There are any number of places where you might insert one thin dime. But one place I hadn't considered is a gap in a hardwood floor.Earlier today I met at one of my under contract new construction listings to meet with the buyer's agent and my seller's flooring guy before he started stripping and
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02/13/2008
When does 42 cents cost a penny less?When you use a "Forever Stamp" you buy today to mail letters after May 12th.The cost of sending a first class letter will climb by one cent this May to 42 cents. But the way to skirt this increase (and any others down the road) is to buy a passel of what the P
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02/12/2008
Cold? Yep.It's that time in the Chicago winter when the allure of snow has faded and been replaced by a simmering discontentedness.As the mercury vacillated in the past several days above and below freezing, finally settling on the negative side of the freezing level, what we have here in Chicago
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02/12/2008
I read the news today, oh boy... And with the dulcet tones of the boys from Liverpool serving as a backdrop, I'd like to draw your attention to the plan to stimulate the economy adopted yesterday by Congress and to be signed by President George Bush next week. Evidently 137 million Americans, giv
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02/12/2008
Two phone calls today from non-local area codes. Bright and cheery voices rang through the ear piece each time from folks who I didn't think I knew. After giving them a moment to clarify that they indeed were strangers trying to sell me something not very necessary I thanked them for calling and
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02/12/2008
Selling your home just got a bit more expensive in Chicago. The 50-member city council acquiesced to Mayor Richard Daley's faulty logic and pressure from the goof balls in Springfield as they voted to increase the Chicago Real Estate Transfer Tax by $3 (from $7.50 per $1,000 to $10.50). Before yo
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02/12/2008
TV sets across the nation were tuned in to Sunday night's showdown between the Giants and the Patriots. Mine was one even though I had no allegiance to either team. But actually this lack of dedication made watching the game more sporting and festive. Plus it had the added benefit of being a reli
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02/12/2008
The alarm made its appearance shortly after 6 this morning in my Edgewater home. After convincing my lower back that it wasn't nearly as stiff as it claimed to be I lurched to the kitchen to reclaim silence. Six ounces of formula did the trick as the alarm, otherwise known as my 10-month-old son
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02/12/2008
Lightly, lightly fell the snow. And all through the night, like soft fleecy wisps, it gathered and gathered until it coated and covered the streets and sidewalks of Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood with a shimmering tableau of white.I woke up this morning to the clarion of my 10-month-old son's h
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02/01/2008
When is a swimming pool not so cool? When it is in the middle of Montrose Avenue in the middle of winter. That was the case a week ago Tuesday when a 100-year-old water main ruptured at about 1 in the morning, leaving a gaping 80 foot wide chasm some 15 feet deep filled with water that swamped th
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01/31/2008
