Tag: houses

The yellow one is 189K, per Redfin. That is cheap, and I take it the bank finally took it over as it was sitting at $350,000 for what seemed like a year and had now dropped below $200K. This baby appears priced to sell.
Here is what I know, which isn’t much. The property was owned by a guy whose name I keep messing up, starts with a ‘K’, who owns or owned several rental properties in the area. This was one. The house has a basement and similar homes have rented out the bottom part, but I don’t know if those are legal basements. It has no real front yard, and a very shady back yard. The back yard is big enough to park a Smart Car, or maybe a classic Mini Cooper. There used to be a family in the house until Mr. K encountered his financial problems.

Sometimes you don’t realize that certain things require talent until you’ve seen the task carried out so badly, you wanna cry. I pitty the real estate agent trying to push 1708 4th St NW, because it is 1,326 sq ft squandered. It’s supposed to be a three bedroom, more accurately, it is one bedroom and two small offices. Okay one of those offices could have a twin bed or child’s bed, but it would be tight and the closet door would need to be removed. I’m trying to think if my cubicle at work has more square footage than the other bedroom.
I could design something better than that with a pencil some paper and a copy of Not So Big House. Heck, with my own house, I think I did. Though the living area is about 1000 sq ft., I don’t think it feels cramped. Yes, my bedroom is the size of a nice walk in closet, but it is big enough for a bed, a small wardrobe, small dresser and a big pile of dirty clothes that I really need to wash.
There were several mistakes, in my opinion, with 1708 4th St. Let’s start with the 1st floor. The stairs are not up to code, maybe because to get anything big (couch, fridge, etc) through the front door and into the house, you’re taking out part of the stair railing. The fireplace is in a wierd spot. Does a gas fireplace add so much to a property that even a tiny wierdly placed one works? The kitchen is okay. I recognize it as an IKEA Akurum/Rationell style kitchen. IKEA understands small spaces. The second floor is where the tiny bedroom/offices are. The hallway is nice and big, but there is something wrong when the bathroom on that floor seems bigger than one of the bedrooms. I kid. However, I would have made the bathroom a 3/4 bath to get a few more feet for the bedroom. If a tub is needed, use the one on the 3rd floor. The thrid floor bathroom is big and the window faces the street. Plantation shutters will be required. Outside the back and front yards are paved with concrete. These can be improved with some container plants.

I don’t believe all pop-ups are ugly. Unfortunately there are tons of bad pop-ups that we can point to so one can get the impression that there is no such thing as a good pop-up. There is one example I like to point to of a good rooftop addition.
Over on the 1600 block of 5th Street, NW between R and Warner there is a house with a cute rustic addition. I’ve been inside once and the owners did a wonderful job with creating a new space in their home. Maybe the key in this is that it was designed and done by the people who were intending to live in the home and not a know-nothing small time developer/contractor trying to stuff a few more square feet on to a small lot.
A few things makes this addition work. One is that it is on the end of a row of houses. You can get away with more on the end than you can in the middle. If the style changes up on the end of a bunch of uniform houses, it doesn’t break the pattern. Second, the addition, including the railing is set back from the street. Third, there isn’t a big empty space on the addition between the top of the roof and the top of the door/window. There is another pop-up on S Street, that’s lovely from the back but on the front there is this empty space that makes the front of the addition, ‘blah’.
I think the most important factor was that the addition was put on for the people who live in the house, and not some unknown buyer to be gouged of money.

I showed this picture to a co-worker who also lives in the District. He said if someone painted their house that color in his part of town the neighbors would throw a huge hissy fit. They live in the Chevy Chase area.
Colorful townhomes are some of the things I like about Shaw and neighborhoods like it. There is a bit of funk, and individuality and variety in our style.

I believe in the Invisible Hand. And I believe the Invisible Hand, in it’s own time, will smite those sellers who have no respect for buyers.
26 P Street, NE, that butt ugly pop up across the street from DDOT’s parking lot, is on the market, for $1,500,000.00, down from the earlier 1.7 mil price tag.
There are several pieces of crap that have languished on the market, mucked up by small time ‘developers’ who have been b*tch slapped by the Invisible Hand (see weird condo on Q & Marion ). This is another that I bet will sit, unsold and vacant for years.
The seller’s must be on crack or something, as per the script for the property listing:

Must Sell NOW. This property will Double in price in two years please check the area by visiting www.nomabid.org. this building is a New Construction. four units configured as residential but has c-3-c zoning – many business applications. four stories, nine bedrooms/nine bath. Great view of US Capital and Monument. Fantastic future and location. very close to new york ave metro/red line. harris teeters market, Dept of Justise, major hotels, returants, retail openning soon.

Location Description:
Few block to US Capital/union station.

One- run spell check. For anything over $200K run spell check.

Will double in 2 years? Only if the additional two floors are torn down, the burnt shells next door are bought and the group of lots are razed and a good architect designs a building. Not your blind kid brother who took some design classes online and thinks he can draw a pretty building.

‘New construction.’ New and fugly. However I’d question the quality of the construction considering that the top floors is evidence of bad decision making.

‘four units configured as residential but has c-3-c zoning – many business applications. four stories, nine bedrooms/nine bath.’ The zoning I think is a clue into the height. But the whole business/residential thing is a clue the the builders had no clue.

‘Few block to US Capital/union station’. Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Now there are the folks who say, well, if you had historic district, this would never happen. Well, to quote another neighbor, I chose not to live in an historic district, and I take the risks that come with that decision. And if someone throws up one of those ugly additions, that’s the chance I take. For myself, I believe that builders who vomit up these additions are rewarded with a building that doesn’t sell. And I hope that the more I point out that ugly DC pop ups (as opposed to the few popups and additions that aren’t crap) don’t sell, builders won’t put them up.

Just a brief mention, I noticed in the legal notices 418 N Street, NW over in Mount Vernon Square is on the auction block. According to the notice Harvey West Auctioneers is auctioning off the property January 13th. In the pictures at this site, it is the white one that isn’t on fire.