718 I St- Progress

Even though I just posted pictures of the "before" pics of this house a few days ago, we've actually been working in the house for about three weeks. Things are coming along really nicely. Personally, I prefer to get everyone working in the house at one time. Conventional construction wisdom is that you should have one trade finish before another one starts (for example, typcially framing, then HVAC, then plumbing, then electric). However, this can drag on forever, and for the most part, the guys can work together to get the job done faster. Each trade will complain that the others are in their way or damaging there work, but in the end, the work still pushes on at a great pace. Most things are easily fixed, and I'd rather be fixing minor problems than wait and have major tasks not done (ex. change a recessed light location to make way for a pipe as opposed to not having any plumbing done). Below you'll find picures of the progress and an explanation of some of the minor issues that had be addressed.

This unlucky plumber's helper got assigned the task of digging out the concrete in the basement to move the waste line in the basement bathroom. You can see pretty well in this picture that there is a white pipe sticking up in the middle of the bathroom, which is no where near where it is supposed to be (on the rear wall, between the waste for the jacuzzi and the sink). This happened because the plumbing had to be set before the concrete was poured, and before the walls were framed out. Thankfully, it was fixed today and now we have a functional bathroom.

Here the plumber is running the waste line for the upstairs hall bathroom. On the top left, you can see an elbow, which sticks out past the framing. This is because the framers used 2 by 4's here, and they should have used 2 by 6's. After we realized that this new plumbing would create a bulkhead, we reframed out this wall with the correct lumber. Now, the plumbing sits flush against the wall, and we don't have any ugly bulkhead.

Here are a few pics of the steps. Although they don't look so majestic now, I guarentee they will after they are refinished, the lighting is in and the brick behind is repointed.




We opened up the wall on the stairs into the dining room behind it. It's sorta hard to tell in this picture, but there is actually a huge opening from about two feet above the steps all the way to the ceiling.




This is a little clearer:





The interior brick has all been cleaned and acid washed. Tomorrow we will begin to repoint this wall, and the columns in the basement. Upstairs, all of the recessed lights are in and the electrician is working on the outlets on the first floor. Actually, he ran most of the outlets upstairs, which was great until we realized that the old framing is not wide enough to accomidate the new electric boxes. We ended up tearing out what was left of the old walls this afternoon and reframing the walls. THe electrician will set the boxes again tomorrow.





This house has the new HVAC system totally finished, and all the ducts framed. We're aiming to finish plumbing and electric rough-ins by the end of this week.

1238 Penn- Finished Pics

Here are the final pictures of the 4-unit building we rehabbed in the Trinidad area of NE DC. The project turned out really well, and is now listed on the market.

This is the front of the building after we added the wall and the iron fence. The fence was custom welded and really added a lot to the curb appeal of the building.



Here's a nice shot of one of the kitchens. I just got a new camera, and you can tell the quality of the picture is much better.



The bathroom. We were able to match the exact exisiting tile at Home Depot, which was a huge relief. A lot of the tile had been damamged or was missing when we bought the house.



This shot shows the new carpet. I went with a berber carpet that feels soft but will be very durable, which is important because this will be a rental property for the landlord that buys it.

718 I St- Before Pics

About three weeks ago we started a new project at 718 I St. NE, in DC. It's a few blocks north of Capital Hill and only one block north of H St, which is being totally revamped. H St is being billed as the next hot spot in DC, with tons of bars, restaurants, condos and shopping.


The house is a really exciting opportunity to rehab a classic DC victorian rowhouse. It's still got nearly all of it's original features. Although the house had been gutted by a previous owner, it still has all the original hardwood floors, trim, pocket doors and radiators. The house wasn't really in terrible shape, but it needed pretty much everything. The basement had been dug up to replace the sewer main, and then never repoured. The house had no plumbing, electric, or functioning heating system. There was also a massive hole on the first floor where an old bathroom had rotted through the floor. Here's the way the house looked on day one:

Here's the beast. This will look great with a little TLC.

This picture didn't come out that well, but it will still give you a decent idea of the condition. The previous demo crew did a good job of tearing out the junk but keeping what was important.

This is the old kitchen, or what was left of it. Hard to imagine anyone enjoying that ugly yellow paint.

This is how the basement looked when we bought the house. There was literally a ditch through the center of the house. In this picture, one of the plumbers' guys is leveling out the trench so the new pipes will lay flat.

This is the upstairs closet that will be the master bath, complete with a custom shower. We're going to take out the divider and just put the two closets together to make one bathroom.

This is a shot from the middle bedroom (there are three). You can see where the second bathroom will be (behind the radiator) and into the back bedroom. Behind that board is a door, which will be a small balcony.

The best part of this house is the grand spiral stairway, which I'm realizing now that I don't have any pictures of on my camera. I'll make sure to take some tomorrow.

1709 Ruxton- Done

We finally finished this project a few weeks ago, and it looks great. Actually, there are still a few things left to do (set the A/C compressor, run a gas line to the stove), but we'll probably just do them after we have a contract on the house. Overall, this house was a success, and we've gotten some great responses from interested buyers. I think this house hasn't sold yet (it's only been on the market about 20 days) because of the problems people are having finding financing. However, I'm optimistic it will sell in the next two weeks or so.

Here's the first thing you see when you walk in the front door. We were able to refinish the wood on the stairs, which came out really well.

Here's the front of the house. We added the siding around the front windows and painted the awning. I'm not a huge fan of the awning, but buyers seem to like it. It's gotten a ton of positive comments.

Here's the kitchen. It probably looks pretty familiar, because we've put the exact same kitchen in our last five rehabs. Why fix something that isn't broken?

Another shot of the main floor:

This is the new bathroom we added on the first floor. We were able to fix a pretty large shower in a room that had previously been a coat closet.

This is the master bedroom. I love how big the bay windows are in the old rowhouses. It really lets in a ton of light.

Here's the vanity in the master bath. We splurged on a slightly nicer vanity than normal, and I think it was definitely worth it.

Here's the back bedroom. These floors were in terrible shape and we had to use a lot of wood filler to get them put back together. After the stain, though, you can't even see it.

You might notice that this house looks very similar to the houses we completed at 2413 W. Lanvale and 635 Bentalou. It's got the exact same kitchens, jacuzzi, tile, floor stain, etc. Although we love this tried and true design, our two current projects are targeted towards totally different buyers and will have very different finishes. Check back to see the status of 718 I St NE and 412 Mellon St.