When Todd Turner decided to move back to Washington after a decade abroad, he limited his house search to a few blocks in the Dupont Circle neighborhood — the same streets he had called home five or six times, in as many residences near the intersection of 17th and R streets NW.
Dupont Circle rowhouse offered at $2.1 million
“You walk out a few blocks, and you’re in what feels like a city,” Turner said. “Then, by the time you hit that little section of 17th, … all of a sudden it just feels like a neighborhood. I really liked that.”
But the location, on R Street west of 17th, wasn’t this 1895 house’s only draw for Turner. He said renovations by the previous owner — including an open-concept main level and floating stairs — were among the reasons he was “taken” with the house from the first time he saw it.
“A lot of the walls that you typically have dividing the rooms in these old houses that would normally have a hallway … that makes the rooms even smaller, there’s none of that,” Turner said. “It’s just completely open.”
Having lived in the area before, he already knew the neighbors when he bought the house in 2014. It was like living in a “Seinfeld” or “Friends” episode, he said, because people visited so often. And the house’s layout, with a bedroom suite on the bottom level, made it comfortable for guests to stay for months at a time.
The guests “had a whole first floor,” he said, with the primary suite two floors away, and “it felt so private, even though there was still the camaraderie of having folks under the roof for long periods of time.”
Turner has rented parts of the house to tenants, including the British Embassy. The house has an English basement, a legally separate apartment with a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and space for dining and lounging. The unit has refinished hardwood floors, a washer and dryer, built-in shelving and a refurbished gas fireplace.
He has lived in the basement unit himself when the rest of the house was leased.
Turner’s favorite part of the house, he said, is the primary bedroom suite, with en suite bathroom, on the top (third) floor, which includes views of the D.C. skyline. With wall-to-wall carpet and a 75-inch television, the primary bedroom “feels like a hotel suite,” Turner said.
“I did a lot of work in there to really make it cozy,” he said. “It just sort of feels like you’re above the treetops and away from everybody when you’re up there.”
The top story also has a second bedroom and a hall bathroom.
The first floor has a spacious living room, as well as the guest bedroom with connected bathroom. Blue chandeliers hang above the living room, which is also lighted by oversize bay windows near an alcove suitable for a desk or a seating area. The living room has hardwood floors and two gas fireplaces.
Up the floating stairs, the second floor has an open layout, with a family room set apart from the kitchen and dining area by a green double-sided malachite marble gas fireplace. Turner said he was nervous about the fireplace’s installation.
“It was just dropping right in the middle of a room,” he said. “I think my contractor thought I was a little bit nuts. It was going into probably the most inconvenient location in the house, the middle of a room on the middle floor. But it was worth it. I was just so pleased with the end results of it.”
$2,099,999
- Bedrooms/bathrooms: 4/5 (including basement apartment)
- Approximate square-footage: 3,518
- Lot size: 0.02 acres
- Features: This 1895 rowhouse in the Dupont Circle neighborhood in Northwest Washington has a one-bedroom English basement apartment as well as a main three-story residence. The rowhouse has unusual lighting fixtures, a double-sided malachite marble gas fireplace, floating stairs and an open-concept main area. Garage parking half a block from the house is prepaid for a year.
- Listing agent: Gary Jankowski and Michael Schaeffer, Coldwell Banker Realty.
correction
A previous version of this article incorrectly listed the approximate square-footage of the home. It is 3,518, not 3,581. This version has been corrected.
Source: WP
