Permits...DC-Style

Construction Permits are a hard thing to get in DC. Now the DCRA [D.C. Regulatory Authority] may say it's "quick & easy"  neither are the case.  you have to apply for them EARLY.  its is not a QUICK process.  and keeping your cool while you wait is not EASY.  especially since the contractors could be pissing away your money on the jobsite.  instead, you have an empty shell of a building that keeps getting late night visitors who mistake the place for a party house/restroom [more on that later]

but, finally, as of yesterday, we had all of our permits on display [we had them officially approved 2 weeks ago]

Master Building Permit.
Plumbing.
Electric.
HVAC.

Yes.

and here is the picture of the window with all of our "paper" in it.  DCRA cant touch us now!

Let. There. Be. LIGHT.

the electrician has just started work.  awesome.  I guess this means no more flashlights in the daytime.

I'll post some photos in the next few days.

How We Met...[part II]

...so I took him up on the offer to see the house.  He is/was a nice guy. Named Sammie.  He's a retired DC Cop and current Minister at a DC church.  Maybe he was about to be my savior.

It was an overcast, rainy morning and Sammie was waiting for us in his truck [with the engine running]

as he greeted us, he explained that the hadn't visited the house in at least 5 years....and that he usually enters the place with a firearm.  no, the neighborhood isn't THAT dangerous, but the place has been inhabited by squatters for the past 5+ years, so you're liable to find anything/everything inside of the place.  Clothes, trash, etc.  We [Cam, my real estate agent who was with me] were ready for anything...for the most part...especially since Sammie didn't bring a gun this time around.

as we walked up, we got a true sense of the simultaeous beauty/mess the place was.  there was great old brickwork and transom windows, but also rotting wood, a broken staircase, and a front door with no handle on it. its secured with a thick chain and a padlock that wraps around the inner and outer doors, a system Sammie designed to keep the squatters from getting in.  All it did was make them choose alternate points of entry.

the first thing i recall upon entering the house was the stench.  WHOA.  it reeked something awful.  not quite "dead body"  but damn near close.  I let Sammie go first---everywhere.

once we got over the smell, we noticed the cool things going on inside.  Looking past all the trash, you saw the potential for a great place to call home.  we toured the first floor without incident.  it had
nice high ceilings [10']. old-school pocket doors. an actual dining room.  large kitchen area.  cool.

next we took a look upstairs.  we quickly discovered THAT'S where the stench was coming from.   The first bedroom we saw was particularly interesting, as it seems to have been used as a toilet for the past couple of years.  there was piss and dookie all over the place.  yuk.

we ventured to the middle bedroom, where we noticed what a leaking roof will do a wood floors after it springs a leak [probably back in 1995] the floor had rotted away along with most of the joists under it...so you could see clear through from the top floor to the basement, as the dining room suffered the exact same damage.

the master bedroom was great.  large, light-filled, and ALREADY OCCUPIED.

luckily, we didn't find anyone in there, but we certainly found their stuff.  mounds of trash.  bags of clothes. mysterious white powder.  hair extensions. a cellphone.  syringes.

heading down to the basement, Sammie told me that he hasn't been down there in over 10 years and wasn't sure what to expect.  He then asked if I wanted to go down first.  I refused and told him to lead the way.  WHOA.

I wont go into the gory details, but the bottoms of my shoes were caked in what looked to be dirt, but we all knew that it wasn't even CLOSE to being dirt.

but on the plus side, it was a large [750 sq ft] basement that was dry and had a ton of potential to be a great apartment.

finally the tour was over.  Sammie asked if I had enjoyed the place.  the truth?  "HELL YEAH"  my agent and I saw all the potential in this house as soon as we walked in and knew that we had to act fast.

I told Sammie that we'd be in touch soon, still playing my cards close to the vest.

my agent asked if I wanted to make an offer.  I replied "how soon can we get it to him?"

[to be continued]

Framing Part III [final]

so framing is all done...you can check out the pictures here and here.

the rooms have all taken shape and you can get a real sense of how big some spaces are [like that frikkin HUGE closet] and how small some spaces are [like the 3rd bedroom/office]

overall: we're LOVIN it.  progress could be faster, but we're moving in the right direction.... and looking forward to the next phase....I just got the word that the electrician will be coming in any day now to start re-wiring the place.  cant wait.

