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Real Estate Featured Property—A New Era for Area Wineries
Remodeling for Modern Life
July 2, 2014
•John and Kristin Cecchi’s life could be a reality TV show. But it wouldn’t involve cameras following them to Peacock Cafe or Fiola Mare. HGTV would hit closer to home, since John is a real estate developer. The 39-year-old, soon to turn 40, has renovated eight houses in Georgetown, the neighborhood where he and Kristin reside.
“Georgetown seems to be what’s in,” John said. “It’s the ‘it’ place.”
After John’s father, Giuseppe Cecchi, built the Watergate, considered D.C.’s first mixed-use development, he started IDI Group Companies. John began working for IDI after college in 1996, first in customer service.
Making his way up through the ranks, by 2008, John was named vice president and project manager of an IDI project in Alexandria. (The project was shelved due to the declining market and economy.) At the same time, he was building his own home on P Street in Georgetown. It was then that he realized there was a market for restoring and renovating historic homes.
John launched IDI Residential, a division of IDI Group Companies, in 2008. “I figured it out late,” John said. “I should have been doing this since ’96.”
His most recently finished project, 2305 Bancroft Place in Kalorama, was John’s first house outside Georgetown and the first celebrated with an opening party.
“The first time we decided to tell people what we were doing, it went big,” John said of Bancroft – a Washington Post house of the week that also appeared in Home & Design magazine.
“We like to stay hush-hush about our houses. Just build them, renovate them and sell them,” he said.
Historically, Kalorama has been D.C.’s wealthy neighborhood: bigger yards, bigger homes. The elegance of embassies and black cars makes you feel like you’re in an important place, John said.
“It’s one class of people, where in Georgetown you have your $8 million house next to two college kids.”
Doing a house in Kalorama takes patience, according to John, who is currently renovating another house in the neighborhood. “It’s not so volatile of a market, but things do sell there and second only to Georgetown in the area. It’s not the village feel that Georgetown has.”
Back in Georgetown, John has renovated two houses on P Street (with work on a third about to begin), two on Dumbarton, one on 31st and two on N, plus the N Street Condominiums.
Three homes a year is a good pace, according to John, who describes his business as taking a great house with unrealized potential and working through the Advisory Neighborhood Commission and the Old Georgetown Board to make renovations and sometimes additions.
“I try to work within the walls and create a better space.”
John and Kristin are currently renting their house on N Street, where John took a deteriorating home and made it livable in a mere 26 days.
“It looked like a haunted house that should have been condemned,” Kristin said. “The ceiling was crumbling. It was in disrepair.”
John asked for 26 days to whip the house into shape.
“Not my kind of finished product, but I did a very heavy lipstick,” John said.
Like an episode of “House Hunters Renovation,” the couple sanded, scraped, painted and fixed up all the rough, superficial parts of the house. “We even had the appropriate arguments,” said Kristin.
They added carpet and painted the wood floors white. John changed the upstairs layout, turning a bedroom into Kristin’s closet. Kristin picked out all new light fixtures. They hung artwork from around the world on the large white walls.
The couple moved to N Street in December of 2013 with their five-month-old daughter Valentina and two-and-a-half-year-old son Antonio in tow.
“It’s not as perfect as our old one, on P Street,” Kristin said. “That house was such a jewel, but after kids it was like a tight pair of designer pants.”
“Now we’re in a pair of sweatpants,” John said. “It’s comfortable.”
Around the time they moved into their home, John purchased another house on N Street to renovate.
“John is so artistic,” Kristin said. “These are like art projects to him. I joke that he has laser beams in his head. He walks in a house, scans the room and sees everything in his head. He gets these end results that are absolutely beautiful, but there has to be a profit at the end of the day.”
The whole process is envisioning the end product, Kristin says. “It’s a big guessing game, but the more we do it the better business we produce.”
The guiding principle is to adapt a house’s layout to the way people live today. That generally means a formal space in the front of the house and an open floor plan in the back – for the kitchen and an informal dining and breakfast area.
