Summer Story Series: Patrick Carata's Home Renovation

As part of Epstein’s Summer Story Series, we want to share our own Patrick Carata’s current hobby: home renovation! This summer, Patrick has been helping with his house renovation in the city whenever he can. His college best friend serves as the general contractor on the project making for a fun time while they work. Built in 1910, the house is located in Chicago’s city limits, in Andersonville. The renovation includes re-facing the exterior main façade, lowering the basement slab to increase the ceiling height, and building out a new interior.

Here are some fun facts about older Chicago homes:

• The foundations are rock and mortar, not standard concrete.
• The exterior walls are load bearing with three wythes of brick in an interlocking English bond.
• The roof had 12 layers of asphalt that needed to be removed – three is the max allowed on a roof! For perspective, this is almost a layer of roofing for every decade the house has existed.
• They found several bird’s nests in the roof attic (at least they wishfully think they are bird’s nests.)
• The chimneystacks are made of clay tile. The previous homeowner stuffed them with newspaper to keep water from dripping down them. A note for home renovators – this is a very bad idea!

Big thanks to Patrick for sharing such a fun project!