Charming Atlantic Street

Atlantic Street was one of my first houses in DC. It is an old charming house built just after WW I. One of the neat things about the house is the gable type roof with a nice dormer for the bathroom -- a type of house that is no longer built.

I remember distinctly getting an email about the fire. I was in Guantanamo Bay and what was nerve wrecking was that there was not much I could do. I could not contact anyone and worst of all, I could not visit my tenants.

The firemen had also broken all the windows as well as cut a hole in the roof to vent out the smoke.

I didn't know what to do with the hole, so I decided to keep the hole and install a skylight.

The fire wasn't bad, but the smoke damage was. So instead of repainting it, I decided to take down the ceiling.

We also opened up the crawl space attic and created cathedral ceilings. It was tricky creating a vaulted ceiling, but we made it work, but when we were done, it looked fantastic.

We also opened up parts of the dormer for a space that was not been used and converted it to a den.

Read the Zillow.com assessment of the house to include fair market value:

Pictures taken before we installed the siding.

The quaint gable-roof house on Atlantic Street sometime after the fire. Notice the heavy-up by the side of the house.

Read my letter of recommendation for Milton Daley

Two Years Later, Atlantic Street Gets A New Skin

The house been built in the 30's, the paint along the side of the house began to peel. I was tired of having to paint it, so I decided to install new siding.


Milton Daley and Company doing work on the front, side and on the dormer.

Before the siding was installed, we installed rigid foam insulation siding to ensure energy efficiency.

The siding we chose was light gray which resembles blue from the distance. (Special order from Home Depot in Oxon Hill.)

We also installed maroon shutters to the side window

The total for the labor and materials was $6,831

The entire house was completed with the exception of the addition in the rear. Also we installed new shutters for windows on the side and painted the bannisters the same maroon color as the shutters.

In this picture, you can see that we had to work around the heavy-up electrical cable.

In March 06, I refinanced the house. It was a debit cash for $94,500 and a credit notes payable to Indymac Bank for $94,500.

* All photos taken by owner