Providence of Palatine

Things I miss about living in Chicagoland: Plastic bags and this apartment.
I don’t live here anymore, but I’m fairly certain this is the nicest place I’ll ever have lived– and in a nice change of pace, it was actually super affordable.
It was so nice, that even with my measly particle board furnishings and plastic patio furniture that I re-​purpose indoors couldn’t make this place look like a crap hole… which is (no joke) what people usually refer to my dwelling situation as.
The building is all condos, but if you’re lucky you can snag a rental from one of the owners here as I did. The units are small, but that’s a good thing since I’m a legit hoarder and it helped me curb my urge to garbage pick and hold on to everything ever.
Taking up the entire block, this building is divided into two different parts– ‘The Lofts’ side, which are the slightly more budget-​friendly and less swank side, and ‘The Luxury’ side which is a little more posh and def feels like a fancy hotel with it’s large marble entryway, foyer, and front desk. Believe it or not, I lived on the luxury side.
Now, for those not in the know and who didn’t already assume it from the previous description of stuff I own, I’m basically the least luxurious person who’s ever lived, yet I somehow found a way to fit in and love it here.
The other residents, when I did encounter them, were all either retirees or parents of very tiny, adorable Asian children — which are pretty much the only children I jive with and I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that I miss seeing their little faces in the elevator and answering their weird little kid questions.
There’s no door man, but there’s secure underground parking, and elevator and the building manager, Jim, is pretty on top of things and just a generally awesome dude. Plus, even though it’s just a few blocks from where the Brown’s Chicken Massacre took place (currently my bank), the area is super safe. This is the only apartment I’ve ever lived where I never had to worry about being the resident who let in the intruder… which actually did happen more than 3 other times before living here.
There’s 2 really nice elevators that you basically never have to wait for and there are nice carts you can borrow if you have a lot of stuff to bring up or down from your place. Each unit has a pretty large indoor storage unit, there’s a trash chute– which was always very exciting to use, and I loved that I could go weeks without actually leaving the building and still be seen as a kind of, sort still functioning member of society given all the amenities the building had.
There’s a super nice rooftop patio with gorgeous iron patio furniture that overlooks downtown Palatine and is perfect for group gatherings, watching the fireworks in the summer and just chilling during the days. I never saw anyone else in the building use it, surprisingly, so it’s pretty nice to have that feel like your own private escape.
The Palatine Metra station is about a 40-​second walk away and every Saturday in the summer there’s a quaint little farmers market down below, about 50 paces from the building.
Each unit has some sort of balcony and there’s different models of condos throughout, but ours was a roughly 600-​square foot 1-​bedroom with custom walk-​in closet, washer and dryer in unit, bamboo flooring, wall-​to-​wall window in bedroom, mahogany cabinets everywhere and tons of storage despite being otherwise on the minimal side, and tons of bathroom space. If I hadn’t moved to California for work, I totally would’ve made it my goal to save up and buy the place on my own. It really was perfect.
The building is dog and cat friendly and once you’re in your apartment, you can’t hear a peep through the walls. Some definite high-​end sound-​proofing took place when this building was built. The shared spaces in the building are immaculate with a really sweet cleaning person coming in on the regular weekly.
I believe the couple that owned our unit owned a few other units in the building and they were a dream to work with and rent from. I can only hope that when I moved out, the apartment went to someone who appreciated it as much as I did.