Chicago Radio: Mancow Buys Home For $2M

Mancow Mueller

WLUP 97.9 FM morning host and reality TV star Erich "Mancow" Muller and wife Sandy last month paid $2 million for a five-bedroom, 4,635-square-foot Italian Renaissance-style house in Wilmette.

A longtime Chicago radio personality, who in March signed on as the morning host at "The Loop," Muller, 49, came to Chicago radio in 1994. He also has starred in the History channel reality show "God, Guns & Automobiles."

For many years, Muller lived in Chicago, according to The Chicago Tribune. He rented in the Columbus Plaza high-rise downtown before owning a three-bedroom penthouse condominium unit in Lincoln Park from 1999 to 2013. That year, he and his family moved to a rental house in Wilmette. He caused some minor controversy after telling Elite Street how happy he was to leave Chicago, which he concluded had become "unlivable" with substandard schools and high parking costs.

Built in 1927, Muller's new house recently underwent $1 million in renovations after its previous owner, former Kraft Foods chief marketing officer Deanie Elsner, had bought it in 2012 for $1.3 million. Now the head of Kellogg's snacks business, Elsner restored the home's tile roof, updated its entry, added new copper gutters and upgraded features in the finished basement, according to listing information.

Other features in the house include five full baths, two half baths, a three-car garage, a kitchen with a center island, a family room with built-ins, a coffered ceiling in the living room, an office with built-in bookcases, a four-season sunroom, a master suite with a fireplace and a walk-in closet, a second-floor laundry, a mud room, and a basement with nine-foot ceilings, a craft room and an exercise room.