1133 6th St- Final Push

After several long months of hard work, this condo project is nearing completion in the next 10 days or so. It will be staged next Weds, which is a big step. We're thrilled with the way it looks and looking forward to replicating the finished product here on other buildings throughout the city.

1133 6th st- End is closer

Lots of great things going on at this project. Working basically round-the-clock to get it on the market in the end of June. It's looking really amazing and I'm so pleased with how it's progressing. We're also going to be featured in an upcoming episode of "My First Place" on HGTV. They're filming in the top unit this weekend with a prospective buyer.

Here's the loft on the top unit. Looks awesome, especially with the custom railing in place ( we took it off to install the flooring). The kitchen cabinets are going in tomorrow morning.



Here is the living room on the second floor. You can't really see any of the crown molding but it will really show when the finish paint is applied.



This is the tile in the master bathrooms. You can't really get a gauge of how it will look done but it will be pretty spectacular.




This is the first floor unit.



Here is the tile combo in the stand-up showers. The pebble floor is really interesting.



This is the back wall after it was painted. You can see we were testing different trim colors. I think we decided on the more grey color, because the blue will fade faster over time.



The balconies are slowly taking shape. The spiral steps are being built off-site and should go in next week.



Here is the front window. We originally painted it one shade of green, but it was too light. I searched around and found the color I wanted- you can see the darker part on the center. We're going to repaint them all with this darker color.



The steps down to the basement now exist. Lots of digging finally paid off.

1133 6th St- Almost Ready For Sheetrock

Our condo project is moving along at a great rate. I was shooting to have the drywall up this week, but we still had a million little things to do, so it got pushed back until later this week, if not the beginning of next week. Things look really good and I can't wait to get the sheetrock up so we really start forging ahead.

The sign went in last week in the front yard. The rendering looks awesome.



The front windows all arrived and the trim is finished. It just needs to be painted. It is an exact match of the historic trim that was on the building when it was originally built, including the transoms above the front glass.



This is from several weeks ago, but I realized I never posted pictures of the radiant floor before we poured the slab. We attached the pex tubing to wire mesh, which worked well. The radiant floor will be enough heat to use as the primary source of heating, but this unit will also have central heat and air.




Here's the basement a few days ago. It was a madhouse trying to get everything done before the sheetrock.



Also finished is the spray foam insulation. This stuff is so much more effective than really any other method for insulating exterior walls. We did all the front and back walls, including the ceiling of the building.



This is a typical wall after the installation:



And here is the roof:




This is what the front pitched roof looks like from the outside. The shingles look awesome and are the same color as the new slate roof in the front of the building, which will be finished this week.



Today we finished framing and pouring the front steps to access the basement unit. They are nice and wide.

Next Project- Capitol Hill Renovation

We're excited to announce that we've located our next renovation project. As our 6th st project finishes up, we'll transition to this next house. It will be a TOTAL overhaul of a house in historic Capitol Hill, less than a block from the famous Eastern Market. It's also a block from the metro. We have the house under contract and are currently working with the historic review board to come up with an approved set of drawings for the renovated house. We're planning on building a 3 BR, 2.5 BA house with tons of great green features. Actual construction will be several months from now because we need to go through the permitting process, and also the sale is an estate and will take some time to settle. Here are the before pics:

Here's the current front.



Our house is part of a pair with the building next door. At some point, a decorative cornice was added to the property next door, which really adds some character. Our front will be nearly identical to the neighboring property, including the cornice and crown molding above the windows. One difference will be that our building will have wood windows and siding as per historic guidelines.




Here's our little house from the back, which is dwarfed by the size of the house to our right. When we renovate ours, we will add a long rear addition to make ours line up with the neighboring property.



The lot is huge- almost 115 feet deep.




Check back soon for more updates.

6th St Update

It's been a few weeks since my last post, and I apologize for the delay. Although lots has been going on at the project, things didn't look particularly different from my last post so I was waiting a bit. Now, however, the condos are really taking shape. We've been working to finish all the little things that have to get done before we can close in the walls and hang the drywall.
I'm shooting to get the insulation and drywall up by the end of next week.

