After the sale of my first home in February, I knew it wasn’t going to be long until I dove back into a house hunt. My first home purchase was a newly renovated row house in DC’s Bloomingdale neighborhood. I was the first owner of the new renovation. Everything was thoughtfully and beautifully updated, which is exactly what I was going for. My priority was to find a space that made me happy and that didn’t require any “projects” after moving in. There is definitely something to be said for this type of a “gut” renovation, BUT this time I wanted a change of pace… and some character wouldn’t hurt either!

I started my second DC home search with three major must haves: a small yard with off-street parking (no more street cleaning tickets!), on a quiet street yet walk-able to the metro, and I wanted a project this time. I quickly zeroed in DC’s NE neighborhood, Brookland. Brookland could check my three major boxes while staying within my budget.

I’d like to be able to say that it was love at first sight when I saw my future home, but sadly that did not happen. I drove by my future Brookland home on 12th Place NE and decided that I didn’t even want to go inside! There was a giant hole in the porch roof and the detached side of the house was engulfed by a jungle. Since there were no photos online of the interior, I decided it looked like WAY too much work for me, especially for the price.  I didn’t plan on giving it a second look until a few weeks later when I found out the seller was willing to negotiate. She was a sweet older woman who loved her house. She didn’t want to sell it to a developer (which she had seen happening on her block), so she intentionally overpriced it.  With a new price tag in mind I officially took a tour. I was blown away by the character inside. There were dramatic archways, a brick fireplace, French doors, and it was HUGE!  This home had amazing bones. After only a few minutes I knew this was the one.

I began negotiations with the seller and quickly came to an agreement… $70K under asking!!!! This was a fantastic start to funding my construction loan. It’s tough to come up with the funds to renovate out of pocket after buying a home so with the help of our team’s go-to lender I opted for construction financing.

Follow the financing process and renovation of my new 12th Place space here on the blog and on Instagram for updates!