Established in 2003, West Ridge Bungalow Neighbors is a voluntary group of neighbors in Chicago who desire to assist each other in preserving and appreciating the homes in our neighborhood; educating each other and the broader public in the value and the story of our neighborhood; and providing resources to each other to improve the quality of our homes, enrich our lives and assure our neighborhood's future.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Rock On!

Looking a lot like a Gabion basket wall, a creative fence design in progress in a bungalow back yard on the 6700 block of N. Talman.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Mirror, mirror on the window (and the wall)



My co-worker Fran lives in a well-kept vintage apartment building a few blocks south of Devon.
She's getting married soon and moving into the vacant unit one floor down. I went to see her new place yesterday, and was pretty impressed with the bathroom. The entire room is covered in pink and black glass tile (known by the brand names of Vitrolite or Carrara) and mirrors. What you see in the photo is the window, which has had the glass replaced with mirrors and surrounded by a mirrored frame. The reflection is of the vanity mirror, surrounded by lights worthy of a movie house marquee. As I stood there taking it all in, I could feel my inner Jean Harlow emerging -- but the realization of needing to hit the road for my weekly trip to Aldi took care of that pretty quickly. Somthing tells me that even in the depths of the first Depression, Ms. Harlow wasn't bagging her own groceries.
(Also, check out this great set of Flick photos of vintage bathrooms)