On my way home today, I stopped at a traffic light at the corner of Brandywine Street and Connecticut Avenue, and I was struck by the way the sun played against the building and the very gray sky up above.  Luckily, I had my iPhone on my lap and was able to capture this scent.

If you are planning a move to or from the Washington area, I can help.  I am licensed in DC, Maryland and Virginia.   Please email me at Housepat@mac.com or call 202-549-5167. 

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4701 Connecticut Avenue:  Harry Truman Slept Here!

Between January 1941 and April of 1945, Harry Truman lived with his wife Bess and daughter Margaret in Apartment 209 at 4701 Connecticut Avenue NW.  It was a 1250 square foot 2-bedroom, 2-bath apartment, with a kitchen, living room and sleeping porch. 

When President Roosevelt died and Truman became the new president, the family moved to first Blair House, then to the White House.  While Mrs Truman is said to have loved their apartment at 4701, she spent most of her husband's presidency in their home back in Independence, Missouri instead of living in the White House.

The building opened as rental apartments in 1928.  It underwent a major renovation in 1973, then converted to condominium ownership in 1977.

It's now called Truman House, named after it's most famous former resident. 

Most of the units are large 2-bedrooms, similar to the one where the Trumans lived.  The only unit that is currently for sale is a smaller 2-bedroom (1073 square feet) with a parking space.  The asking price is $525,000.

It's now called Truman House, named after it's most famous former resident. 

If you are planning a move to or from the Washington, DC area, I can help!  I am licensed in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.  You may call, email or text me at: 

Politics and Prose: Bookstore of the Washington Cognoscente

If you are having no luck at all finding a parking place near Connecticut Avenue and Fessenden Streets, it's probably because some Pulitzer Prize winner is doing a lecture and book signing at my favorite book store, Politics and Prose.

It's a book store.

It's a coffee house.

And oops! It's a cell phone free zone.  Well, I do put mine on vibrate when I go inside, but then if it rings, I run outside to answer.

Whether it's a children's book for a friend's new baby or a volume on Washington neighborhood history, you can find it at Politics and Prose.  And whether you are liberal or conservative, all of your favorite presidents will be on their shelves.  I remember getting Bill Clinton's autograph in his autobiography when it came out.

Politics and Prose sponsors many local book groups, and any group can register and arrange to order whatever you are reading at the special book club discount. And they offer many courses with themes, like literature set in Paris - my personal favorite.

Visit their web site for a calandar of events, a list of courses they offer and book groups they host. 

Or if you're hungry, drop by for lunch or a healthy afternoon snack at the cafe downstairs.

In addition to any book you could want, they also have a great collection of music, greeting cards, and T-shrts in all sizes with their "So many books!  So little time!" motto printed on the back. 

There is free parking in the rear of the store (all bets are off when someone famouse is doing a book signing). 

Politics and Prose is located at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW.

If you are planning a move to or from the Washington, DC area, I can help!  I am licensed in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.  You may call, email or text me at: 

Housepat@mac.com, 202-549-5167

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For a long time now, one gigantic chain of drugstores has dominated the market (at least for legal drugs) here in Washington, DC.  Over the last few years, they have expanded rapidly, buying out small independent pharmacies and opening stores in virtually every neighborhood in the city.

For a while now, their service has gone down the tubes.  If you can't find what you walked in to buy, good luck finding an employee to come to your aid, and the few there are raise surly to an art form.  And if you do manage to find your items, there will be a long line to pay for them. 

Last night, we noticed a brand new drug store - a Walgreen's - half a block south of the giant chain we love to hate!  It's right near the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Veazey Street NW. 

It's a new, bright and sparkling clean.  Everything is easy to find, but there was still a friendly employee who asked if I needed to be pointed to the cough syrup department. 

Walgreens saw an opportunity here in DC, and if their other stores do as good a job as this at putting the competition to shame, they will do well.  Of course, some day Walgreens could get as fat and lazy as the current big chain.  And if they do, I can only hope there will be another upstart to come in and give them a run for their money. 

Am I actually calling Walgreen's, a company founded in 1901, an upstart?  Charles Walgreen would be proud.

If you are planning a move to or from the Washington, DC area, I can help!  I am licensed in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.  You may call, email or text me at: 

Housepat@mac.com, 202-549-5167

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CHECK OUT MY LATEST BLOG IN THE WASHINGTON POST!

