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If your home hasn’t had a facelift in a while, you should take a long hard look at it before putting it on the market. Many times, homeowners will update their kitchen or bathroom as a way of breathing new life into your property and increasing its value. But there are a few steps you need to take before applying hammer to nail. First, take a step back and evaluate the spaces you have. Have a plan in place prior to starting: Draw or diagram out your room showing where everything will end up. Many times, your local big box …

Federal Reserve Chairwomen Janet Yellen will be ending her term in February of 2018, and she should be handing the gavel over to our new chairman, Jerome Powell, who was nominated by president Trump. Bond and stock markets welcomed the nomination as Powell is seen as having a very similar leadership style to Yellen, who was dovish, meaning that they are less inclined to raise rates. Powell had been on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors since 2012 and studied at Georgetown Law and Princeton. Raising rates faster than the markets would prefer could jeopardize our economy’s health and could …

When starting our research, most of us were eventually given guidance by experienced genealogists. At least I hope we all were. A lot of my earliest work came from interviewing living relatives, because I had to ask them for the names of their brothers and sisters, and then the dates of birth and death. I learned early on that once their sister has been dead for 30 years, it was not on the tip of their tongues what her birthday was, having not celebrated it for so long. When they listed their siblings for me, they almost never mentioned any …

As one year passes and another approaches, it’s once again time for a “look see” at what has gone by. When I mentioned the topic to someone, I was told “Oh, nothing has happened during this past year.” Of course, to my way of thinking that definitely presented a challenge. So, then, I ask that you bear with me as I roll through the aging Rolodex of my mind. Occasionally, you might find me stuck on one Rolodex card and having a tough time getting to the next topic — but, I’ll turn the card eventually! Some may consider working …

That’s a huge question, especially for buyers who are looking to close at a specific time. Whether the end of your lease or the start of the school year is looming, this can be a time-sensitive issue that will need to be managed. Usually you can expect your home-buying process to take three to four months. With a timetable like that buying a home clearly should never be an impulse purchase. Here are some stages you can expect to pass through on your way to ownership. Your first step is to contact a lender regarding a pre-approval letter if you …

The Federal Reserve kept rates steady in September but announced that it would begin to reduce its massive $4.5 trillion balance sheet of bonds. The Fed began buying mortgage and treasury bonds in early 2009 in an effort to artificially push interest rates down to help stimulate an ailing economy. This went on until December 2013 with a few pauses in between. The Fed’s balance sheet was roughly $800 billion at the time, so they have accumulated $3.7 trillion during that time period. The Fed announced in October that it would begin buying $10 billion less in bonds per month: …

Shakespeare asked, “What’s in a name?” but we should be asking, “What IS his name?” Recently I have been going through a lot of Cook County birth and death certificates, and it reminded me that people don’t always carry exactly the same name from birth through to death. We are all aware of the problems researchers in encounter because women tend to take the names of their husbands when they marry. But traditionally in Italy, women used their maiden names throughout their lives. It is easier to deal with looking for the birth of Anna Volpe in 1822 and the …

  Italian traditions don’t come and go. That’s why they’re traditions, and one way or the other, we figure out how to preserve them and pass them along to the next generation. When my mom passed away, she took her “grustoli” recipe with her — almost! My wife at that time, the former Marilyn Chao of Roseland’s Tea Garden Chinese Restaurant family (Fenger High class of January 1967), took the time to work with my mother, Angelina, as she baked a batch, and wrote down a complete recipe. My family and many others in Roseland know this traditional Italian treat as “grustoli,” though it’s …

All concerned at the very handsome Harris Theater are to be congratulated for staging Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo,” the first of the three works by that composer to be performed as part of the windup of the international ‘Monteverdi 450’ tour. (A production of this trio of early operas concluded the tour at the Lincoln Center in New York.) For one like myself, who has experienced and has come to love opera based on seeing and hearing operas strictly from the Classic and Romantic periods (Mozart through Puccini) for over half a century, “L’Orfeo” definitely presented some revelations. Most importantly, Claudio Monteverdi …

The end of the year is nearing and in the blink of an eye the spring real estate market will be here. If you tackle certain issues before the snows hit, you could prevent damage that results in costly repairs or a lower selling price when you’re ready to put your home up for sale. Let’s start on the outside with your siding and gutters. If you’re gutters are clogged, the winter ice and snow can accumulate and damage them. Many people are reluctant to get onto a long ladder and climb up just to check on the status of …