Walk through and see the rusticated feel of a villa in the French countryside in this Roscoe Village home.
List Price: $1.395 million
The Property: On a street in Roscoe Village where most houses are the characteristic Chicago types—frame or brick, farmhouse or Victorian—a family of suburban builders has imported something different: the rusticated feel of a villa in the French countryside. The look of unfinished stucco above stone, hand-worked wood details, and earth-toned accents is very popular in the roomy suburbs, but a rare find in a city neighborhood of slender lots and bolt-upright houses.
The house was completed this summer by Doyles Construction—there are three Doyles: John, his son Hugh, and Hugh’s wife, Meghan—which has built mostly in the suburbs (Hinsdale, Burr Ridge, Palos Heights). So the company is familiar with the style, and adapting it to the tighter confines of a city lot, Hugh says, was not tough. “We know the materials and the look,” he says.
The Doyles have deployed both materials and “the look” richly throughout this house’s exterior and interior. Handicraft is noticeable everywhere, from the stucco ledge beneath a front window to the stacked-stone fireplace in the basement family room. (That design, Hugh reveals in the video tour, was cadged from shots of a fireplace in Tom Cruise’s home that the couple spotted on an Oprah interview.) The “revealed stone” detailing of the façade appears again out back.
The main floor has an open plan, with a kitchen leading to the living and dining areas in the front and to a family room in the rear. The elaborate coffered ceiling of the living room, the zinc hood and soapstone counters in the kitchen, and the big rear windows in the family room give each space a distinct feel. So while the interior has an open plan, there is still an old-time feeling of enclosure in each room. And with such details as rope lighting tucked into the bedrooms’ two-layer crown moldings, and rounded drywall edges on every exposed corner, the 5,200-square-foot home seems hand-built by artisans.
Price Points: By my count, there are seven other newly built houses for sale in the near neighborhood with asking prices above $1 million. Every one of them is either brick or frame. That’s great; they fit into the neighborhood. But a buyer who wants to depart from the norm (without going overboard) might want to check out this French import.
Listing Agent: Mario Greco, Rubloff Residential Properties, 773-687-4696; mgreco@rubloff.com