Grant a Wish for Bread for the City

Well the building is coming along nicely.
Anyway Bread for the city has a wish list of some items you might have around the house:

SmarTrip Cards or Metro Bus Tokens
Forks (for our cooking classes)
Coat Racks
Can Openers for our clients
Cleaning supplies/ Laundry detergent
Gift cards to grocery stores, Wal-mart, Target, CVS, etc
Plastic Storage Bins of all sizes

There is a longer list here. Contact Nathan LaBorie at 202.386.7611 to donate.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on June 14, 2010 8:36 AM.

Cheap Shakespeare

I’m feeling lazy so I’m just going to cut and paste this press release:

New DC Arts Outreach Company, Wandering Souls, Presents 2nd Production and Set to Reach More of DC’s Underserved Audiences

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  August  11, 2010           

CONTACT: Becky Peters
(678) 361-1502 ; becky@wanderingsouls.org

Social Media Press Release: http://pitch.pe/81482

What: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Who: Wandering Souls

 

When: Touring September 1 – 30, 2010

 

Private Performances at Host Venues include:   Closed to public except by invitation; If you would like to join us at one of these closed performances please contact becky@wanderingsouls.org for full calendar

Sasha Bruce, Central Union Mission, St Elizabeth’s, N Street Village, Grace’s Table, Friendship Terrace, New Endeavors by Women, Washington Center for the Aging, Army Distaff Foundation, Catholic Charities, Christ House, Sitar Center and Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness

 

Open-to-the-Public Performances:

Friday, September 3 at 7:30 pm  (Bloombars, 3222 11th Street NW)

Friday, September 10 at 7:30 pm (Bloombars, 3222 11th Street NW)

Wednesday, September 22 at 7:00 pm (Edmund Burke School, 4101 Connecticut Avenue, NW)

Friday, September 24 at 7:30 pm (Bloombars, 3222 11th Street NW)

Wednesday, September 29 at 7:00 pm (Church of the Pilgrims, 2201 P Street NW)

Cost of public performances:

All performances are Pay What You Can with a suggested donation of $15.  Although NO ONE will be turned away for lack of funds.   Advance Donations/Reservations can be made online at www.wanderingsouls.org

 

 

ABOUT THE PLAY

Wit, music, romance and revelry are the food of love at this comedic feast of lovers and fools. One of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies – Twelfth Night is a play about love in all its excess, the madness it can drive us to, the pain it gives us and finally the ability to heal that pain.  Viola and her twin brother are shipwrecked in the magical land of Illyria, each believing the other has drowned. Disguised as a young man, and entering the service of the lovesick Duke Orsino, Viola woos the wistful lady Olivia for her new master and finds herself in a most unusual and hilarious love triangle. Merry deceptions, mistaken identities and yellow stockings abound in this lilting comedy.

DIRECTOR

Andrew Wassenich   Fresh from a stunning performance in Genesis at the Capital Fringe Festival: a talented actor, director, librettist, playwright and former Producing Artistic Director of Journeymen Theater, Andy Wassenich joins Wandering Souls to direct Twelfth Night.  A graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts directing program, he was a Kennedy Center/Kenan Fund Director-in-Residence. His directing credits include Either/Or and One Flea Spare (Kennedy Center/Kenan Fund Artists-in-Residence), Belly of The Whale by Scott Organ (New York International Fringe Festival),  Saturday Night at the USO (Imagination Stage), Myth Appropriations I and Fries With That? (Rorschach Theatre) and The Girl in the Iron Mask (Georgetown Theatre Company).  In addition to multiple Assistant Directing credits, Andy has been a directing fellow at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, served as the Assistant to the Artistic Director at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and is a founding member of The Inkwell.

