Day: February 8, 2005

I made a huge error.

Nobody died.

Just apparently if you OD, are unresponsive, and lying on the sidewalk with blood coming out of your head and mouth the proper authorities will take their time getting you to the hospital.

I am sorry to all who I have upset. My source of information was faulty and upon confering with other people I have discovered my error and wish to correct myself.

So I repeat no one died.

What happened according to a neighbor who lives closer and who actually found the woman on the side walk, she was bleeding from her head and mouth and was unresponsive. The people in the house where the trail of blood began had locked her out and were inside when the police came and knocked on the door, but they did not answer. It is possible that she could have died from her injuries, but as far as we know, she’s still alive.

via Jim Berry

Neighbors,

I am advised that the Board of Directors of the North Capitol Collaborative will be hosting a Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, February 17, 2005, from 6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., at McKinley High School, 151 T Street, NE.

As you may know the Collaborative is principally responsible for working with abused and neglected children in our community, as well as their families.

The purpose of the town hall meeting is to give a progress report to the community on the work of the collaborative and the public is invited to come out in order to let their voices be heard about the group’s work. For more information concerning this meeting, you may contact Ms. LaShawn Gantt @ 202-299-9802.

Best,

Jim Berry

ANC 5C

Today on freecycle someone in Adams Morgan is giving away a big wooden door with a window in it, just to give you a heads up.

Second, a former house of the week has begun to show some activity as construction stopped and now has started again. After serveral months of nothing, there is a for sale sign and stairs are now going up, just adding to the ugly. There was a way to make it look nicer, but would have cost money or forethought. Maybe I might be pleasantly suprised and the end result might look nice. But given this neighborhood and the crap I’ve seen, no.

Price: $619,000

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 3

Basement: Yes, finished

Fireplaces: 2 or 3

I was disappointed. But houses around a certain amount I have great expectations. Expectations that are dashed by the small things one notice as a homeowner that might go missed as a 1st time homebuyer.

First thing I noticed was in the bathroom. This was a blah, functional bathroom. No attempt to wow me. Regular Home Depot tub, with other regular stuff, but then I noticed the shower head. The thing wasn’t flush with the wall in that I could see the hole from where the pipe came from and it wasn’t caulked up or anything. This could allow water to get back behind the wall causing an expensive repair. This I noticed from the bathroom door.

The first floor of the main unit was fairly, ok. As I said, no wow, pretty much allowing me to believe that the money one would pay for the house is just location and not the house itself. I mean the wood floors were nice but, for $619K I would expect a little more care in how the house was fixed up.

Click here for image of upstairs

When I went up the stairs I noticed some problems with the wood work were problems were painted over. Sad. Sad because the house does have so much potential. If whoever was fixing it up had just taken a little bit more time with it and took care of the little details that would have made it look better….*sigh*. Anyway there were exposed brick bedrooms and small bedrooms with fireplaces. Do they work? Unknown, but they look nice. The house gets a decent amount of light.



The basement is supposed to be a legal rental unit. It has all one would expect from a finished basement, kitchen, living area, bedroom, full bath and damp. I noticed the problem near the bottom of the walls. The paint was bubbling away from the walls. A few dehumidifiers might help. Or not. But keeping water and dampness out of this basement might be cause for concern.

Should one buy this house? Oh, yes, but not at the price given. One would have to take something off the price to address the issues of damp and fixing the minor things.

Pruning Workshop for All Feb 26th!

Tree Pruning Workshop

Saturday, February 26th, 10 A.M.

Seaton Elementary School

(10th and P Streets, NW)

D.C. Greenworks will be leading a FREE training workshop for all of our

TreeKeepers in the Shaw community as well as other residents interested

in becoming TreeKeepers this spring.

Come learn how to prune young trees and identify the most common

species in the neighborhood. Then you can take your new skills back to your block

and prune your own trees.

Please contact us with any questions. We hope to see you there!

RSVP by phone at 518-6195 or email at trees@dcgreenworks.org.

(Rain date: Sunday, Feb. 27th, 1 P.M.)

Bethie Miller

Community Outreach Organizer

D.C. Greenworks

2451 18th Street, NW 2nd floor

Washington, D.C. 20009

202-518-6195

202-518-5507 fax