2431 Ontario Rd- Work Starts

We just started demo this week on our next 4 unit building in Adams Morgan. The existing house needs extensive demo and we're working now to tear out the non-load bearing walls. The best part of the house is the view, which we can enjoy from the roof now, although it will be much more spectacular when we build the penthouse unit.

Here are the "before" pictures of the house.

The house had some neat trim on the main floor, but unfortunately it had already been torn out of the upper level, so we were unable to preserve it.

Here's the living room:

The kitchen was pretty beat up.

1470 Chapin St NW- Joist Repair

Lots of progress at the new condo project. The bulk of the demo is complete and we've started to repair and replace the old joists.

Here is how the building looked yesterday from the second floor looking down into the basement. You can see where the old steps were on the right where the handrail still is bolted to the wall. The joists in this part of the building were in terrible shape, so we tore them out and replaced them with i-joists, which are stronger and can span greater distances without posts.

Here is the new framing from today. The new i-joists are so much stronger than the old lumber and 100% level.

In the basement, we dug a test pit to locate the old plumbing. This is necessary because we'll be digging down about a foot in the basement, and we needed to make sure that the level of the plumbing was beneath where the new floor will be. We found that we have enough clearance, which is fortunate.

Upstairs, masons were working to repair the brick throughout the inside of the building. This was an old window that had been bricked over but only from the outside. The mason working here filled up the inside today with brick to make the wall stronger.

1470 Chapin St- Demo Begins

Demo is underway at 1470 Chapin St and the demo guys are working hard to get the place cleaned out. The first part of the job was to throw away all of the trash that the previous tenants left behind, which filled up almost two dumpsters. After that, we began tearing out all of the existing non-load bearing walls. Fortunately, the walls in the basement and first floor had been put up in the last 20 or so years, so they were sheetrock and not plaster. The plaster is messy, heavy and creates a ton of dust.


This is the demo on the first floor.



Lucky for us, the entire right wall is already exposed brick. We're going to keep a ton of this exposed in the hallway along the new steps.



This is the old stairway.



One of the best parts of this building is the existing courtyard on each floor. This lets in a ton of light in what will be the kitchen, middle BR and rear master bathroom. Right now, there's a huge tree which needs to be chopped down.



Another cool feature of this building is how much space there is behind the building. Right now, we have four cars parked and still room for an entire dumpster. In front of the dumpster, there's at least another 15 ft to the rear wall of the building. We're going to rebuild the decks, add grassy space, and still have room for four parking spots.

1470 Chapin St- Up Next

With our last project complete, we're ready to begin our next project, which is 4 units at 1470 Chapin St NW. We're going to start demo on Monday morning. The plans are done and this building should be really amazing when we're done. This building is unique because it has an existing courtyard on the side of each unit which lets in a ton of light. Also, there are four parking spots in the rear.

The Thompson Flats- Done

The project at 2106 10th St NW is done and on the market. The building turned out amazingly and we think they're going to sell quick. We had over 30 people this weekend at the open house, and it was Labor Day. Next weekend I envision getting almost double that amount for the first real weekend in September.

The Thompson Flats- Listing Next Week

We're done with 99% of the work at 2106 10th St, and we're excited to put these condos on the market. The cleaning crew is in there this weekend, and two of the units will be staged on Tuesday and Wednesday. The photographer will get us the pics back on Thursday, and we'll be all set to have our first open house next Sunday. We have a big sign out front and we're already been getting several calls. A few potential buyers have even come through already for a sneak peek.

Here's the finished front of the building.

Here's the penthouse kitchen before the cleaning. The floors are all stained and look incredible, even better than I had imagined. You really get such a nice finish when they're sanded and stained in place. The contrast between the dark floors and the white cabinets looks stunning.

Here's the penthouse top bedroom. Lots of light!

This is the wet bar in the top unit. It's the same materials as the kitchen below.

The Thompson Flats- A few weeks away

We're almost done with this condo building. There is a lot of activity going on in the building, and each day it looks a little closer to being a home.

The crane came yesterday and dropped off the AC units for the roof. We set them as far back as possible so they aren't visible from the street.

The floor guys have been working really hard to prep the floor in order to stain and finish it. Today we tested out a variety of colors in order to choose the perfect stain.




Ever wonder how many electricians it takes to set up two pendant lights and four sets of track lighting per floor?

We finally got temporary power at the project. It was nice to see the place lit up, finally.



Tomorrow is a huge day because the countertops will be installed. I'll post more pictures after they are in.