The Last Roommate

The Last Roommate By Mari on August 30, 2010 1:45 PM

Well this weekend my last roommate moved in. After the Help and I get hitched (when he actually has a legal right to all that equity I’ve built up) he’ll move in and I’ll no longer be renting out the extra room. This house is way too small for 3 adults. So in thinking about 9 years worth of roommates and the whole renting your room out, here’s what I’ve learned:

Let the market determine the rent- not your mortgage

I think I charged by first roommate Belinda $500 in 2001. I can’t remember if I included utilities. I probably did. My mortgage was a little below $600. This was pre-renovation. I had the kitchen counter-space of a Ouija board and crappy cheap carpet. I also had active drug traffic on my corner and back then Cindy the Crackho was actively working (now it seems she’s retired) so I couldn’t really demand a high rent. But neither was I going to charge ½ of my mortgage, I had to make it worth my privacy. Then came the kitchen renovation and the whole house renovations and the second mortgages that followed. The kitchen renovation had no impact on what I was charging for rent as it had no impact on having drug dealers on the corner. Strangely, neither does having a new kitchen reduce gunfire heard at night, which really allowed for raising the rent. (more after the jump)

I did increase the rent from the $500-$550 range to $700 and above after the huge renovation in 2007 when my mortgage total went into the land of $1600 a month. I was charging less than ½ my mortgage and including utilities. In 2007-08 a renovation at that time made sense. The drug dealers were decreasing their hours. Other houses on the street were getting renovated so I wouldn’t be overbuilding, and I was finally making enough money to support a bigger second mortgage. After the renovation, I checked Craigslist and the City Paper to get a sense of what to charge for a room. Then I would post an ad for a certain amount and depending on if I got any real bites, I found out if I was asking too much.

Do a thorough interview and follow up on references

One reason I hear people say no to roommates is that they’ve had a bad experience with a past roommate. Of my worst roommates since leaving my parents home they’ve been people I didn’t choose (dorm situations) . It helps to pick people based on something in addition to their ability to pay rent on time. I’ve always required references and I interview those references, over the phone, before offering the room. I demand an in-person interview with the applicant. In the beginning it was to make sure the person was ok with the neighborhood. It was also to make sure they were the kind of person I could get on well enough with for the next 3 to 6 months. Yes, even though I do short term rentals I did the big interview, check your references, confirm employment dance.

The questions I would ask references were roommate, temperament questions. How are they about cleaning up behind themselves? Does So-in-So smoke? How does s/he handle conflict when a problem arises? Would you describe So-in-So as dependable/responsible? And general descriptions of the person. These interviews have been helpful in adjusting how I related to the roommate and made me aware of things I’d have to be sensitive to as well. And I made sure they were not all email references and I called the employer (or former employer in some cases.)

Know your market, know yourself

As I mentioned, I do short term rentals. Mainly because I get bored with people and sometimes I just want my house back. That was the know yourself part. So, who would I rent to? Well in the summer there are interns. I’ve had a law firm intern, and international org intern, and some educational non-profit intern. Because of all the non-profit think tanks and other research institutions there are also fellows, who are like interns, but older and definitely paid better. Some fellows I got from friends who were searching for housing for their research fellows who were going to be in DC for 4-6 months. Other types of people who needed the short term stays were people who were hired on a trial basis, a commuter and someone here for a short detail at the home agency.

My preferred roommate was someone with a life elsewhere. My commuter, lived with her partner on weekends. The person on detail had an apartment back on the west coast she was returning to. The law intern was a homeowner in Philly. And to accommodate them I would provide a furnished room, and provide kitchen wares so all they had to bring was their suitcase.

Ect

Sometime this year I contacted DCRA about the legality of renting out my extra bedroom and was told by Michael Rupert, Communications Manager, that I could have up to 5 unrelated people living together in a home – as long as they share kitchen and living spaces – without having to get any license and it’s perfectly ok in terms of zoning regulations.

I also reported the income on my taxes taking out the expenses associated (utilities, the odd time I paid the WP for an ad) and it has been good income. If you pick the right roommate (lives elsewhere on weekends, workaholic, never cooks) it can be the easiest $600-$700 bucks a month.

