The barn house

In 1993, after a record number of people fled Chicago for the suburbs, Ed Zotti and his wife, Mary, chose not only to stay but to gamble their future fixing up a dilapidated Victorian home in a dicey neighborhood on Chicagos North Side. Two doors up from a murder/arson scene and across the alley from a former drive-up drug mart, the BarnHouse (as the Zottis unimpressed daughter dubbed it) was a rehabbers nightmare. A ceiling had collapsed, the upstairs wiring had shorted out, and the oak floors were painted red, white, and blue. Not to mention that the house itself was built on sand. But Ed, an unapologetic city guy, saw promise behind the shabby facade. Then the renovations began, draining every resource, financial and otherwise, that he and Mary had. Alternately harrowing and hilarious, this is a classic account of one familys private urban renewal projectfrom its grim beginning to its unexpected and inspiring outcome. It is also the story of how this project coincided with the resurgence of American cities across the country that began in the 1990s and continues to this day.