National Building Museum

For a birthday treat I took Elizabeth (my wife) downtown to the National Building Museum for a few hours to take a look see. There are some nice things there-a few interesting exhibits including a cool exhibit of giant buildings made entirely of Legos. (great for kids). However, the real item of interest is the actual building itself. The Museum is now housed in what used to be called the Pension Office. Designed and built after the civil war by the amazing Montgomery Meigs this brick building is one of the finest in Washington DC. And, it nearly got demolished before wiser heads stepped in and saved it. On a winter's day you can go down and have a great visit without having to experience any sort of crowds or the overwhelming security one might find at the more mainstream DC attractions.

Go see it. It is time well spent.

Lincoln Cottage at The Old Soldier's Home

For a birthday treat, my wife took me down to the grounds of the Old Soldier's Home in Washington, DC to see the Lincoln Cottage. This was the summer home that Ole Abe used for three summers while he was president. The home has only been recently restored but it is a fascinating place for a fun day trip. It is a typical summer retreat for the era and if you are a fan of old houses, you will love this. Since the museum is very new and fighting for funding just like everybody else in this recession, the home is very sparsely furnished so in many ways the tour is not as interesting as say, The Douglass House in Anacostia or the The Tudor Mansion in Georgetown. They just have not had the time or experience to put together a polished tour and the separate museum building is a little lacking. The tour and museum seem to have been set up for school tours and really won't impart anything new to someone who already knows something about Abe Lincoln (that would be most of us). I might add that the grounds are very large and accommodate the VA hospital, The Soldier's Home and the first National Cemetery where over 5,000 Union soldiers are buried. Many of the buildings are quite old and lovely, and once on the grounds you can pretty much wander anywhere. A rare treat in this day of heavy security.

Round house!

Here is a cool house that I have driven by a few times in the past few years. My wife and I were in the Brookland section of DC near Catholic U and I had my camera with me this time. The house is located on the corner of 10th and Irving in NE. I just love the look but boy it would be hard to put a roof on this one!

Light at the end of the tunnel?

A recent article in the Washington Post indicated that the Washington area is one of the few metropolitan areas in the country where home prices have not declined over the past year. According to the Post, Montgomery County saw about a 2% increase in sales prices over the same period last year. Well, it is not bad news but must be taken with a grain of salt. The housing market is still very soft and prices are very low. In Montgomery County there is a wide gulf between the west portion of the county vs the eastern portion. The west which includes Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Potomac currently has a very strong market and I would say it is there where we have seen the price of home increase over the year. The east part of the county continues to suffer from an overabundance of listings with many distressed properties dragging the overall market down. I have not see any price increases in the east county. If anything the average price of a home has dropped over the past year. However, all is not doom and gloom. A recent survey of my neighborhood (Hillandale) shows that there is about 23-25 homes on the market but almost 40% of those are under contract pending sales. Some of these are short sale contracts and I would say about half of those fail to settle but still, that is an overall healthy percentage. An indicator that the market is turning. We shall see....

Matrix

Matrix


New rental listing in tanglewood. Very neat and clean with newer appliances.

Subaru Repairs

Elizabeth took her subaru to the dealer today because the muffler was making that good awful noise that speaks of decay. They quoted her $1,300 to replace the entire system and said it had to be done.

I talked her into taking it over to my friend Hi at Colesville Exxon who said he would patch it up for $125 and it should be good for at least two more years. He said if he had to replace the exhaust system it would cost just over $600......

I think it would be wise to avoid repairs at the dealer in the future.

Women's Collective

This year my Silver Spring office has been gathering up gifts for kids who normally could not expect to get gifts. We have as an office been doing this for about 15 years now. The program is part of the Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church "Angel Gift Tree" program which I am proud to say has been one of my wife's major undertakings over the past few years. I have done my little part by getting my fellow agents to each take a kid's name (or three) and then go out and buy a gift for that child. This has worked very well over the years and usually my office has been able to take care of about 40 or more children. I have to admit it is pretty satisfying to do this, and it provides me with a sense of purpose over the holidays.

This year and for many years in the past, my office has been buying gifts for children associated with the Women's Collective in Washington DC. -an organizations that helps women, girls and families that are coping with HIV/AIDs. This is a great organization and like so many foundations of this type they are constantly short of funds to provide the demands of Washington's AIDs epidemic. We can't do enough for them. If you are interested in helping, you can contact me or just pay a visit to the Women's Collective web site.