I did increase the rent from the $500-$550 range to $700 and above after the huge renovation in 2007 when my mortgage total went into the land of $1600 a month. I was charging less than ½ my mortgage and including utilities. In 2007-08 a renovation at that time made sense. The drug dealers were decreasing their hours. Other houses on the street were getting renovated so I wouldn’t be overbuilding, and I was finally making enough money to support a bigger second mortgage. After the renovation, I checked Craigslist and the City Paper to get a sense of what to charge for a room. Then I would post an ad for a certain amount and depending on if I got any real bites, I found out if I was asking too much.

Do a thorough interview and follow up on references

One reason I hear people say no to roommates is that they’ve had a bad experience with a past roommate. Of my worst roommates since leaving my parents home they’ve been people I didn’t choose (dorm situations) . It helps to pick people based on something in addition to their ability to pay rent on time. I’ve always required references and I interview those references, over the phone, before offering the room. I demand an in-person interview with the applicant. In the beginning it was to make sure the person was ok with the neighborhood. It was also to make sure they were the kind of person I could get on well enough with for the next 3 to 6 months. Yes, even though I do short term rentals I did the big interview, check your references, confirm employment dance.

The questions I would ask references were roommate, temperament questions. How are they about cleaning up behind themselves? Does So-in-So smoke? How does s/he handle conflict when a problem arises? Would you describe So-in-So as dependable/responsible? And general descriptions of the person. These interviews have been helpful in adjusting how I related to the roommate and made me aware of things I’d have to be sensitive to as well. And I made sure they were not all email references and I called the employer (or former employer in some cases.)

Know your market, know yourself

As I mentioned, I do short term rentals. Mainly because I get bored with people and sometimes I just want my house back. That was the know yourself part. So, who would I rent to? Well in the summer there are interns. I’ve had a law firm intern, and international org intern, and some educational non-profit intern. Because of all the non-profit think tanks and other research institutions there are also fellows, who are like interns, but older and definitely paid better. Some fellows I got from friends who were searching for housing for their research fellows who were going to be in DC for 4-6 months. Other types of people who needed the short term stays were people who were hired on a trial basis, a commuter and someone here for a short detail at the home agency.

My preferred roommate was someone with a life elsewhere. My commuter, lived with her partner on weekends. The person on detail had an apartment back on the west coast she was returning to. The law intern was a homeowner in Philly. And to accommodate them I would provide a furnished room, and provide kitchen wares so all they had to bring was their suitcase.

Ect

Sometime this year I contacted DCRA about the legality of renting out my extra bedroom and was told by Michael Rupert, Communications Manager, that I could have up to 5 unrelated people living together in a home – as long as they share kitchen and living spaces – without having to get any license and it’s perfectly ok in terms of zoning regulations.

I also reported the income on my taxes taking out the expenses associated (utilities, the odd time I paid the WP for an ad) and it has been good income. If you pick the right roommate (lives elsewhere on weekends, workaholic, never cooks) it can be the easiest $600-$700 bucks a month.

Fugly Pop-ups for Sale

I have a theory, ugly is a big enough negative to negate any investment in increasing square footage. The reason behind my theory is that the ugly 2000 sq ft house is competing against the nicer looking 2000 sq ft house, not the surrounding nicer looking 1000 sq ft houses. There are two examples.

Fugly popupFirst is 26 P St NE. If you notice on the Redfin site the complete ugly of it is not revealed. I noticed the exterior photo stops so you don’t really see the 3 story popup that the builders threw up on it. The asking price is $799K. I say it is worth $400K on a good day and that’s just thinking about how much it is going to cost to hire an architect who can design something that can redeem the property. This has been on the market for nearly a month. I’m guessing it’s going to be a long time and several price reductions before this monstrosity sells.

Is next, and the best proof of my theory, 1522 3rd St. NW.

Sitting on Top This puppy has been pretty empty of real tenants for years. That pop up has been on top of that house for at least 3 years if not more. Check out the link above and scroll down to the property history and the number of times it was bought and sold over and over again. It looks fishy, but that’s the bank’s problem. As I can remember it was never sold to real people, just investors. Also not how the price keeps going down. It began as $349K, then delisted and relisted at $335K, and since then has been slowly going down and is now at $245K.