One of the main things that we've been working on for the last week is soundproofing the building, both to the exterior and between units. This has become more and more important for buyers in the last few years, and we're doing as much as possible to make the units as quiet as possible. In the picture below you can see boxes that we built above each recessed light to block sound transmission between the floors. We used a product called Green Glue, which gets sandwiched between two sheets of Durock cement board, and then the seams are caulked with acoustical caulk.



Here's what the boxes look like once they are installed. Also notice the new fire sprinklers.



Here's the completed framing on the top floor two-story unit. This is from the loft area looking down onto the floor below. The skylights are covered, but they will let in a ton of natural light once installed.



Here's a view from the same unit looking up to the loft.



We rebuilt the entire rear wall with new blocks. They have a brick design on the exterior, and once painted, this will look just like the neighboring brick buildings and will blend in nicely with the historic exteriors.




Here's the same rear view. You can just make out the loft popping up on the top of the building.


This is the view from the loft balcony. You can see the new condo buildings off to the right. This is also where the new Safeway grocery store, gym, bank and hardware store are located.



This is a pretty typical view of the interior units. All the rough-ins are done, we just need to get a few inspections, lay down the hardwood floors, and we'll be ready to close everything up.



This winter was extremely cold here in DC and water pipes were freezing left and right. Even in projects where we had installed pipe wrap and pulled the lines a foot off the exterior wall we had freezing issues. We've learned from these experiences and in this building all plumbing touching exterior walls was done in copper. This should avoid any headaches in the future.

1133 6th St- Taking Shape

Our condo project has had a big week. It got a name- The Grayson, named after my business partner's daughter, and it got a lot closer to looking like a habitable building.

Here's what the house looks like now from the street. All of the windows are framed out and we're waiting for the new Jeld-Wen wood windows to arrive.



The front has been excavated even further to allow for the new front entrance. The gas meters will be relocated any day now to the entryway and once the drain is placed we can start building the steps.



The first two floors are completely framed out, including all the interior stairways. Using the engineered wood for the floor joists took longer and was more expensive, but it's paid off because the floors are 100% level and much more sturdy than the old wood.



This is the second floor condo. You're looking at the wall which will be the back of the kitchen. It's hard to imagine what it will look like now, but in a few weeks the drywall will be up and it'll look amazing.



All of the groundwork for the plumbing in the basement has been installed an inspected. This week, we're going to level the floor and start installing the insulation and pex tubing for the basement radiant heat system.

1133 6th St- Coming Along

Our condo conversion project has reached the point where it looks like chaos, although we've made a ton of progress in the last few weeks. The basement has been excavated and we've begun framing out the new floors. This week our plan is to finish framing out the floors and begin building/installing the steps. We're still debating whether or not to build the steps on site or order them pre-assembled. I'd really also love to start putting down the radiant heating system in the basement this week if time permits.

Here's what the interior looked like after we removed the joists between the first and second floor.



This is the same floor but looking towards the front door. The worker on the left is about six feet tall, so you can really see how tall the ceiling heights are in this building. Pretty amazing.



We used cinderblocks to fill in the voids that were left when we removed the old chimneys.



We also used cinderblocks in the front of the property to build a retaining wall where we dug out to make access to the basement unit. These blocks have a brick facade and will look just like brick after they're painted.




All of the joists that we tore out were donated to Community Forklift. This non-profit organization recycles and resells building materials. The joists here are from old growth forests and are over 100 years old. This wood is stronger and straighter than any wood you can buy now. I would have loved to have used them in another project but I just didn't have anywhere to store them.



Here is the same first floor as the photo above after the second floor joists were installed. We used engineered joists because they're stronger, have less flex, and allowed us to span from party wall to party wall without posts and beams.



Framing the front wall in the basement.



You can see the new underpinning in the basement. They dug down almost four feet. What an undertaking! The ceiling height is great. Right now there is only a small opening for the door, but this will be enlarged to make way for the new full-size door.