Dear PoPville

Photo by PoPville flickr user Mark Andre

“Dear PoPville,

I’m planning a move from a condo to a house and wondering if the PoPville community might offer some advice. I know I will have to deal with differences in utilities, like paying a water bill, and gone are the days of an HOA fee that covers external/common area repairs. I’m wondering if there are other things I should consider when making this jump? What to avoid or look for before buying, and are there other city fees that I might not be expecting?”

“Dear PoPville,

I’m writing with a long-shot request: do any of the PoPville readers know of an (apparently) Instagram-famous dog named Chuck Norris? While walking back from the No Ban // No Wall rally on Sunday, Jan 29, a nice woman stopped me and my boyfriend near Mt. Vernon square, and asked to take a photo of our signs (“No hate, No Fear, Everyone is Welcome Here”) with her doggo. She explained that he is “kind of a big deal” with 27k Instagram followers, and that she loved our signs. (more…)

via @DavidsTentDC

Adam asks:

“anyone else confused how a religious institution (@DavidsTentDC “Perpetual 24/7 Worship on the National Mall, Washington D.C. || Lead a worship set || Sep 11 2015 – indefinitely. || Because Jesus is worthy”) is allowed to operate indefinitely on the National Mall?”

You can see David’s Tent’s website here.

“Dear PoPville,

Any information on ways to support local mosques? Events they’re hosting? Or just ways to be better neighbors? I know that if I were in their shoes I’d be in a lot of pain–I want them to know we think of them as an essential part of our community.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Elvert Barnes

“Dear PoPville,

We noticed that we couldn’t receive or make wireless calls on Friday morning around 8:30am. On an outbound call the call starts, goes for 10sec exactly and then we get a “Call Failed” message. Inbound calls come in but won’t connect just dead air until it says “Call Failed”. Verizon was typical and took 30 min on the phone (outside 5 blocks away in 30-degree weather) to admit the issue and couldn’t give an estimated time of completion.

By Saturday we lost WiFi (FIOS) and still can’t make or receive calls. My husband spends 30min on the phone with Verizon Saturday morning. Still no progress.

Sunday. Same. (more…)

Photo by PoPville flickr user Eric P.

“Dear PoPville,

Suggestions for best realtors for selling in DC, specifically NW?”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Erin

“Dear PoPville,

My little red scion of truth suffered her first battle scar yesterday after 8 years on the streets of DC. I’m a big proponent of following the rules, especially in a dense city. Dense societies need rules to function otherwise it’s just chaos. So, yesterday while driving home from work a light blue mini-van/SUV thing with Virginia plates was trying to turn right off westbound I street onto 14th St. N while they had a red light. Now traffic was already backed up into the intersection and while we still had a green light, the light ahead had not yet changed. Driving this route every day I knew the light ahead would change in time to let all the current cars in the intersection move out of the intersection before the I street traffic got their green light. This blue thing, however kept trying to push his way into the 14th street traffic in front of me. (more…)

Photo by PoPville flickr user molly

“Dear PoPville,

We’re moving abroad in the next few months and plan to rent our 1 bedroom condo in Logan Circle. We have nice furniture from Room & Board, Crate & Barrel/CB2, and West Elm and was wondering if people thought it would be a good idea to rent the unit furnished or unfurnished (and then just sell all of our stuff)? If we rented it furnished, how much should we ask over the standard price? Whats fair?

Also, I know you’ve asked the readers about property management companies a year or so ago, but is Nest still the best company?”

Photo by PoPville flickr user John Cochran

“Dear PoPville,

I was wondering if any of your readers have used positive pressure to keep cigarette smoke from neighbors out of their rowhouse. I know you have discussed neighbors’ smoke seeping into adjacent rowhouses before, and I have tried many of the suggestions from your readers, like plugging outlets, caulking, and using HEPA filters, but there is often still cigarette smoke coming into my house from the neighboring rowhouse. I do not have an HVAC system (I have window units and radiators), but I was thinking of installing one to create positive pressure in my house, which I’ve read about online as a possible solution to smoke coming through walls. Has anyone actually tried this and had success?”