1133 6th St NW- New Condo Project

My real estate partner and I sat down and really thought about how we were going to approach renovating and reselling properties in 2009 in the current slow market. We decided to focus on doing fewer projects, but taking on larger and more unique ones to set ourselves apart from the competition.

Then, like a desert oasis after days of hiking, 1133 6th St NW came onto the market. It was a short sale- another investor bought it, gutted it and then ran out of money. We made a strong all-cash offer, and two weeks later- Nov 18th, we owned it.

The house is a huge victorian-style rowhome in an area that is undergoing a ton of new development. It's in a historic neighborhood called Mt. Vernon Triangle, and it's only a few blocks from Chinatown, which is the heart of the city. Chinatown has tons of restaurants, bars, the new convention center, and the Verizon Center where the Wizards and Capitals play. If that wasn't enough, our project is only one block from a large new mixed use development called CityVista, which has a brand-new Safeway grocery store, Results Gym, banks, a hardware store and a coffee shop.

We're converting the building into four separate condos, and selling each individually. We're going to preserve the historic exterior and totally rebuilt the interior. We're hoping to add a loft for the top floor unit, although we go in front of the Historic Review Board next Thursday, so we'll know then whether or not they'll allow the roof addition.

All in all, I couldn't be more excited and I can't wait to get rolling on the rehab. Right now, we started repointing the front brick and doing some light demo. We can't really do much until we get our permits from the city, which could be another 14-30 days.

Here's the front. We're going to strip all the paint, repoint all the brick and repaint all the trim and architectural details. We're also replacing all of the vinyl windows with wood in order to comply with historic preservation guidelines. In addition, we will recreate the original appearance of the front door and all the original window trim.




Here's the front after the scaffolding was installed. They're working to strip all the paint and rebuild all of the arches above the windows.



Ours is to the left had side. The property on the far left was damaged in a fire and is currently vacant. The owner is planning on either renovating the property or selling it next month.



Here is a new condo building four doors down. It looks old, but it's not. It was built in 2007. I included this picture to show how we're going to dig out the front to allow for access to the basement condo unit.



Here was our basement when we settled on the property. It had been framed for a single family house, so we had to tear out all the framing. In addition, the previous owner didn't repair the subfloor or level the floors, so none of the existing work was salvageable. Luckily, we were able to pull out all of the nails so we can reuse the studs when we frame the new units.



Another basement shot.



This is the main floor looking towards the front door. The ceilings are well over 10 ft, which won't change. Pretty great.



There were two original chimneys that went all the way through the building. I would have liked to keep them, but they ended up being in the middle of the kitchen and baths with the new layouts. We took them down by demolishing them from the basement up, and letting all the bricks pile up in the basement. Here's what the basement looked like after:



Here is the rear. Ours is in the middle. This is the before shot:



Here's what it will look like after we're done. These two condo projects are a few houses down and have an additional bump-out on the third floor, and then a roof loft. Ours is similar now to the one in the middle.

Manassas- Almost Done

We're just a few days away from being done with the townhouse renovation in Manassas, VA. It's been a stressful project and I'll be thrilled to wrap it up. It's just too hard to work on a house that is an hour each way from where both me and my crew live. I took the project in order to keep the guys busy as we prepare for our new projects, but it was just too much.

Here is the new first floor. You can see the new patio doors. They have an internal shade, which is a great feature. We installed the new red oak floors throughout the whole house.



The first floor was opened up to create a more open feel.



The owner was very insistent on putting up this rail. It has been stained since to match the floor.





We rebuild the steps with new treads and risers.



I recreated the same tile scheme as my last two renovation projects. People keep asking for it, so I'm happy to oblige. Moving forward, though, I think I'm ready for something new.

Capitol Hill Renovation Project

A few months ago we did a bunch of small renovation projects at a house on 16th St SE in Capitol Hill. The owner had purchased the property about a year earlier and had already done a ton of work to the house. It had basically been gutted and rebuilt, but a few things were left to do. This is where we came in. We rebuilt the deck and balcony, built and tiled the fireplace, and totally rebuilt the main set of stairs.

We used pine treads, stained to match the red oak floors and a victorian-style post to accomplish this look.



From the kitchen:



All of the framing on the deck and porch is new.



Here is the new fireplace. We used black granite tile on the wall and as an accent in the brown travertile tile on the ledge. We build the entire mantel from scratch- it was not a kit.