This weekend on HomesPlus we're taking you to South Barrington to see what $1.7 million dollars will buy you.

And let's just say you'll get a beautiful home with lots of land.

Check out the home after the jump.

This weekend on HomesPlus we're taking you to Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood to see what $1.4 million dollars will buy you.

Check out the video and you'll be amazed at the luxury kitchen, theatre room and of course a great deck off the beautiful master suite.

There are some great deals in Chicagoland for your new home. So what will $625,000 buy you in .... say .... the Northwest Suburb of Hawthorn Woods?

How about a home in a golf course community with a first floor master bedroom?

On nice days, when we're out walking the dog in our neighborhood, my husband and I like to check out the open houses of homes that look particularly impressive from the outside. It's kind of a guilty pleasure, because while we don't take up much of the realtor's time, we really don't go in with the intention to buy - we already have a home we love. But there's something about wandering through other people's homes that spurs creativity and gets you thinking of ideas for your own home. So, when I had the chance to check out a four story, 4,500 square foot home in Hinsdale last week, well let's just say I was eager to get to work!

More after the jump...

With the highest sales tax in the country, a high cost of living and a real parking problem many city-dwellers might wonder just what they're still doing shelling out all that cash just for the privelage of being a windy city resident. Conversely, countless suburbanites fight the traffic into the city everyday, plan special occassions at Chicago's finest restaurants and take the kids into the city to check out the lake and museums on the weekends. They might be wondering what am I doing out in the 'burbs??

If you've ever wondered how the other half lives - and at what cost - here's your chance. Gorgeous decked out house in the suburb of Huntley vs. gorgeous decked out condo in the north side neighborhood of Lincoln Park.

Check out the video after the jump...

With the highest sales tax in the country, a high cost of living and a real parking problem many city-dwellers might wonder just what they're still doing shelling out all that cash just for the privelage of being a windy city resident. Conversely, countless suburbanites fight the traffic into the city everyday, plan special occassions at Chicago's finest restaurants and take the kids into the city to check out the lake and museums on the weekends. They might be wondering what am I doing out in the 'burbs??

If you've ever wondered how the other half lives - and at what cost - here's your chance. Gorgeous decked out house in the suburb of Huntley vs. gorgeous decked out condo in the north side neighborhood of Lincoln Park.

Check out the video after the jump...

If you find living in a sky-high penthouse that overlooks the river, the lake, Navy Pier and the city skyline to be just a little cost-prohibitive, then go ahead and live vicariously through this HomesPlus Inside View. And if this $5.2 million-dollar, 2-story beauty is calling your name, just click here.

Step away from Facebook - there's another way to Indulge your voyeuristic side this spring! Take a peek inside other people's homes by tagging along on one of the many house walks taking place over the next couple of months. From Madison, WI to Evanston to southwestern Michigan, you can get a ticket for a few bucks (which goes to a good cause - each walk has a different one) and walk through the homes of complete strangers.

We're no stranger to the spotlight here in Chicago. There always seems to be a movie being filmed, but few become classics. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of them. So when Cameron's (played by Alan Ruck in the '86 hit) pristine glass-enclosed house went on the market this week - it got our attention.

The 4 bedroom, 4 bath Highland Park home looks more like a gorgeous tree house from the outside. But on the inside - it's all wide open space and modern features. Listed at $2.3 million, it overlooks that famous ravine where Cameron's dad's car reversed to its death. ("What did I do?" "You killed the car." ...you gotta love that part.)

The home is just blocks from the lake and is listed with Sotheby's realtor Meladee Hughes.

Priceless 1961 Ferrari not included.

**Check out a tour of the home on HomesPlus 6/13 & 14!**

In the tour that will air on this weekend's show, you'll see how the past seamlessly meshes with luxury living of the 21st century in Winnetka. The 7,000 square foot home has a Great Gatsby-esque backyard that leads right down to its own private beach. It was built in the late 1800's and just standing in the backyard, looking up at the house you can imagine how a band would have been perfectly placed on the grand 2nd floor terrace, entertaining a party of socialites. It was definitely one of the more interesting tours I've had the pleasure of doing! The home itself actually had a scent of history. If you've ever toured a historic landmark then you'll know what I mean. And this place has been pretty well cared for over the years, so it did actually have a museum-like quality, but without being too stuffy - the perfect place for a history buff with the need for a lot of space!

Special thanks to Heidi Ziomek and Dennis Rodkin for letting us tag along with cameras for this tour!

See the video after the jump...

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of meeting up with the interior designer and the listing agent for the Highland Park home that was featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off back in '86 and is now on the market for $2.3 million. I was initially attracted to the house (like everyone else in America...) because of the movie magic attached to it. But as it turned out, the house itself has some interesting history. Plus, it's one of the most unique homes I've seen since I started with HomesPlus...and there have been A LOT of homes!

It all starts with the surroundings. The main house and garage (the actual garage, not the structure that they used as the garage in the movie - that's actually the pavillion house) are set no further back from the road than any other home in the neighborhood, but because of the way it was designed, it's not even visible from the street; the foliage provides incredible privacy...for a lot less than a big ol' iron gate. Gotta love nature, right?