Let me say that the 1500 block of 3rd St is awesome, minus the feral children at the corner of Bates and 3rd. There are a great set of involved neighbors and somewhere over there I think is where ANC Anita Bonds resides. If the house gets down to say $220K, buy it, redo the popup (move it to the rear, turn it into a covered roof deck, tear it off) and if you plan to stick around for 5-7 years it would be totally worth it.

Monday Ramblings

I must say I love, love, love the Bloomingdale Farmer’s Market. I ran into my ex-roommate who, though lives 2 blocks from me now, I lost contact with. Reunions, yay! Also Painted Hand had bunny rabbit. Add a sticky-bun and a apple danish, good times.

Since I’m in the general area, congrats to the Big Bear for being in a commercial for a cable company and NBC Universal (YouTube). Yes, BBC you are a beautiful indy coffee shop and would make a lovely filming location.

This weekend a family began moving off the block, and I was told it was the schools that did it. We’ll miss this family as the mom threw some pretty great neighborhood parties. There was the one they held in the middle of the snowstorm, and one where the back gate was opened and the party got extended down the alley with small children running up and down. Add to this with another family with small and very socialable kids who are also planning on moving this year, our little section of the neighborhood is going to lose some of its character. The good kind of character and I hope whomever takes their place will add to the awesomeness of the block, or at least someone else fill the spot of “cruise director”.

Lastly, let’s talk sibling rivalry, that is Thai X-ing vs Beau Thai. I like Beau Thai’s Pad Thai better than Thai Xing’s Pad Thai. However, I like Thai X-ing’s Panang a tad bit better than Beau Thai’s, mainly because there are some odd veggies thown in (last time I had the Panang Tofu) the Thai X-ing version. Beau Thai’s Panang is good, the sauce is good and thick and hangs on to the rice. As a left over for lunch I liked it even more.

Wedding related post

Well some of you have asked how the wedding planning is going. It’s going. Because, according to the glossy Washington Post Wedding Planner dohicky that IT so nicely loaned me, we started late and there is the whole list of to-dos. I’m seeing why eloping to Vegas appears as an attractive option. So far, for the DC wedding (there will be an insanely sane and simple ceremony in CA for his parents) looks like it maybe all in Shaw, because it’s going to be in winter, I don’t feel like trudging to Maryland afterwards, and well, it is the cheapest option so far.

I am thinking it would be nice to make the ceremony a way to introduce The Help to the community, as we are going to make Shaw our home. But the main goal is to keep the thing as cheap and simple as possible because once it is over, we’ve got to deal with some house repairs that are long overdue. I’m really more interested in refilling the house repair coffers than fulfilling some princess for a day fantasy that costs as much as a new roof. I don’t want a photographer who costs more than it did to replace my stairs and walkway with slate. Seriously, slate stair and walkway, $1,600 that’s materials and labor, starting price for some photographers, $3000.

Anyway, regardless what we do or don’t do in DC, The Help will be moving from PG Co to DC and is looking forward to becoming part of the Shaw.  He’d known me as a friend when I bought the house and has seen how the neighborhood has changed over the years. Snarky suburban comments that he used to fling have given way to hope of getting to know neighbors better and cleaning up the streets.

Now imagine it with chairs

Intrior view
Well after work, went to Beau Thai at 1700 New Jersey Avenue NW and had me some Pad Thai. I’m full. It was good.
If you have an early menu the phone number is wrong. It seems the phone number is 205-377-5329. I asked about that 205 bit, but apparently it’s 205 and not 202. 202-536-5636
Any way, pad thai.
Beau Thai's Pad Thai and Beau Thai owner
The food came fast as she’s got a couple of people in the kitchen, so she differs from her brother Taw (Thai X-ing) in that way. When asked about him, she mentions that he doesn’t have delivery but she hopes to do delivery soon.