Fasika, formerly Abol, Ethiopian restaurant has a nice external renovation going on at 4422 Georgia Ave, NW. I wonder what the center part will be covered with. I’m totally digging the copper though…
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Author: Prince Of Petworth
Rear of home
Well this is pretty cool. A reader is looking to renovate and expand their house and would like your suggestions. This will be a series with before, during and after (another reader series will be coming shortly about a basement dig out and renovation). Following is Part 1:
“My wife and I moved into our Manor Park row house just a little more than a year ago. It had been recently, although less than perfectly renovated. We bought thinking this could be a long term home, rather than a rest stop along the way to something bigger or better. We currently have three good sized bedroom and two full baths. My mother-in-law lives with us, so this is perfect… at least for now. The home is really lacking three things, 1) storage space, 2) a half bath and 3) a third full bath. Given that the size of the house is, in Goldilocks’s verbiage, “just right,” we knew that any additional space would have to come from outside, rather than from found space on the inside. Fortunately our home was built with a 5’x10′ “court off the back of the house. Many rowhouses have this as they allow for a rear exit and necessary windows for rear facing rooms. Our place is simply to enclose this court, gaining 50 sq. ft. of space on each if the three levels. On the basement level, this space will be used as a mudroom and will include a wall of cabinets. One the main level of the home, just off the kitchen, this space will feature an abbreviated mudroom with more cabinets, as well as a small powder room. This space will exit onto a 15’x7′ deck. The upper level of the home is perhaps the most interesting. In order for a room to be considered a bedroom, it must have an egress window. Had we simply used this new space to create a bathroom, one of our bedrooms would have forever been doomed to “office” status. Instead, our architect developed this space into a reading nook/closet annex to the bedroom. We’ll then take 50 sq. ft. from the other side of the bedroom to add in the desired third bath.
After consulting with too many contractors I’ve decided to take this project on myself, hiring out where necessary for things like plumbing, electrical and masonry. At least at the moment, I plan on doing just about everything else. I have a little bit of experience along with a couple of friends and family members with actual experience, so I have people to turn to. The architect and structural engineer we’ve worked with are both friends, so that may come in handy along the way as well.
My wife and I follow your blog regularly and are huge fans of the GDON and other home related posts. It obvious that some of your readers have really excellent taste and all of your readers have an opinion; we’d love to take advantage of it. Basically we’ve read enough “Judging Popups” posts to know that we’d rather hear the criticism now while things are still on paper than after its all been built. We have absolutely no interest in selling our home, but it might be interesting, both for us and for the readership in general, what the benefits of home improvement are to the value of the home.”
Any initial thoughts on the expansion? Following are the plans:
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On such a dreary rainy day, we can all use a laugh. Thanks to Jeff Vitkun who found this on a deli in Arlington.
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I’m loving this neon sign series from rosiedawn
Submit your photos via email or to the PoPville flickr pool here.
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This condo is located at 2627 Adams Mill Road, NW:
The flier says:
“Top floor 2 level spacious, sun-filled living with stunning finishes throughout. KIT w/ custom cabinetry, granite counters, GE appliances. LRG bedroom w/ ample custom closets. Bathroom w/ walk-in shower, designer vanity & sink. 9’+ceilings, hrdwood floors, W/ D in unit, controlled building access. Roof deck w/ stunning views. Low condo fee, walk to METRO, Adams Morgan, Kalorama, Woodley. Pets but no dogs.”
You can find more info and photos here.
I gotta say this looks much nicer than I thought it was going to. What do you think of the condo itself? Does $369,900 sound reasonable for this 1 bed/1 bath?
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Photo courtesy of The Triangle Blog
“Dear PoP,
Has anyone tried these guys out?
The rig is pretty impressive, but more importantly what about the food? Would love to know who has the best BBQ here in the city. I live in the Bloomingdale neighborhood and it would rock to have a BBQ place close by. There is a BBQ place on RI Ave by the Getty Station but really doesn’t look like it does any business…nor does it look sanitary. Would love to hear what people have to say.”
Wow, this looks pretty cool. Mt. Vernon Triangle blog wrote about it here. It is located on the corner of 6th 4th and New York Ave, NW. DC Pit BBQ is Georgia based but features Kansas City Style BBQ. Anyone give them a try yet?
Ed. Note: We’ve previously discussed BBQ spots here, and here and here and here.