As you've seen in pictures and of course in the movie, the home is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows that allow for an unparallelled view of the surrounding ravine...from nearly every room (bathrooms and kitchen excluded). The nature angle continues throughout the home. From wood ceilings to cork floors (underneath the carpet) to the steel-and-glass frame of the home - this place was way ahead of its time in terms of eco-friendliness. Which brings me to its other claim to fame...

Okay, so maybe HomesPlus didn't get the scoop on this one, but we think Matt Lauer did as good a job as any at giving a tour of Michael Jackson's California home, affectionately known as "Neverland Ranch." And this home puts them all to shame. Forget the amusement park in the backyard, the house itself is incredibly impressive. Take a look -

In this weekend's HomesPlus, we're kicking off the show with our largest - and most expensive home tour yet. Words can't describe how exquisite this home, nay, mansion is... so for that you'll just have to tune in to the show this weekend and see it for yourself. Today's topic is the fascinating backstory to the estate.

The home was built as a wedding gift from John G. Shedd for his daughter, Laura, and her new husband, Charles H. Schweppe in the early 20th century. The story goes that the couple lived in the home, threw lavish parties hosting the high rollers of the time and raised two children there. Tragedy struck in 1937 when Laura passed away and was magnified a few years later when her husband, still troubled by his wife's death, took his own life.

For decades, the home stood empty. Rumors of sightings of Charles Schweppe's ghost spread and though they were probably just urban legends more than anything else, the stories can be found today in "Chicago Haunts" and North Shore Magazine.

Fast forward to the late 1980's when the current owner purchased the home and restored it to its original grandeur, bringing it back to life. No telling whether or not that put dear old Charles at peace, but perhaps if you're in the market for an $18-million dollar home with a little bit of history, you could be the one to fill us in on his current whereabouts...

Read more about the history of Mayflower Place here, or check out Dennis Rodkin's Deal Estate blog.

See the tour on HomesPlus this weekend!
Saturday at 9am and 1pm, Sunday at 9am

Or if you just can't wait to get a peek, take a look at the photo gallery.

If you've ever wondered how royalty lives, then this tour's for you. The Lake Forest estate featured in this weekend's show was reduced just this morning to $15 million. So, you're about $3 million dollars closer to owning it!

Lake Forest is full of gorgeous, historic homes on acres and acres of green lakefront property. But this one is different. I'm sure those who are in the market for an $15 million dollar estate are probably quite used to walking into a palace-like home, full of intricately carved mouldings, artistically detailed ceilings and marble-and-gold toilets (with matching bidet, of course), but being unaccustomed to such a lifestyle, it was quite the interesting afternoon that Jordan (HomesPlus' fearless shooter) and I spent touring the place with the listing agent, Houda Chedid.

Let's run through the "basics":
-11 bedrooms - each "bedroom" is really a suite, complete with sitting room, fireplace, walk-in closet and full bath.
-Bonus rooms - 3rd floor boasts a ballroom and full size apartment-like quarters which housed staff many years ago. These quarters are larger than my condo...not that I'm bitter.
-Room to spread out - 21,000 square feet spread over three floors (four, if you include the basement)
-10 a/c units
-5.3 acres on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan
-Several large patios, including the one in the back of the home where the heir to the Swedish crown danced the night away and scenes from the movie "With Honors" were shot.

Are you primed and ready to see it now? Click here for the photo gallery or watch the tour after the jump...

Who says new construction is dead? Next weekend, the 6th Annual Chicago Luxury Home Tour will kick off as planned - and it will prove that there are plenty of builders out there, not only outliving this depressed market, but bringing new design and architectural ideas to the table, perhaps inspiring the next boom.

The self-guided tour will allow you to check out the latest in design ideas, landscape design, home technology and green living elements. But don't forget your socks - shoes aren't allowed in the house and for some reason they frown on bare feet too.

Here are the details:
-It's every weekend starting next Friday 9/11 and ending Sunday 9/27
-Fridays 12n - 7p
-Saturdays/Sundays 11a - 6p
-Passport tickets to all homes are $15 in advance (purchase at any Caribou Coffee), $20 at the door or $5 per individual home

To get a preview of the homes on the tour, click here.

This weekend on HomesPlus, we're touring an Oswego home that started out as a dairy barn - it's spacious, rustic and very green! From the natural materials used to build the home, to the fact that much of the original dairy barn was incorporated into the renovated home, it's an incredibly natural and quite impressive space.

The tour will air this weekend, but check out these behind-the-scenes pics from this shoot and see some from our past shoots!

So what if you're not actually in the market for a $15 million home? Does that mean you shouldn't get to see it? We think not. That's why over the next few weeks, we're revisiting some of our favorite home tours of 2009, in the city and the 'burbs. Can't wait? Then just go to the "Inside View" tab on the video player and check out all of the past year's HomesPlus tours there. You can find links to each of the homes that are still listed in the "Featured Links" section on the right side of the page, or you can click here or here to take a look at some behind-the-scenes shots from these tours.

And remember, you can see the best of 2009 on HomesPlus every weekend through January 3rd on Saturdays @ 9am and 1pm and Sundays @ 9am!

Enjoy!