If you like woods, you'd love Forest Hills.  And if you like to be near great restaurants, book stores and other fun, you'll really like Forest Hills.  It's a neighborhood just north of the Van Ness Metro station east of Connecticut Avenue.

The homes in this neighborhood are quite spectacular.  One even has it's own ballroom!

Here is the basic sales data comparing 2011 with the prior year:ore homes sold in 2010:

More homes sold in 2011, and they sold in much less time than in 2010.  But the prices tended to be lower.

The 2010 average may have been skewed a bit by the sale of one very large estate, but the median price also fell by $62,500.

Did your home increase or decrease in value?  Looking at the average and median prices give you an idea of market trends, but they may just mean that fewer very high end homes sold last year.  To get an answer, you really need a market analysis prepared by a real estate professional.

Whatever the numbers are doing, it is a wonderful neighborhood with a great deal to offer.  If prices are down, it is a great opportunity to buy something now that is likely to increase in value as the market begins to recover.

There are eight homes currently on the market, and if you are looking for an upper brackets home, you could find something beautiful that is an excellent value.

If you are planning a move to or from the Washington, DC area, I can help!  I am licensed in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.  You may call, email or text me at: 

Housepat@mac.com, 202-549-5167

SEARCH ALL LISTINGS IN THE DC METRO AREA

CHECK OUT MY LATEST BLOG IN THE WASHINGTON POST!

She was in the back yard of a house listed for sale on Brandywine Street, in DC's Forest Hills neighborhood.  When she saw me looking at her through the window in the kitchen door, she posed long enough for me to fish out my I-Phone and snap this picture.   A few minutes later, I noticed a tiny little fawn nearby in the back yard brush - though the baby decided not to provide a photo opp. 

Forest Hills in a wonderful Washington neighborhood that stretches between Connecticut Avenue on the west and Rock Creek Park on the east.  My guess is that at their neighborhood meetings, there is a lot of conversation about the deer eating some of the beautiful landscaping that is common for the area.

There is a "deer thinning" proposal that the National Park Service just put out.  It involved providing large quantities of venison for area food banks.

Oh, deer!

If you are planning a move to or from the Washington, DC area, I can help!  I am licensed in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.  You may call, email or text me at: 

Housepat@mac.com, 202-549-5167

SEARCH ALL LISTINGS IN THE DC METRO AREA

CHECK OUT MY LATEST BLOG IN THE WASHINGTON POST!

Politics and Prose:  The Quintessential Washington, DC Bookstore

We've seen a huge chain of big box book stores close its doors over the past few months, and at the same time, Politics and Prose, a small, neighborhood bookstore on Connecticut Avenue thrives.  And it's made it while the giants have struggled for a bunch of reasons.

First, they've made it interesting. And second, they really understand their customers and what their reading tastes are. 

• They have a large selection of books.
• There are lots of comfortable places where you can sit and try one on before you buy it.  
• Everyone in Washington is a member of some book group, and Politics and Prose caters to them, with special orders and special pricing.  They even let groups use some of the space on their lower level for meetings.
• They have frequent lectures and book signings by authors they know their clientele will enjoy meeting.
• They have "Staff Picks" that are actually very helpful when you're browsing for you're not sure just what.
• They have a music section with an excellent selection of classical and not quite hard rock music. 
• They have a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi on the lower level.
• They have a wonderful children's section, and it's where I go to buy all of my baby presents.  

We went there yesterday to buy an Atlas and to a travel book that would be good for an upcoming road trip.  And their selection rivaled that of Barnes & Noble, the competition that was supposed to snuff out the small neighborhood book sellers.  They had guides to every continent and countries I'd never even heard of. 

There is also a good foreign language section if you want to lose your mono-lingual status and maybe learn French driving from one appointment to the next.

So whether you are looking for a New York Times Best Seller or the latest book written by a journalist neighbor, you'll be able to find it here - why they even carried The Irreverent Guide to Real Estate when is was first released! 

If you are buying any sort of gift, you can find fabulous cards for any occasion, and they do gift wrapping for free.

And did I mention the free parking in the rear of the store (although it does fill up when they have special events).

I love this store!