Welcome to the pages dedicated to B.'s and my endeavors to save certain houses. You might even call it a selfless crusade.

B. and I invested a lot into the property at 7509 Jackson Ave. Click the thumbnails to visit  A LOT of pictures of this renovation project, from December 2006 to April 2009. Scroll down for some words on the subject.

Below are links to photos of our new renovation, started in December 2008, and continuing indefinitely...

B. and I started in June of 2006 by looking for a house in the neigborhood of our dreams, Takoma Park. B. was living in a condo in Kalorama, D.C. and I was house-sitting a quite ordinary but very expensive dwelling in Potomac, just a mile from my work at the German School, but since we decided to spend the rest of our lives together (!), we were ready to settle down together. We looked all over town, well, at least in the cheaper parts of town, including Takoma DC, T.P., Hyattsville, Riverdale, Mount Ranier and Silver Spring, and we must have looked at over 40 houses. Since I've had a habit of working with my hands since I was very small, a TLC home (a.k.a. a dump) was what we were after. I remember having seen a small, sensible colonial in S.S., and when asked why we weren't crazy about it by the realtor on duty, we replied, "There aren't enough holes in the roof!". After this long story, we finally found a very unique old house that met our criteria. The farmhouse at 7509 Jackson Avenue in T.P. was certainly the first house on the block. B. felt it was love at first sight, and swore that we'd be married in it. We went to have a look in mid-September when nobody was home, and the mosquitoes nearly drove us, well actually they DID drive us away. We finally met with the owner around October, who was in and out of town, who was selling it on her own at a premium price. She was certainly nice enough, and B. and she had a delightful cup of tea as I descended into the cellar to have a look at the floor joists. For forty long minutes I heard their cheerful voices chatting about environmental issues and the plans to get married there through the floorboards, but my heart was sinking. The termites had had their way with this formerly grand house for many a year, and at the ends of the floor joists, there was literally nothing left. I ascended the stairs and reported with a shake of the head, "This house is trashed, Honey." We finally got around to business, and S., the owner, almost choked on her tea when I suggested a price nearly forty percent below what she was asking. Considering the condition of the house, and that the fridge was listing on a soft spot on the floor at about 15 degrees, it was easy to follow my father's advice and not hang on, but rather walk away.

If you remember, the mortgage crisis and the resulting full-blown recession that resulted were faintly on the horizon at this point and being vehemently denied by the powers that were (do we even remember who was in power then, in the Dark Age?). But S.'s advisors back in MN did have a little good advice for her... that she should cut her losses and free herself of that place to get on with her life, hopefully before the long, cold and real-estate-dead winter set in. In other words, she decided to take our highest offer, and we finally settled on the 5th of December. There was quite a bit of blood on the highway to get there, as the deal ran without any brokers, an unusual, two-tiered mortgage with cash back from the the seller for renovations, down payment money from the family, some of it with strings, no, CHAINS attached to it, etc, etc. We had a few saviors along the way, CGB, TLM, GC and D&MB, mainly. Without them, we wouldn't have been able to live out our fate for the next years.

To sum up two years of hard labor and breaking our backs and minds, but fortunately not our budget, we worked hard at it and had fun, and also went a little crazy at times with all the chaos around us. But we never took the stress out on one another, thank heaven. That old house got a face lift, hip replacements, cosmetic orthodontics, lasix, a thorough colonoscopy, rim job and a free pair of suspenders in the deal, and considering everything, it wasn't bad for two years' work.

But there was something missing at that old place. Oddly, we hadn't ever felt at home in that slowly lovelier-looking place, with all the luxurious fixtures, personal touches, farm house charm, three-- COUNT THEM -- porches, majestic beech tree and privacy. The basement was short and at times damp, the beautiful trees were also a threat, and an expense, the neighborhood was oddly isolated and, though not unfriendly, very unfamiliar. The driveway was a record-breaker by most of our visitors' standards- steep, ugly and ominous. On the corner, the twenty-odd year old poison ivy vine I chopped down in the middle of winter was slowly coming back. I raked 80 bags of leaves in the Autumn of 2007 and took them in loads to the street on Sunday nights on the back of my old pickup. In fact, I always had to take the recycling down on the pickup because it was impossible otherwise. We couldn't imagine taking a baby carriage any place by foot. That house was also the scene of significant family turmoil that lingered. l guess it's fair to say that I knew that house inside and out, upside down and I was a little tired of thinking about it.

Not that it wasn't beautiful. B.'s talent at planning and her good sense of taste, coupled by a will for orderliness and simply having things done was an excellent compliment to my diligence, tenacity and skills. Our common vision resulted in a house that anyone could be proud of. The decision to let go if it was not an easy one, but really we are both grateful for having been in the project and to have learned so much, yet being relieved of the responsibility of it, financial, emotionally and otherwise. Our new home in Riverdale has its share of challenges, but we're as happy as we can be in a neighborhood that is far from perfect but friendly, down to earth, affordable and convenient, and most of all, familiar feeling. If we had it to do over again, I think we wouldn't have gone for as many expensive fixes at 7509 that weren't absolutely necessary, and we certainly wouldn't have agonized about many of the details. I still can't say I regret having made everything as solid as possible and sensible inside and out, though I do regret not being able to take advantage of those elements that gave me so much satisfaction.

There were several very difficult jobs. Among them was straightening the living room ceiling. No one will ever know, except you, dear readers and picture viewers, that I spent the better part of a sweaty week demolishing the hanging plaster, furring and leveling the bowed joists and insulating for sound in the nine-foot ceiling. You may only have a feeling, being in the room, that it feels good, or the new owners may realize, after sleeping in it for months, that you can't hear the TV in the room below. Who would care that the large AC unit actually supplies a dual zone duct system to prevent over cooling the lower level? But you would notice that it's comfortable in every part of the house, year-round. I'm convinced that the new owners will not appreciate that the plumbing is 90% brand new, but it will work flawlessly for many years to come. For whatever it's worth, we went above and beyond as the stewards of that old house, and I guess we gave it a new lease on life. We tried to preserve the character and integrity of the place the best we could, liking it for what it was but also knowing that the types attracted to TP like us would appreciate the original window glass, etc. It's hard to say if another buyer would have razed it, but then we actually tore down almost half of it and almost gutted the other half. We did save the windows. In retrospect, B. also became convinced of the original windows' virtues: they matched the house, were good for a look outside or a breath of fresh air, and they didn't cost anything to fix, since I did it all in a month of Sundays.

Well, I'm just rambling on at this point. I hope you enjoy (enjoyed) the photos and will stay tuned for the transformation of the Riverdale place. At least we're not in a hurry on this one.

AWB