5620 8th St NW- Staged AND Under Contract

After only a week on the market, this house is now under contract. I think it was a combination of pricing the house correctly and offering a ton of high-end finishes at a great price. We had scheduled a stager to come and set up furniture before we got the offer, so we we ended up going through with the staging even though it was not really necessary. It looks great though and I'd definitely use this particular stager again on another property.

300 Quackenbos St NW- New Rehab, Sort of

We purchased this house several months ago, but after several delays (some within my control, most not) we're finally picking up speed. The house was an estate sale and needed pretty much everything. We have the drywall up and primed, so this upcoming week will be huge- we're putting in all the paint, tile and hardwood floors.

Here was what it looked like when we bought it. I wish I had a better picture of the ridiculous columns on the front porch, but I can't seem to locate one.

Here's the new front porch. It's much more modern and functional.



Inside, we've put in all new trim and windows. I used Low-E windows because we're working hard to make all of our projects more environmentally-friendly.



This is the view from the front door looking in to the kitchen. I actually already bought the kitchen cabinets- they're a beautiful blonde color. You used to have to go onto the porch to access the basement, but we relocated the steps to make the basement more accessable. The basement will be finished and has 2 BR's and 1 BA.

5620 8th St NW- Done!

This house really turned out great. It was one of our faster projects too- it only took about two months to totally renovate the house. My favorite parts are the open layout in the kitchen and the really wide plank hardwood floors.

1616 E St SE- A Change of Course

A few weeks ago, a potential buyer was looking at another property on our block and expressed interest in viewing our project. As it turns out, she loved the area but is especially interested in green, environmentally-friendly building techniques and materials. We were right at the point in our project where we could still make this a green project, and we struck a deal. Now, we're finishing the project based on her choices, all of which will be better for the environment and make the house more energy efficient. Here are some of the items going into the house:

-Soy-based spray foam insulation
-Recycled drywall
-Rheem tankless hot water heater
-No VOC paints
-Sustainably harvested bamboo and cork flooring
-no formaldyhyde cabinetry also made from bamboo
-Low-E Anderson windows
-Energy Star rated appliances
-Trim built from reclaimed lumber

This is is really exciting project for all of us and I can't wait to post pictures of the finished product. Green building is a topic that fascinates me and I can't wait to do several additional environmentally-friendly houses.



Here is the new brick exterior and porch. This is a huge improvement over the old vinyl siding that was on the house when we purchased it.






If you remember, the front of the house used to have a porch that was about to collapse. This new porch is far more durable and functional.






This was the first floor last week before the new insulation.





Here's the top floor before we insulated.



This is the installer from Anchor Insulation Systems. They used a product called BioBased- it's made from soy. It has an R rating of up to R50- which is almost 5 times stronger than normal insulation.


The finished rear wall:



We've received all our final approvals and we are set to begin drywalling on Monday.