Tag: houses

Last installment of the series of houses in the Shaw & LeDroit Park area.
I looked at 2 Urban Land Company properties. One I had seen before during the ULC tour where we all wound up at the Tobacco Factory (neither was a tobacco warehouse, nor was it ever a factory), was 444 S Street, NW.
Price: $499,500
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2.5
Fireplace: 1
Basement: Yes
Parking: Street
The property is two units. You have your upstairs unit, where I gather the homeowner would live, and then the rental unit below. The upstairs is a teeny bit cramped but the normal sort of cramped for old houses like these. Unlike the Rhode Island house, this house looks like furniture is supposed to go into at some point and you can figure out how to get it in the house. The master bedroom has an alcove in it that almost says “put cathode ray tube TV HERE!” Where the bed goes and where the TV goes is very obvious. The kitchen is kind of small but if it weren’t stuffed in the back it would invade into the living space. If any future owner wanted to he/she could knock out the current counter and push it forward to make the kitchen bigger. I really liked the windows of the front upstairs bedroom. They were big enough and low enough to plop my butt down and peer through the windows at the Post Office. S Street is active, but not as active as New Jersey or Rhode Island, so there is enough street traffic to make for decent people watching from these windows.
Downstairs is the rental unit. The rental unit is a big kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. No living room. My question was where do you put a couch? Bedroom? The unit about the size of some efficiencies I’ve seen, but the lack of a space that seems to say “living room” bugged me. Oh, well. We’ll leave that problem for future renters.
1811 4th Street, NW was the other property.
Price: $479,900
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 1.5
Fireplace: 1
Basement: yes
Parking: Off Street
Unlike the other houses, this one has a lived in look as the current occupant apparently is still there. If I heard the agent right, they are trying to sell the house so the owner can move into another Urban Land property. This is a slight fixer upper, as it is obvious work was started in knocking out some walls but stopped. There are a few unfinished things. But maybe that is what is keeping the price lower than the others, that and you can hardly see anything for the owner’s stuff.
It has 3 bedrooms. The 2nd and 3rd are connected and the third can be entered via the kitchen stairs. Otherwise, to get to the 3rd bedroom, one has to go through the 2nd. The basement looks finished and can be used as an office or storage. The house’s main charming bits are the entrance and the rear (see above). Walking up to the house I fell in love, love which quickly evaporated after I got into the unfinished foyer. The rear is quite pleasant and seems like a great place for container gardening.

Near the corner of R and 5th Streets there is a house. A house that used to be one story. Then they built it up in fits and starts. It is in another fit stage where nothing as far as I can tell is being done with it. The reason why 4?? R St is the house of the week, is because it is confusing to me. Someone please explain this house to me. I’m thinking crackhead design. I could be wrong, and when ever it is done, maybe all will be made clear. Maybe.
The problem I find with the house, which you can’t see from this picture, is the second floor door. It is pretty darned high. Currently there are no stairs. There is no balcony. You step out the 2nd floor door and you broken your neck, arms, etc. Now I’m thinking it there are exterior stairs put in, they are going to look bad.
The other thing that bothers me is what’s going on around it. Jorge’s has been leveled and next door on the other side the Urban Land Company has staked a claim. If any of you go on their condo tour this weekend, give me a heads up of what on earth is going in next door.
Hodgepodge, I tell you. That’s what it’s going to look like.

I think I forgot last week. Anywho. I pick 1603 New Jersey Avenue as the house of the week. Well the reasons why this house deserves a look, especially from you all who live in Eastern Shaw/ Truxton Circle and can walk by, is the top of the house. That little upstairs porch (or whatever you call it) is to die for. I’ve always thought it was the cutest thing ever, even before it was renovated.
Just imagine waking up, going outside on a glorious morn and looking down upon New Jersey Ave… ooh! A drug bust! No, really, that would be cool. Just to sit out there, above the traffic and have a private (no other balconies on the neighboring houses) view of the city below. Cool.

Ran round Shaw taking pictures for a project I will never finish (at this rate). As I snapped, or in the case of the mix of the digital cameras, pressed-waited-snapped I noticed some pretty cool buildings on the borders of Shaw. The image above is a firehouse, turned warehouse(?) on New York Avenue. I would have the whole image, but I forgot I left it on zoom. A little paint, new windows, total rehab, it would make a supercool loft. All the old firehouses would make supercool lofts. There is a firehouse, a block north of Shaw in Eckington on North Capitol, that is just begging for something to be redone. It did get a paint job, raising hopes that they’ll be more improvement, but alas, no.
Beyond firehouses there were homes with turrets and homes with built in porches (see below). Luckily there are some that remain open. I’m thinking of at least one house that barred the porch and it looks just horrid.