List Price: $1,375,000
Sale Price: $1,252,500

The Property: This wide 13-room house on a hilly Glen Ellyn street sold on December 5th as part of an innovative house-swap deal. In order to offload this residence, its builders bought the house that their buyers were leaving to move here.

Like many homebuilders these days, Glanville-Koshul Homes was sitting on unsold inventory...

" />

List Price: $1,375,000
Sale Price: $1,252,500

The Property: This wide 13-room house on a hilly Glen Ellyn street sold on December 5th as part of an innovative house-swap deal. In order to offload this residence, its builders bought the house that their buyers were leaving to move here.

Like many homebuilders these days, Glanville-Koshul Homes was sitting on unsold inventory...

" />

List Price: $1,375,000
Sale Price: $1,252,500

The Property: This wide 13-room house on a hilly Glen Ellyn street sold on December 5th as part of an innovative house-swap deal. In order to offload this residence, its builders bought the house that their buyers were leaving to move here.

Like many homebuilders these days, Glanville-Koshul Homes was sitting on unsold inventory...

" />

List Price: $1,375,000
Sale Price: $1,252,500

The Property: This wide 13-room house on a hilly Glen Ellyn street sold on December 5th as part of an innovative house-swap deal. In order to offload this residence, its builders bought the house that their buyers were leaving to move here.

Like many homebuilders these days, Glanville-Koshul Homes was sitting on unsold inventory...

Read more
We test out a few baby nameologists on two pairs of soon-to-be parents. Read more

Epidural.

In the Childbirth Universe, no four syllables have more power as an argument-starter. The word provokes defensiveness in some and smugness in others. There's hand-wringing. Rationalizing. Pontificating. Innocently ask a new mother, "Did you get an epidural?" and you're likely to get a complicated answer, like: "I didn't want to, but I was pushing for 17 hours and the hospital has a policy..." or "My cervix was fully dilated and they were threatening to give me an episiotomy..."

Read more

Voices Carry
Chicagoans have been slammed with a string of bad news lately: tax hikes, CTA service interruptions—not to mention everyone’s favorite weather system, the ice storm. Happy holidays, everybody. But there’s a light at the end of the blizzard. Those who need a gentle reminder why we live here—and love it—can take heart with Voices Project: Chicago Stories.The collaboration between Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble (formerly Adler Danztheatre Project) and the Neighborhood Writing Alliance uses theatre, dance, poetry, music, and film to deliver a narrative of the city’s historical highlights. Blips along the timeline include the Cubs/Sox rivalry and the dancing church ladies of Pilgrim Baptist. The show runs 8 p.m. Friday the 7th and...

Read more
Songs about dodecahedrons? The new opera Doctor Atomic proves art and science have more in common than you think. Read more

It's crunch time, people. If you haven't yet started making your New Year's Eve plans, get to it. Since I first posted about NYE parties in November, notices have been flooding my inbox and this blog's comments section. Bookmark that page and check back. Or simply decide on a bar, club, or restaurant, visit its Web site, and make your reservations, stat. Keep in mind: Most packages cover eats and drinks until midnight, so if you show up later on, in most instances, you'll just have to pay for cover and a cash bar (some neighborhood bars don't even charge a cover)...

Read more

List Price: $8,595,000

The Property: In 1977, Ronald and Carole DeBruin bought three lakefront acres in Lake Forest that had once been part of Villa Turicum, the 269-acre estate of Harold and Edith McCormick, both children of enormously wealthy fathers. (Harold was the youngest son of Cyrus McCormick, who invented the mechanical reaper that was the foundation of International Harvester; Edith, the original benefactor of Brookfield Zoo, had John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, for a father.) The DeBruins built this elegant 13-room house, which has five bedrooms, a 52-foot-wide entry hall, and a family room that opens onto a bluestone terrace and oversized hot tub. But the real attraction may be...

Read more

Hot off the Grill
“We just wanted to bring Korean food to Old Town, or downtown, because everything else is located up north,” says Okcha McDonald, a partner at three-week-old Red Top Grill (1507 N. Sedgwick St.; 312-981-1775). RTG is in the old Heat space and the former sushi bar is now decked with built-in gas grills for Korean barbecue. All the classics are on hand—bibim bap, bulgogi, galbi, chap chae—and plenty of kimchi. McDonald admits that parking around there is terrible but they are working on valet service and, for now, the place is BYO with no corkage. Not a bad tradeoff for stowing the car a few blocks away. 

One Down, Two to Go
As reported here last week, Meritage (2118 N. Damen Ave.; 773-235-6434) will close on January 1st. But even before the owner, Chris Peckat, turns the key for the last time, he plans to launch his next venture, Risqué Café (3419 N. Clark St.), an American smokehouse. While Drew Neimeyer (Peckat’s Meritage chef) bones up on ribs, duck wings, turkey legs, and pulled pork, Peckat keeps busy with the selection of 200 to 300 American craft beers to go with the ’cue. But that’s not all...

Read more
On the heels of our October survey of 233 public high schools in the metro area, we present a comprehensive statistical breakdown of 56 local private high schools, examining such things as tuition, teachers' salaries, and test scores. Read more
Several institutions in Chicago that depend on donated funds are running their largest philanthropic drives ever right now. What's behind these megacampaigns? Read more