What can you buy for $400-$600K around here, pt1

The neighborhood hasn’t completely gentrified. I’ll know that we have finished gentrifying when I can get Pizza Hut and at 1 Sushi restaurant to deliver to my house. So with that in mind I ask, what can you buy for nearly 1/2 a million around here?

435 Rhode Island Avenue.

Price: $640,000

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 3

Fireplace: 1

Basement: none

Parking: Off-Street

Some of y’all know I already hated this house without even walking into it. Well there was an open house. I walked in. I still hate it. Someone else at the open wondered why would you build this when you were able to start from scratch?

The inside was odd. Very odd. First floor was fine, with a fire place and this little warm room off to the side with a low light fixture. Was that supposed to be a dining room? There looked like there was barely enough room for a table.



The master bedroom had two floors to it. There was the floor that lead out to the deck over the carport. The there was this other level that I couldn’t figure out what it was for or what it did (see above photo). According to the Realtor’s description it is a “skylit sitting room”. And on that upper level there was this storage space, that was not tall enough to be a closet. It was just odd.

The house is advertised as being custom built. What does this mean? Well it is not like other houses, other houses might make sense. It just didn’t seem clear who the house was built for. Some corners seemed tight. I overheard someone ask, how on ear are you supposed to get furniture up the stairs and where would one sit the bed? Imagining where furniture would go without blocking a door or a closet was difficult.



The upper deck we noticed some shoddy workmanship, fixed with paint and caulk. My companions also noticed that the floodlights seemed to be at an incorrect height.

It was a rabbit warren of rooms upstairs. Not everything was on the same level. Now I mentioned the master bedroom having two levels. Well even from the hallway one had to go up just a few more stairs to get to the master bedroom.

When it is an older house it is understandable when things are odd. You had to take what fate and chance gave to you and work with it. With a newer home you don’t have that excuse. Yes, the lot was oddly shaped. But even so, what went on with the upper floors just didn’t make any sense to me.. When the house was being built, I and my neighbor would pass it and I mentioned that I thought it was horrid. My neighbor figured someone was building it for himself. Yes, the house would make sense if someone built it to suite their own little quirks. But to sell? Something must have happened because the only thing I can say is that is it all very odd.

Well we also popped by a few other houses, but I don’t want to make this post too long.

The State of the In Shaw Blog

Well I’ve been reflecting.

Nora Bombay started me blogging back in March of 2003. However In Shaw existed in 2001 before the blogging. Then I discovered that the blogging tools helped keep the announcement page current. If you look at some of my earlier posts, it is a mix of commentary and announcements. Then I separated the two. I figured I should be opinionated somewhere else.

Thank you to all of you who have read this blog and enjoyed it. I really intended the audience to be about 5 people. ‘Cause really, who wants to hear me bitch about crack heads and what’s going on in the alley? Yet in time I discovered (and the comments part brings it home) there are more than 5 people reading this blog. Through In Shaw I have met other bloggers, like Nathan, Jimbo, John and other neighbors and that’s been neat.

I am a bit conflicted about the extra eyeballs the blog gets. I do like meeting neighbors and finding common ground. But I have been a little bit more self-conscious. I have toned down a bit as one never knows who is reading, and changed names to protect the innocent and non-crack smoking. And recently, around mid 2004 I started blogging almost every day. Will I keep up my current pace of blogging in 2005? I don’t know. Will I continue to complain about crackheads? Well if they stay in the neighborhood, yes. And, given my mood swings, prepare for a string of compost & garden related posts as well. Don’t care for the compost stories? Too bad.

In 2005 I hope to write more about small houses, like mine, businesses in Truxton Circle, the history in Truxton Circle (related to my work), gardening and maybe more open houses so I can see what the heck you get for your $300-$500K. I have accepted the skyrocketing housing prices, so fewer “real estate agents on crack” posts.

Lastly, since I have been blogging a new site has come up recently and will fill your need for news on this side of Shaw, TruxtonCirlce.Org. Started by neighbors Scott & Matt, it looks like what I wanted In Shaw to be initially. It is a neighborhood site about the Bates Street area, and hopefully with a fair number of neighbors chipping in with a story here and there it will serve the needs of Truxton Circle (eastern Shaw) residents.

The alley & a debate

Last week I raked up some of the fall leaves that settled on my end of the alley. I am wondering if alley cleaning man has forsaken my end of the alley because the opposite end is noticably cleaner. Fine, not like he was getting paid. Anyway, as I raked away my neighbors’ de facto compost heaps I noticed that the concrete from the house under rehabilitation’s patio settled in a little heap in the middle of our semi-brand new alley. This refuse concrete created a little dam hindering water flow.

When they first laid down the concrete and had the refuse and rocks in the alley I took a shovel and threw the fresh concrete and rocks back on to their side and out of the alley. I was angry because of the mess they left and because of allowing the potential for a small lake to settle behind my yard.

So I finding another pile of rocks and concrete, but now too late to remove it, I became angry again. Here we finally get the alley repaired and then this. Can’t. Have. Nothin good. N** keep screwing stuff up. [insert Chris Rock’s routine “Who you calling Racist?“]

So I am debating. My neighbor noticed that the house the leave -your-crap – in -the -alley contractors are working on doesn’t have permits displayed. I wonder, when and if I should call them in. The reason why I haven’t reported them already is because of pure laziness and forgetfulness with a pinch of wanting to wait till they have doors installed.

So when should I report them to DCRA?

Oh Christmas Tree, o Christmas tree

…why are you still here after trash pick up?

Well hopefully today DPW, the folks who brought you the snazzy calendars, will pick up the evergreens on the sidewalk.

This is from the DC.GOV site:

Holiday Tree Collection – January 3-7, 2005

Residents who receive DC trash collection service are encouraged to put holiday trees—without ornaments—in curbside tree boxes by January 2, 2005. Trees will be picked up during a special one-week collection from January 3–7. Residents who wish to keep their trees longer should put them out at their normal point of trash collection (curbside or alley) after January 7. DPW trucks will then collect the trees with the regular trash, as space in trucks permit, over the following weeks.


If not, then I can take my time clipping pine needles for my compost bin to up the acid in it.