I lived in a minor mansion once. Back in the early '60s large piles in the Kenwood neighborhood were pretty affordable and we bought what was known as the Loeb house. It had been owned by the uncle of Loeb of Leopold and Loeb, but the kid actually lived there after his parents' divorce. On the first floor there was a small cozy room called the music room where you could stash the musicians who could play for your guests at parties without having to rub up against them. In the basement was a walk-in safe. The (rather fishy) story was that during prohibition speedboats from Canada would offload cases of hooch nearby and folks would store them down there. I don't think the Loebs would have to go to that much trouble. Adjacent to the safe was a room that had a narrow counter running all the way around it at desk height. My mom was concerned that we might not be able to have telephone extensions in a place built around 1900, so she asked a man from the phone company to explore. He ended up in the room with the counter, rather shaken. "Lady, you can have anything you want. You've got a trunk line in here." After the Loebs, the house became the dwelling of one of the South Side "Policy Kings," and the room had apparently been the heart of his numbers operation. There were drawbacks. There was no central air conditioning, for example. The first summer we were there, my father has in the hospital getting a hernia fixed and my mom found it was much more comfortable sleeping on the sofa in the living room because it got better ventilation. One night she was awakened by a crack-of-doom crash because the plaster-coated-canvas ceiling in the adjacent dining room fell, pretty much demolishing the dining room table and coating everything including my mom with white dust.. After fixing that, it was clear that other rooms might need pre-emptive renewal, and then we discovered some leaks in the roof and were told that it needed new flashing and that there was only one guy left who did that sort of work in copper, and he charged... So we ended up selling the joint to a wealthy doctor who collected modern art and who could afford the repairs and building a nice, small, modern house a few blocks away. Today, I live just a block and a half away, but in a small townhouse that was just being built when we had our brief experiment in mansiondom. I'm putting in a link to msm.com maps, which has an aerial photo view. The address was 4060 S. Kimbark. If you scroll to the left along 49th street, you'll see Elijah MuhammadÂs/Louis FarrakhanÂs little bungalow at the corner of Woodlawn Here is a link that might be useful: 4860 S. Kimbark

Our house is THE hang out house for my very social son and his friends. On Friday night, my husband and I were having a quiet dinner in the kitchen when my 16 year old son boiled up from the basement--along with 7 of his pals! They ransacked the kitchen looking for a dessert. I offered them a semi-freddo (Italian frozen cream dessert) I had made for a dinner party but had not served. Their faces lighted up; they fell on it like vultures, and there was only a small morsel left! Our house has always been the magnet for my son's friends. We remodeled the basement some 4 years ago--it is very cozy, and has a big-screen TV, gas fireplace, foosball, bathroom, and refrigerator and freezer (stocked with lots of Trader Joe's foods). It's private, we put in lots of soundproofing--so the noise doesn't bother us--the furniture is comfortable, and they play music, watch movies, and play video games, and have access to my cooking. Our older daughter is away at college, so there are no other siblings around. I'm delighted that our house is the hang out, but I will admit that when schools here were closed for some 9 days (due to the snow) it became a bit much. It felt like I was living in a frat house.

cyn, Actually, no, the guest wasn't mortified. And we have been cohabitating for 19 years and has been in the house regularly before and since. :) The cleaning lady didn't really yell, it was more like an explanation of "why" and since my SO had been told explicitly ahead of time Not to do certain things, I think there was an understanding after that. And actually I would *never scold a cleaning person, because I think that is the sort of thing that would put them into a subservient position. She's providing a service that is actually kind of doing us a favor, and I think it's also up to the household to be accommodating to her, as well. Technically my SO was wrong, so I think it was okay for her to explain why. She's a little rough around the edges and she will never have the subtlety of a hostage negotiator, but that's why she cleans houses and isn't out running a major company. In fact, when my sister yelled at the former cleaning lady about something my mother made her apologize in person *and in writing. The cleaning lady and my SO just had a nice chat at my dad's 90th birthday party. :) Over the years the people who've worked for my parents have been sort of a part of the family, and sometimes there are family dynamics. At the former cleaning lady's funeral her son mentioned that my family actually treated her much better than her own. This post was edited by palimpsest on Wed, Jul 23, 14 at 12:07

That's why the criteria for retiring is entirely different than those for working and commuting. When I used to live 12 miles outside of Manhattan and commute, it usually took an hour by train and ferry or train and subway, and about an hour and 20 by car at rush hours. But one summer Friday night my car service took 3.5 hours, and one New Year's Eve DH drove us home from Lincoln Center in under 30minutes ( a record! but still not great for people who travel 12 miles in most of the country!) In a similar vein, somewhat facetiously, I told DH we should look for a home in a bad school district. What do we need with schools? ( I know I know, it drives home values and is also a social obligation). Jojo - If you are reading, I think you first suggested Winter Park. If we end up wanting to be on a lake, what did you think of Windermere? I know you lived there at one time? It doesn't seem to have a downtown and a lot of the housing stock is a little OTT stylistically, but curious what your thoughts were. It came up when I was looking for lakefront.