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High-rise beauty fits mom and daughter like a glass slipper

By Grace Adee and Joyce Winnecke

February 22, 2009

We can imagine ourselves reading books and newspapers on the cool benches cleverly built to "float" beneath living-room windows looking out to Lake Michigan views.

We would love rolling out cookie dough on the gorgeous granite counters, so fancy that they could use a bit of our sticky fun.

And, this might seem small to some house hunters, but what we think is really cool and awesome is the cutout in the glass shower door, right by the knobs, so you can reach in and turn on the water, thereby avoiding a cold burst on your back.

These are some of the reasons this mom-and-9-year-old-daughter team picked Condo No. 3 in our Sell It to Me adventure, a Saturday afternoon lark guided by our sweet neighbor and friend, Ruth Karel, a Realtor with Baird & Warner. We said please show us downtown high-rises with doormen (safety, you know) between $725,000 and $775,000, and she lined up four impressive choices, each with two bedrooms and a den.

Shocker, but we liked the most expensive one best. Unit 4301 at 401 E. Ontario St., listed at the top of our price range, won us over quickly with rich maple floors, cool sensor lighting and a walk-in closet so nicely built out that we were immediately able to channel some order into our nutty lives. (In fact, we were so swept by the notion of neatness that we actually rushed right home and began a reorganization of our own more modest downtown high-rise condo.)

It was a brutally cold day, but on the 43rd floor, with giant windows providing brightness and plenty of blue lake, we could pretend it was Florida, 80 degrees instead of 8.

It was the light that put this one ahead of Condo No. 2—beautiful, quite a bit roomier and also less expensive. But no lake and no light. We can live without the lake, but dark, as in where we live now, is a mistake we'll not make again.

Condo No. 1 offered even better views and had been rehabbed with attention to detail. (Grace was able to discern this because she switched from Disney Channel to HGTV about a year ago and hasn't looked back.) But we just couldn't get over the tiny bathrooms.

And Condo No. 4, in the same building as our new dream home, with the same 1,800-square-foot floor plan, with the same views, just two floors up, was a close second. But the cabinets, appliances and bathrooms weren't quite so swell, and the walk-in closet was fine, though short of inspirational.

So we landed on the 43rd floor, where the living room is 24 by nearly 23 feet, with lots of glass, jutting out at right angles in two places to make for an especially interesting room. The view looks primarily north, with the notable blue tower of the 680 N. Lake Shore Drive building front and center and icy waters just beyond.

We love parties, and this room seemed made for one. The beautifully crafted benches match cabinetry built to frame a gigantic TV, all done in a way that makes the technology seem as if it fits in rather than got jammed in. Bring on the popcorn.

A separate but open dining room is 131/2 by almost 101/2 feet and has its own window. It's not huge, but plenty big for a table and china cabinet.

French doors separate the living room and a third bedroom or office, a decent-size 13 by 11, also with a view. We'd definitely keep that as a den and a place for Grace and her friends to hang out.

We fell fast for the kitchen's high-end finishes. There was little doubt about these cabinets, but Karel shared a good trick: Open a drawer. If it pulls all the way out, it's excellent cabinetry. Joyce swoons over really good appliances, and these were stainless-steel Jenn-Air. Grace hearts (What? That's how you talk when you're 9) shiny granite.

Grace also hearted the second bathroom, which would be for her use as well as for guests. This one provides room to dance around a bit, and has the previously mentioned cutout in the shower door.

The bedroom that would be Grace's is 14 by 12, with those same killer views, and a good-size closet also enhanced by built-ins. (Did we mention that we're craving organization, tidiness, structure?)

But it's the master bedroom that really rocks. Not only is it big, about 25 by 12 feet, it also has great light and corner windows to create a perfect nook for reading, writing and contemplating our new order.

We won't go on about the walk-in closet again, but please know how exciting the master bathroom is—an oversize shower, cool granite (we believe you understand the important role granite plays since HGTV replaced Miley Cyrus) and great lighting.

We know only downtown living in Chicago, and so we appreciate a nice party room and workout facilities. Karel says the top-floor gym in this building is known as one of the best in the city, and it's easy to see why—lots of equipment, pool, sauna and steam, and with 360-degree views. There are two large decks for summer sunning and evening cocktails. That's what a $981 monthly assessment will buy.

There's a Starbucks on the corner (we haven't yet embraced the backlash), and Fox & Obel, Dad's place, the movies and the office are all just short walks away.