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I love having the opportunity to see the insides of homes that I walk by all the time. I was fortunate enough to be invited over to this home on Newton Street to see some of the Green features. The owner, Jimmy Edgerton, and the housemates were beyond kind in giving me a tour of the entire home yesterday. Following is an explanation of the renovation by Jimmy.
The home features 6 Bedrooms & 4.5 Baths on 3 floors – central heating and A/C (2 zone) – solar photovoltaic panels that generate electricity – solar hot water heating system – partly vegetated roof – recycled materials installed & waste diverted from landfill.
The house originally was roughly 1200 SF liveable (1st and 2nd floor) with a 600 SF crawl space basement. After renovation by a previous owner who went bankrupt, the house had a 20ft rear extension, added a third story, and dug out the basement to make it liveable. Now the house is 4000 total square feet and is the “greenest house on the green line”!
Eco-efficient features include: solar photovoltaic and solar thermal panels on the roof, no or low VOC paint on the interior and exterior, bamboo flooring on the first floor, carpet made from 100% post consumer recycled material on the second and third floors, incredibly high percentage of re-used and diverted from landfill building materials and fixtures, energy efficient central heating and air with two zone flexibility, optimization of natural light, and inviting social spaces throughout the interior. Green features coming in 2010: partial green roof, front and rear landscaping to reduce stormwater run-off, rooftop rainwater harvesting, and an exterior “living” wall from bamboo.
Jimmy stands by some of the Green features. You can learn more about Jimmy here.
The solar photovoltaic panels that produce electricity and reduce the house’s energy bills by 40-60%. The panels are on an open loop system so a certain times the house acts like a power plant and supplies energy to the grid! For example, on a summer day when the air conditioner is off the house will producing more electricity then it is using so the power flows into the grid! At this time I have not sold the RECs (Renewable Energy Credits) to Pepco because then I am effectively allowing Pepco to pollute and the house losses its ability to say it is a carbon off-setting facility.
The solar thermal panels that pre-heat the houses hot water. There is a back-up electric water heater that kicks in if the solar panels are not keeping the water hot enough. If showers are not taken all at once then basically all the house’s hot water comes from the Solar panels (80-90%).
Before photo:
See lots of photos of the interior after the jump. (more…)
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In the three years I’ve been running this site, from time to time, I’ve been made aware of some horrible things. The worst incident I was emailed about was a rape that took place in Shaw on Marion Street. Thankfully, an arrest has been made in the case. Since the crime occurred back in April I have been corresponding with the victim and her boyfriend every couple of months. I have not published that correspondence for obvious reasons. Today I received an email from them that truly boggles my mind. At their request I will publish below.
“Just recently we were dealt another blow. Our small claims case against our landlady to recover our security deposit was denied. Our judge ruled that our landlady’s duty to mitigate the fact that we wanted to break our lease ( ie advertise and re-rent the property) extended for the entire month of May. We told her as soon as we could contact her that we had no intention of staying in the property and in court she stated that she knew immediately that we would not want to stay in the property. Instead of being proactive she just dragged her heels for 2 weeks then offered to let us out of the lease if we paid an additional month plus taking our security deposit. We declined that offer and ended up in court, losing our security deposit.
We would be interested to see what the people have to say to the question “If a violent crime is committed in a rental property what do people think would be a reasonable resolution to terminate the lease?” Kind of a serious topic but we would be intrigued to see what kind of responses people have to see if we are being unreasonable or if our landlady just has a heart of stone.”
This PoPtrekker was a reader request. It was not possible to mention all the sights on U Street (there are just too many) so I decided to focus on some that may fall slightly below the radar and new development. True story: I thought the filming was on Sunday but it really was Saturday, so I double timed it down there and was 45 minutes late. Sorry IA! As a result I was a little frazzled in the begining and prattle on a bit in front of the Japanese market and Healing Center but it smooths out after that. Sorry ’bout that!
You can see previous PoPtrekker episodes here. This remains a joint Prince of Petworth/ Intangible Arts production. If you have a suggestion for a future PoPtrekker please email me directly.
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According to Embassy.org:
“The memorial garden, dedicated in 1991, was a project of the Kahlil Gibran Centennial Foundation, established in 1983 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the poet’s birth in Besherre, Lebanon.”
It is a stunning memorial located right near Rock Creek Park. It’s quite large and in addition to the sculpture, has fountains, benches and inscribed quotes by the poet. I highly recommend checking it out next time you’re in the area. It could be a great relaxing reading spot for sure. I absolutely love stumbling upon sights like this.
More photos after the jump. (more…)