Interior Layout

A few people have asked about what the interior layout of the house will be, so I've decided to add a few sketches I made with Google SketchUp. Since the beginning my father and I have been working on a design that would maximize the space.


My first request was to move the HVAC syatem to the roof. I had read on another DC blogger's website that she had this done and it worked great. After a bit of research we decided the space saved made the idea a no-brainer. Another space saver that I had at my last house in Tunisia, was a tankless (gas) water heater. We placed the unit on the kitchen's exterior wall. The kitchen will have a small island that the kids can scoot up to and eat there breakfast. The kitchen design also calls for stainless steal appliances and granite countertops. The living room and dining room are pretty straight forward, but we are still figuring out how we are going to remodel the fireplace (I keep watching HGTV for fresh ideas).


Next I wanted to make sure the upstairs had three "real" bedrooms and a bathroom that could be shared by our small family. The kids love to take baths and I prefer showers, so we decided to fit both into the bathroom. A double vanity and a small hallway/bathroom closet to up the rest of the space in that area. Each of the kids rooms had a small closet and the master bedroom would have a medium sized walk-in closet for him/her. In the corner of the master bedroom I am planning on making a small office area. Each of the rooms will be wired for phone/ethernet/cable.

Well that's the basic idea for the layout. We have put a lot of thought into it and have already marked the walls in pencil. Friday the contractor cut his first attempt at the staircase frame. We explained the 8 inch rise and 10 inch depth was vital to ensuring the design and he said he would give it another attempt Monday.

For the past few days we have been bricking in a old wall in the back of the house. When we finish Monday I'll post more. Have a great Holiday weekend!

Demo is complete, now...

Well we are back from our vacation in Seattle and were met by a good surprise. All the first floor joists where installed by the contractor and it the work was good. Yesterday I stopped by the house and saw they started to place plywood down on the first floor.

On Thursday I was informed by the contractor that there is a large iron beam spanning from one exterior wall to the other. The beam was installed in order to hold the walls in place and prevent them from falling. The problem was that the beam was installed by cutting large notches in the joists and was the reason the previous joists failed. So for a quick $300 the contractor called a local engineer to come out and he told us that the beam could be removed and the walls would not fail. We basically knew that ourselves, but for insurance reason we needed a professional to put it in writing. Hopefully Monday morning the contractor will cut the rod out and we can finish all the joists and start putting the plywood down on the second floor.

My attention now has been trying to figure out what we are going to do with the front wall of the house. It was written in the contract that the Contractor had to fix the "bulge" in the front of the house. I guess "bulge" is very vague and his planned work would not be a true solution. SO I talked with the contractor's crew chief and we came to an agreement that the only way to truly fix the "bulge" is to completely re-build the wall. My problem with that solution is that Wells Fargo will not pay for that work if it costs more from the original contract. So Monday I am hoping to hear back from Wells Fargo and my Contractor and we should be able to figure something out.

Stage One - Demolition

Once we arrived from N. Africa 7/25, we spent two or three days getting settled over the weekend and then Grandpa arrived on Monday. I also had to sign the closing documents Monday which meant the house was mine on Tuesday.

With the keys in hand 7/29, we met the General Contractor Tuesday morning and ensured we were all on the same page. That afternoon his crew arrived and they began gutting the entire house. Our overall plan is to have an open floor plan on the first wall with as few walls as possible. With only 1300+ square feet overall I wanted to have as much usable as possible.

Demolition of the existing walls, floor, HVAC, electrical, etc. took about two full weeks to complete. I think the contractor underestimated a little the size of the demo, but we worked through it and the project moved on. The new problem was all the first floor joists were rotten and many of the second floor's joists.

With the new bad news that all these joists need to be replaced, we took a step back and started discussing what other problems had been uncovered. Particularly the interior walls needed to be reinforced with mortar and concrete and the exterior walls really needed to be fully re-pointed. To get all this done meant I needed a change order and my bank has to approve it all to proceed. Paperwork is never fast and since we had a few weeks vacation in Seattle starting 8/7, I knew things were going to move slow for a while.

House hunting take one, two, three, ...

The search for a 3 bedroom rowhouse began in April 2008. Our goal was to find a lower priced home that needed a little fixing up. The home had to be in a good neighborhood, in walking distance to a metro or a short bus ride away. We settled on the 20001 and 20002 zip codes and established I-Agent.com realty as our Realty agent.

I-Agent reality was perfect because at the time we lived overseas and our agent was an expert at replying timely to emails and doing all paperwork via email. Also the fact they would return 2/3 of the final commission helped.

About mid-April we were finally ready to submit an offer. Withing hours our agent Zeeshan had us set up and then it was time to wait. We lost that offer and then the next five that followed. I guess I was looking primarily at bank-owned foreclosed homes that were well under priced and ended up selling well over the listing price.

After losing six bids I was starting to lose faith. I would be arriving in DC in July and it was already mid-June. I had to close on a house and start remodeling or my family would be living in a apartment for at least a year. With that in mind I started looking at a house I had previously said no to because of the last three I had bid on. This house was very cheap in comparison to others, but would need extensive work. The house was also very small, 1340 sq. ft. Since I wasn't too excited I figured I would make an offer 10K under the asking price. Within a few hours the offer was accepted and now it was time to really get to work.

The beginning

Well I would like to thank you for coming to our blog and checking out our new space. Yeny and I(Matt) will be updating this as often as possible and will share all our experiences with buying and remodeling a first home in NE Washington DC.