bulbs. Inside is still a disaster of boxes but we dug in the ground for the first time and visited our neighbors for the first time and it’s cool and spring. Life is good. And I managed to stay up until 9pm so slept until after 6 so maybe jetlag won’t be that bad either!

Ghana trip report

I’ll be writing more, probably in a series of posts as I catch up on what has happened in the last week but if you just can’t wait, you can see my raw notes.

Categories: Ghana, Africa, Humanist Movement