Meet Ellen
Outgoing, Open minded, Helpful
Our neighborhood is one of the most safe, popular, fun, friendly and convenient ones in the city. Average new houses here cost $1.7 million! Best train line nearby (only 25 minutes to downtown)!
On a typical day...
I’m mostly at home/work from home.
When I host guests...
I like to chat with them when they are home but have my own things going on.
Family Hobbies
Cooking, Gardening, Reading, Watching movies, Fashion design
Hosting guests since
1998
About the Homestay
- Welcomes
- Males
- Females
- Couples
- Families
- Students
We have happily hosted lots and lots of students for the past 18 years.
Your comfortable stay is our priority. Enjoy the best of the city by living IN THE CITY with us. Tons of shops, restaurants, parks, train/bus options and friendly neighbors will be at your door. An easy commute to everywhere from downtown to Evanston or Oak Park.
We are a youthful, middle-aged, friendly couple with a really nice, large, remodeled, vintage brick single family house in friendly, safe Roscoe Village.
If you're new to town, Roscoe Village is near Ravenswood, Lincoln Square or North Center, and next to Lakeview, a "trendy, upscale" residential community with lots of fun North Side shops and restaurants.
New construction houses in Roscoe Village costs $1.8 million - high-quality neighbors!
We are a short walk to the CTA Paulina brown line train station, or a short bus trip to the Red line at Belmont. From there, you can take the purple line to Evanston too. You can reach the blue line conveniently from our house too. Door-to-door it takes only about 40 minutes to get downtown to the heart of the Loop, or to get to Lake Michigan downtown/Millenium Park/State Street/all the international English language study schools near or on Michigan Avenue (EF, Kaplan/Aspect, Solex, BIR and Intrax/Stafford House), etc. Some colleges that are nearby or an easy commute from our home are DePaul, Columbia College, North Park, Loyola, UIC, NEIU, Moody Bible Institute, The French Pastry School, or even Northwestern. The house was featured on HGTV!
We have 1 declawed cat (who just lives in our master bathroom; that's a longer story!) and 3 sweet cat-sized dogs.
We are clean, quiet and non-smoking and seek the same.
For many years we have been a host family for foreign exchange students under the auspices of several international English language study schools.
My "real job" is as a real estate agent and , since I work from home, I am available to answer questions a lot for you.
A couple of times we had an older professional person in this room for several months at a time. Some have lived with us because they had multi-month internships too. All of these arrangements worked out beautifully.
There are 2 rooms. Each room costs $850 or $900 (one is larger) including limited kitchen privileges, assuming 1 person per room.
We can fit a 2nd person in that room for a small extra charge.
The rent is $300 more per person if you want self-serve breakfast and family style dinner included.
Another option is breakfast only for $150. Lunches and snacks are excluded in the meal option. Our meals are home-cooked, nutritious and delicious.
There are just 2 residents sharing the bathroom at most but, during this COVID era, we're only entertaining one person at a time (or lately noone).
You will not have hidden extra charges such as for central air-conditioning, heat or electricity.
This is month-to-month but the longer the better (you don't have to commit for a whole year.)
You are provided an attractive, furnished private bedroom including bed and linens, towels, curtains, lamps, and desk or table.
Our openings are December 10 and now (one room just became vacant), or we are more than glad to wait until later for the right person.
Plus I don't update this site a lot so please ask if the dates you want are open for you. This is a "homestay," not a hotel or full house share.
There are laundry machines available to wash your clothes in our house and free internet Wi-Fi.
We are not looking for anyone to be our buddy and do social events with us, though we are super-friendly.
Everyone will get a good amount of quiet time and privacy.
If you are interested, email back!
The amount of time you would stay is flexible. You don't have to commit to a whole year. Our minimum stay is one month.
Thanks!!
Additional Info
The room rate includes the following services: breakfast, dinner and wi-fi internet access (and all utilities including heat and central air-conditioning). There is laundry (washer & dryer) in the house too.
Additional available services at an extra charge (payable directly to your host on arrival):
Pick up service: 100.00 USD one-way
Charge for washing machine usage: 1USD per machine load
My Pets
Dog, Cat
House Facilities
- Garden
- Laundry
- Patio
- Internet Access
- Air Conditioning
Bedrooms available for booking
About the Area
Our house is a great location if you want to stay in Roscoe Village. Don't worry as soon as you complete your booking and pay your deposit online you will get an email with our exact address.
Local Area Facilities
- Tennis
- Park
- Gym
- Golf
- Swimming
- Bowling
- Beach
- Cinema
- Library
- Museum
- Shopping Centre
- Sports arena
- Health club
- Restaurant
- Bus Stop
- Train station
- Hospital
Meals
Hosts can offer a complimentary light breakfast at their discretion. All other meals, including a full breakfast, might incur an additional cost, if offered. Meals and any additional payment should be arranged directly with your host.
Included in the stay
- Complimentary Light Breakfast
- Use of Kitchen
Available on request at an extra cost
- Full Breakfast
- Half Board
Diet Type available on request
- Vegetarian
- Lactose Intolerant
House Rules
Please keep our home secure and double-lock the front door when entering and leaving the house
Please do not adjust the heat or a/c settings yourself, ask me and I will happily do it for you
Keep noise to a minimum between 8am and 10:30pm please
Please do not invite strangers into our home; if you would like to invite a friend over just agree it with me in advance
Please enjoy your stay and treat our house as you would your own home!
Smoking Rules
Your host is a non-smoker.
Smoking is not allowed.
How do I book?
Contact the host to check their availability and ask them any questions you have about staying with them. Once the host confirms they’re available for your dates, you can complete your booking.
When do I pay?
Once a host confirms they're available, you can go ahead and pay the 15% booking fee (maximum of 250 $£€ for longer term bookings) using a choice of payment methods: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Maestro, Laser, JCB & PayPal (not available in certain countries). You then pay your host on arrival or as stated by your host on their profile and agreed by you on booking. Please be cautious if a host requests advance payment if its not included on their profile. Our hosts have been advised that if they wish to request advance payment they must make this explicit in their profile. We do not recommend the use of Money gram or Western Union.
When can I share my contact details?
Host and Guest email address, phone number and home address will be exchanged in a confirmation email sent to both immediately after a booking is completed. It's against our policy for Guests and Hosts to exchange direct contact details via our messaging system.