A Walking Tour

just remembered I had these on my camera.....I took two videos recently of the house during demo/reconstruction and walked through some of the main floor and the upstairs.  you get a good sense of space this way...i would have shown you the entire house, but I would have fallen into the basement inthe process, so I stayed on the paved areas.  enjoy the videos here

Strippin'!

so we [Jenny + I] had this crazy idea.

"let's use the old doors in the 'new' house!"

sure.  maybe a weekends' worth of work.  maybe two.  its only 5-6 doors.

besides, doors like these in brand new condition cost a TON of money....so we're saving a budget item for something fancy...like a chandelier or  a cool toilet paper dispenser.

and so it began...a run to home depot to pick up supplies.  head to the house to grab the doors [which we saved from demolition, among a few other items we may restore/re-use] and then start STRIPPIN [i like saying that]

then reality kicked us in the head like a donkey punch.

over the past, say 75 years, those doors have been painted.  ALOT.  like 25 times each.  stripping off each layer is like a time capsule.  uncovering fascinating shades of color from the 70's, 60's, 50's, and 40's are your reward for working your elbow to the bone for 40 minutes, only to learn that you'll need to do it 17 more times.

at the time of this writing we are 4 weekends in.  and have 2 of the doors 85% done.  the others are in various states of undress [strip-ti-tude]

so we've gone back to the drawing board a bit.  we got some new stripping fluid.  we're biting off less than we can chew.  and we're remembering that we still haev 3 months to get it all done.

but at this rate, we'll need to start including some after-work shifts to make sure of that.

enjoy the fresh photos of the doors and my favorite "Stripping Professional:" Jenny!

Framing Part II

so we're well underway with the framing process.  the rooms are starting to take shape, well, upstairs at least, as the main floor is pretty much wide open, except for a closet and the powder room.  the fireplaces offer a natural separation between the rooms on the main level, so there will be no mistaking where the living room ends and the dining room begins...and how that connects to the kitchen.

at the moment, all that's left is the basement and then some minor adjustments to it all once we get a good look at how its coming together.


oh, yeah, the key feature in the master suite is the 70sq ft walk-in closet [about as big as the room I grew up in]  I cant believe that I decided [on my own] to make it so frikkin yoooge!  but everyone who visits [and owns more than 30 pairs of shoes] is going to love it!  love love love it!  maybe it can double as another guest room?

you can peruse here.

Cuz it's a BRICK. HOOOOUSSSE.

okay...i've been slacking.  no excuses.

but I have more pics!

these old Victorian "brownstones" all have great brick fronts.  there are as many styles of color and design as there are houses.  the biggest challenge in renovating an old brick front is that the people the knew how to make this beautiful architecture are all loooong gone.  and they took their old-world craftsmanship secrets to the grave with them.

so, when restoring a brick front, you have a limited set of options.  when the work beings,  you hope that the existing front is in good shape structurally---ours gets an "A" [there are alot that are beginning to fall down]....that there are no missing bricks [we have 99% of the bricks intact] and that nobody painted it over.  [our front is in the same basic shape it was in around 1920]

most recent DC renovations go with the "paint over" method since its fast, cheap, and easy.  I'm not knocking them...some of the paint-overs have cool colors and keep true to the architectural style [some are, ahem, not so well done]

the bricks: they last forever.  the mortar doesn't. after about 100 years, it turns into sand.  and eventually the bricks will start to collapse.  unless you repoint the brick.

SOOOOOO [at the urging of my contractor] we chose to re-point the brick.  and i dont regret it for a second.  it looks GREAT.  really gives the house a "facelift" AND gives at least another 50+ years of life to the original brick structure.

repointing involves a few steps:

1 - fill in new mortar where the old mortar has been washed away
2 - adjust any bricks that have shifted out of place over the years
3 - power wash old sediment off the brick face [i.e. old paint]
4 - replace any missing brick

take a look at these pics and you can see the difference in progress.