Sharon Stangenes

Ask a young child to draw a picture of a house and very likely you will get a square box with a triangle for a roof. If the child wants...

Waterfront property is one of the hottest draws in new housing. But the draw has a drawback: Often the best view of the home is from the water and is...

After years of listening to builders and a goodly number of buyers extol the joys of low-maintenance living and the absence of yard work, I had begun to wonder if...

Getting lost is part of the drill when looking for a home, whether you are a newcomer to Chicago or a native shopping in an unfamiliar part of the metropolitan...

In the land of Big Macs, big cars and big-box stores, why not big-box houses? Rich people for years have been building pretentious McMansions, houses on steroids that overwhelm yards;...

It was 2:15 p.m. on a weekday afternoon and I was sitting on the Kennedy Expressway in traffic crawling at less than 10 miles an hour. I was on my...

No. Ten Lofts at 1040 W. Adams in Chicago's West Loop is the kind of development my 26-year-old daughter would love. A 1920s-era brick warehouse structure at the corner of...

`In-town place" has such a nice ring to it. So much so that some builders with projects in and around the Loop are making efforts to reach buyers beyond the...

Sometimes there is just no way to make a home addition blend seamlessly with the original house. So architect Robert Gurney didn't even try. Instead, he designed a glass and...

Let's just say I was less than impressed as I approached The Lofts at Gateway Centre in West Chicago. The development, a combination of retail stores with 15 residences above,...