In Shaw (an historically gentrified blog)

2 Truxton houses for sale

1406 3rd St NW
Asking price: $419,000
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 1.5
Basement: Yes
Fireplace: 1
The picture is not of 1406 3rd Street, it is the lovely view from the rear deck of said building. There is no back yard. There really isn't an alley. There is an undefined portion of land running behind the houses that seems unclaimed by the city and residents, as it is unpaved, worn and green.
The house is being sold as is. From my absolutely unprofessional opinion, and really my professional opinion wouldn't do you any good 'cause I'm a librarian, but my unprofessional opinion is this house is a bad, bad renovation. Coming up the stairs to the 2nd floor I noticed the back bedroom had a very noticeable tilt. Oh, like 20 degrees. If you set a ball down, it would roll. That is so not good. There was a smaller tilt on the first floor, I noticed coming from the basement. Settling? Ah, maybe, but if you are going to do any sort of rehab work on a house like that, the floors should be leveled. But whadda I know, I'm just a librarian.
The basement really needed a dehumidifier. Really. It smelled of damp and a slight hint of bleach. It was a finished basement with exterior & interior access and the only thing I see it being is a guest bedroom for people you don't like, a really cold office, or storage space with a window.
Another problem with the house is where it is. From the main bath and the master bedroom, you have an excellent view of Dunbar High School which is just across the street. You can wake to the sound of raging hormones.

1549 4th St NW
Asking price: $524,500
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2.5
Basement: Yes
Fireplaces: 3
Location wise the bad thing about this property is that it is close to the mosque. Which isn't as bad as it used to be now that they no longer do the 5:30ish AM call to prayer over the loudspeakers. Otherwise it is fine.
I wandered over to this one with B&IT and got their impressions of the place. We liked the master bedroom with the incredibly high ceilings and exposed beams. B liked the skylight, but IT pointed out the open structure that allowed the skylight to shine on the hallway and bathroom, taking away aural privacy. Looked nice anyways.
According to the agents at the house, the place was renovated 3 years ago and rented out. The place seemed to be in pretty good shape. The renters did nothing with the backyard, which was part concrete and part weeds in dirt. Small but usable. The light colored carpet also seemed to hold up fairly well considering.
The basement was also carpeted and could have been made into a guest bedroom area. Maybe 2 bedrooms, but the current residents have made the area storage. It wasn't particularly cold or anything and we didn't see any sort of water damage. The funny thing I noticed was there was a fireplace in the basement/storage room. There are fireplaces on all 3 levels, but the bikes and stuff leaning against this fireplace was just funny.

posted by Mari @ 22.5.05