919 W. Wisconsin St.: Open house of the week

The home was renovated by its current owner in 1980,with renowned architect HP Shaxted designing the space, and has the modern features to match The first floor has a sizeable foyer, living room, dining room and kitchen (although the owner passed on the granite countertops: They're not sanitary and easy to break delicate dishes on, he says). I was impressed by the size of the dining room (16 feet by 11 feet) and the lighting from outside that reached almost everywhere except some parts of the kitchen even on the dim day. The living room leads out onto a terrace, which connects to the two-car garage.

Despite being built in 1980, before LEED was a consideration, the building is LEED certified. With low energy costs and more than 25 percent of the lot consisting of outdoor space, the home is both functional and pleasing to the eye. On the second floor, there's a green roof above the garage and a greenhouse outside the master bedroom, connected by a bridge over the first floor terrace.

The bedrooms, all on the second floor, don't have the extravagance of some new construction units, but are more than adequate in size and get plenty of light. The almost evenly sized second and third bedroom, at 10 by 12 and 11 by 12 would be perfect for children- in fact the current owner raise two there.

Another interesting feature is the basement: originally the first floor of the building when it was originally built, it became a basement when the streets were raised during the cholera epidemic in the early twentieth century. I'm 5'2" and could almost hit my head on some areas of the ceiling, but the extra space provided for a laundry room, office, workout room or media room is a nice compliment to the more polished upstairs space.

The unit is close to the Armitage Brown Line stop, as well as DePaul and many of the associated amenities like shopping. It's surrounded by posh homes over $1 million in what's known as the RANCH Triangle, one of the wealthiest sub-neighborhoods in the city.

What I can write here doesn't really begin to describe what you'll find on the website or by visiting the home. The seller is motivated to move the unit, he even knocked $1,000 off the price to bring it to $936,000 this week. If you're keeping your eyes open for homes in the million dollar range, this will give a nice location, unique and historic structure and green lifestyle for the right owner!