Casa de Dallas

BTE (Before Tree Execution)

This is the listing that caught my eye when the First Mate and I were casting around the Chicago metropolitan area looking for a house. The house reminded me vaguely of California homes that I love-tile roof, Mediterranean feel-so I was sold almost immediately. Unfortunately, the previous homeowners left a couple of firs standing in front of the house and they overpowered it, even though one was either dead or nearly so. The firs dripped resin all over the front of the house, creating darkening effects not dissimilar to Dickensian England. They also permitted climbing ivy, which was only a small area in the front of the house but which covered the entire north side. Ivy is pretty, but it can damage tuckpointing and harbors birds (cool) and bugs (emphatically NOT cool, per the First Mate), so we had to pull the stuff off.

The interior of the house is in generally good shape but extremely poor taste (for examples, see above.) The exterior of the house is fine, but the landscaping is awful. It's hard for me to understand what motivated the previous owners to paint the railings white and to plant yew bushes flanking the steps to the house. Since we're "marooned" here for the next 20 years or so, we have plenty of time to fix the flaws.