Real Estate Blog - Live and Love DC

DC license plates explained

So... as part of being a 'gear head' and a passionate admirer of anything with wheels, I collect old license plates.   DC has issued some fairly interesting license plates over the years.

Here are some of the most interesting old ones from my collection. (If you see any cool ones, please send me a picture for inclusion here, and if you have any extra ones lying around the garage... I'll gladly take them off your hand and make a donation in your name to your favorite local charity.)

Oldest one I have so far is a matched set of plates from 1921 that one of our clients found in a house on Eastern Ave.

License plate from 1957 "Nations Capitol"

License plate from 1968: Switched to "Washington D.C"

License plate from 2001 "Celebrate & Discover"

First year of…

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New Years in DC

New Year's Eve brings thoughts of Times Square and revelry; of Dick Clark and music; of silly hats and glasses, of resolutions and Miley Cyrus (hopefully less of this next year). In realty, who would want to be stuck in Times Square, crowded with a million other strangers, when it's freezing cold outside, to stand there and watch a horribly gaudy giant electric disco ball drop from the top of a building, when they could spend the night in DC instead? There are no shortage of great New Year's Eve options and New Year's Day (if you find yourself able to function) in DC, so read on to find out how to ring in the new year with style in the District.

Nothing says swag, sexy, and style quite like 007. For spies and civilians alike, the Washington Plaza Hotel…

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Mary House: Helping families in need.

Mary house is a volunteer organization, based in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington DC,  working directly with homeless and refugee families.  Managing 9 houses and 40 apartments for over 50 families.  Providing shelter, transitional and long term supportive housing, food, clothing and furniture.  (They are a very well run charity organization and spend only 3.7% on administrative costs)  Jake actually came to DC as an Americorp volenteer and worked with Mary House for 2 years. We continue to support their efforts through Charity Golf tornement and helping with their annual "help the Homeless" Walkathon.

Please consider donating to this great cause.  You can also contribute through CFC (#33368)

Mary House was recently honored and featured in the…

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Brookland

Brookland is a diverse, thriving community in the Northeast quadrant of Washington, DC. It's streets are lined with trees and gorgeous Victorian beauties standing tall with relaxing wrap-around porches. Sounds pretty idylic, huh? Well, in our opinion, it is! For most of it's historical existance, Brookland was farmland owned predominantly by two families, the Queens and the Middletons. In the 1820s Jehiel Brooks (the same Jehiel Brooks from the former, beloved, Colonel Brooks' Tavern) married Ann Queen and built the Brooks Mansion located on Newton Street. (The building is currently being used by the DC government, but go down and take a walk by it sometime, it is a beautiful Greek-revival style building.)  In the 1880s, their son sold the family's home…

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DC Architorture: P.1

I love DC.  DC is among the most liveable and inspiring places to live in America. Simply Awesome.  Everyone knows that Washington DC has some inspiring and monumental architecture but, perhaps lesser known, are some of masterpieces in uglyness.  As we drive round DC showing great houses, we'll take pictures of some of the more hideous offenses comitted in the name of architecture and post them here.  If you have a nomination, send us a quick picture and email.  So here is our first nomination:

The FBI Building:

Brutalism at its most brutal....

Wow, is that ugly!  Even worse is that it is completely disconnected from the street level.  Now this type of "super-block" consturctions is, thankfully, no longer allowed in DC.  When the FBI building was…

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DC Breweries

Beer. Ale. Cold Ones. Brewskies. Cervezas. Libations. Delicious golden brew of the Gods. The drink of choice since ancient times, our ancestors did something right! Sorry various Wonders of the World. Most of you don't exist anymore. Beer does, and it's thriving. Our Founding Fathers couldn't get enough of it. President James Madison wanted to create a National Brewery (we already had a national bank, so why not?) complete with a Secretary of Beer (seriously, best job ever!?). Congress said no. Always ruining the fun that Congress. Shame on them. Oh well. With their resurgance in populairty, home and craft brews have taken a bite out of the monopoly of brewing giants like Budweiser (thank God). Microbrews allow for more experimentation of flavors and the…

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Alley life on Capitol Hill

We're all familiar with Capitol Hill's beautiful tree-lined streets with a mish-mash of historic Victorian and Federal homes. But what about the Hill's secret streets? It's alleys. The term 'alley' often brings to mind images of a dark, sketchy place. A narrow, dirty, strip of pavement where a criminal is just waiting in the dark to rob you. While that may be true in another area or in another time, it is about the furthest from the truth you can get when talking about Capitol Hill's alleys (and the other alley neighborhoods throughout the City).
As Washington DC has grown and space has become premium, alley homes have shot up in availability and desirability. This isn't a recent phenomenon; it began during one of D.C's first big population booms. In the…

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Giving Back to the Community

With Thanksgiving almost upon us and the holiday season rapidly approaching, now is the perfect time to give back to others less fortunate. Like the Grinch, reach deep down and let your heart grow three sizes this holiday season! Organize a food drive to help brighten spirits and fill stomachs. Donate clothing, like sweaters and warm pajamas, to help keep people warm as the weather continues to get colder. There are so many ways for you to help, here are some local opportunities for giving back to the community this Holiday season:

The Holiday Project

This organization has been serving communities across the country for 33 years. Every year there are millions of people who spend their holidays in hospitals, nursing homes, and other residential…

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DC public charter schools

Washington, DC, offers a wealth of school choice options for families.  In addition to neighborhood public (DCPS) and independent (private) schools, there are also public charter schools (DCPCS). 

• Roughly 44% of DC public school students attend public charter schools. 
• DC offers universal, full-day preschool and prekindergarten to 3 and 4 year olds throughout the city regardless of income or Ward.

New this year is a single application for public and charter schools through MySchoolDC.org.  This single application is intended to streamline and simplify the application process for families.  This application is for:

1. Children to attend a charter school at any grade level (PK3 – 12th grade)
2. Children to attend an Out of Boundary (OOB)…

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Bloomingdale

Located just outside L'Enfant's original boundaries of the city and just under two miles from the Capitol building, Bloomingdale is the perfect neighborhood for that 'suburbs in the City' feel (not to be confused with the hoity toity upscale department store of a similar name). Bloomingdale got a bit of a later start than the rest of the City. While there has been development of the land in some form since the 1820s, it is in the late 1870s and around the turn of the century that Bloomingdale really started to blossom. It initially consisted of mainly industrial buildings rather than homes. At one point, the land was even used as train yards to house the large coal-driven locamotives of the time.  Slowly but surely (an appropriate pace for a neighborhood…

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