Construction Progress- The Charles at 2431 Ontario Rd

Lots of great things going on at The Charles project. We should be starting with the sheetrock at the end of next week, and then aiming to finish the project by the very beginning of July. The weather has been great all week, which has been fortunate because we still have a ton of things to finish outside.

The ceiling height is awesome in the two-level penthouse unit.

The electricians have been working all week to finish the wiring.  The HVAC work is all finished.

The railing on the decks is mostly complete and the welder is coming tomorrow to start the spiral steps.  These are easily the biggest decks we've built- over 160 SF each.

Camillo was working on the pickets.

The building is about halfway primed with the exterior paint.  You can see on the left side where the painting is not completed.

In the front of the building, the retaining walls are progressing nicely.

Neighborhoods- Adams Morgan News

As our work at The Charles gets closer to completion, so does the progress at several new restaurants in the neighborhood.  Here are a few of the places that are set to open in the next few months.


1.  The Jack Rose (2007 18th St NW)

The Jack Rose is a new bar from the owner of Bourbon, which has locations in Adams Morgan and Glover Park.  The concept of the bar is basically a mix between a high end restaurant with small plates and a cocktail bar.  The restaurant should be opening in the next few weeks.

The building used to house a boxing gym.

The huge new rooftop bar looks to be one of the biggest in the city. (photos courtesy Princeofpetworth.com)

2.  Mellow Mushroom (2436 18th St NW)

Mellow Mushroom is a highly-popular pizza chain in the Southeastern US that is set to open their first franchise in DC this summer.  I went to school in Atlanta and I can promise you that Mellow Mushroom has some of the best pizza I've ever eaten.  The new DC location takes over the spot where 18th and Red, a bar, operated for the last three years.

The crust has a butter and parmesan cheese topping, which is incredible. (photo courtesy metromix.com)

3.  Mintwood Place (1813 Columbia Road NW)

This is a new restaurant from the people behind Perry's, which is located right above this new space.  The restaurant will be upscale American and will be a welcome addition to a block of stores that already has two other great places to eat in Perry's and Cashion's. 

Here is the new location.  Perry's, upstairs, has one of the best happy hour specials in the city- two appetizers and a cocktail for $20.  (photo courtesy princeofpetworth.com)

Construction Progress- The Charles at 2431 Ontario Rd NW

Our final settlement is tomorrow at The Gracie (three of the units have sold), which is exciting.  We're fully focused on getting The Charles finished because we have two large projects on the horizon (1449 Harvard and 2108 10th).  We ran into a delay with our permit at 10th St, but we plan on getting back under construction in the next few weeks.

The biggest undertaking at The Charles over the last week has been getting the roof finished.  We have rain  in the forecast for pretty much every day this week, so it's crucial to get the building sealed up.  Fortunately, the roof was fully framed by this afternoon and the roofers were there to get it covered before it starts raining again tonight.  The doors are coming in later this week and the windows next week.

The front deck was demolished and the dirt excavated at the end of last week.  We're working now on the new water service so we can rebuild the retaining walls around the front areaway.

The roofers rolled out the underlayment earlier today on the rear part of the roof.  This is  always a good sign because the underlayment itself is water resistant so it will protect the building if it starts pouring.

The front of the roof was framed earlier today, and they were installing the plywood decking when I left around 2 PM.  There are 4 large skylights- you can see two of them here if you look closely.

In the back of the building, Camillo and Aaron installed the ledger boards for the deck.

This was a neat project that a mason was finishing in the light well.  The old brick wall where the building used to stop is on the bottom right, and the new addition is the block on the left.  

In order to make it match, Atonio was using mortar mix to smooth out the wall and then draw lines to match the block.  When it's painted, it will look identical.  Pretty neat, right?

Construction Progress- The Charles at 2431 Ontario Rd NW

Things are looking great at The Charles.  We almost have the roof framed up, which will be a big milestone.  It should be finished by the end of this week.  Once that is done, we can start the HVAC and electrical work, which will only take a few days.  After that, we'll soundproof and install the patio doors, and then insulate and sheetrock.  The big projects underway right now are finishing the block on the top of the party walls and getting the front and rear patios completed.

The concrete came at 10 AM this morning and the crew built a chute to get it down into the rear patio.

The concrete tends to stick to the wood, so the workers spread out and used shovels to move it along down into the steps.

Cesar waited at the bottom and made sure the right amount of concrete got into each step opening.

After the concrete set for about an hour, the workers used trowels to get the top smooth and remove any excess concrete.

By about 1 PM, both sets of steps and the footer for the spiral steps were complete.

This is what the view from the loft looks like.  You can see the Washington Monument on the left side.  It looks blurry with my lens, but in real life the view is incredible.

The mezzanine block walls are up and the framers were putting in the side walls today so they can start setting the roof joists tomorrow.

Tomorrow, the excavator returns to dig out the dirt in the front of the building.  This retaining wall is failed- it has several cracks and bulges- so we're going to take it down and rebuild with a new, strong one.

Design- White Kitchen Cabinets

We're about to order the kitchen cabinets for 2431 Ontario Road NW and we're leaning towards white kitchen cabinets.  The dark ones looked amazing at our last project, but we are going to stain the floors dark here and we like the contrast between dark floors and white cabinets.  We're looking at two different styles.  The first option is the glossy white that we used at the Thompson Flats.  These were highly popular and have held up well.  However, it's always fun to try something new, so we're considering doing a shaker-style door.  Here are some images of white shaker doors:

I think this kitchen is particularly well done because it's a great mix of modern and traditional.  The glass uppers and the crown molding are traditional, but the darker floors and black granite are more modern.  I also like the subway tile backsplash.

This kitchen is more traditional.  It has the inset doors (same as we used at The Twelve Twenty-One Condominiums) and the baseboard "feet".  

I included this one because it is the most modern of the three.  The glass backsplash adds a ton of color.  Also, I love the bookshelf on the end.  Definitely will incorporate this into the project if we choose these cabinets.