Sometimes a complete overhaul of the second level and master suite is needed to update the home. The all-important master suite encompasses a his-and-hers walk-in closet, a large bathroom with a toilet closet, a double vanity, a soaking tub and a rain shower.
John’s goal is to preserve a home’s historic charm while updating the design and layout and adding state-of-the-art systems. Working with contractors and interior designers, John’s homes are staged and finished to perfection before selling – that is, if they can stay on the market that long. All of the N Street condos were sold before they were finished. John says that the houses he renovates in Georgetown typically sell in 45 days or less.
“Each house has its own little story,” John said. “From when you purchase it, what you find when you start gutting it and what it turns out to be, there are parts that you didn’t expect to surprise you.”
Transforming Georgetown’s storied homes, one day the Cecchis just might find a camera crew on their doorstep. [gallery ids="101796,140741,140717,140722,140743,140728,140733,140737" nav="thumbs"]
Lafayette, We Are Here!
•
When the U.S. sent its army to defend France in the First World War, General John J. Pershing presided over a Fourth of July ceremony in a private cemetery in Paris at the grave of Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette. To honor the memory of the remarkable Frenchman who, 140 years earlier, helped us win the Revolutionary War, Pershing’s spokesman ended his speech by saying, “Lafayette, we are here!”
Lafayette was born into an aristocratic family. When both his parents died, he became the richest orphan in France. As was the custom then, he married when he was only 16. His bride, Adrienne de Noailles, whose family was related to King Louis XVI, was 14. If history hadn’t intervened, the beautiful young couple might simply have stayed on their estate in Auvergne and lived happily ever after. But two revolutions were to change everything, and both suffering and glory lay ahead.
In 1776, Lafayette was at a dinner party when he heard about the Declaration of Independence recently issued by the American colonies. Like many young men of his time, he was much taken with the ideas of “liberty” and the “rights of man.” He described how he felt when he heard of the American uprising: “At the first news of this quarrel, my heart was enlisted.” Even though the king forbade him to go, Lafayette bought a ship and, with Baron de Kalb and a handful of soldiers, sailed for America.
Armed with a letter from the American agent in Paris, Lafayette went to General Washington, expecting to be put in charge of an army. Washington didn’t know quite what to do with the brash 19-year-old who spoke only a few words of English. But when the young man promised to work with no pay and outfit his army, Washington made him a major general. He fought bravely in many battles and spent the hard winter at Valley Forge with Washington.
When the colonials ran out of money, Lafayette sailed back to France and, dressed in an American uniform, begged King Louis to intervene in the war on the side of America. The king found the young nobleman’s argument hard to resist. Since he wanted to see the British lose, he finally agreed. The foreign minister at court declared that it was a good thing Lafayette didn’t ask for the furniture in Versailles, as “His Majesty would be unable to refuse it.” Some historians see this episode as pivotal in the downfall of Louis XVI, the move that led inexorably to the guillotine. In any case, the huge influx of soldiers and money turned the tide and helped the Americans win the revolution.
Lafayette was at the forefront of the French Revolution in 1789, offering his own version of the “rights of man.” However, as the revolution wore on and extremists took over, every aristocrat in the country was being hunted down and sent to the guillotine. Fighting for the French in Austria, Lafayette found out he was about to be arrested and fled. He was captured in Germany and spent the next five years in prison. Meanwhile, Adrienne and her relatives were sent to prison and condemned to death. The American envoy in Paris managed to save Adrienne’s life, but her mother, sister and grandmother were killed.
Adrienne sent their son, George Washington Lafayette, to America to live with his godparents at Mount Vernon. She then took their two daughters and persuaded the authorities to allow the family to live in prison with Lafayette. When Napoleon came to power and Lafayette was finally released, the family returned to France to find that much of their wealth had been confiscated. They managed to get most of it back over the years, but the hardships Adrienne had endured were too much for her and she died at the age of 47.
In 1824, Lafayette made a triumphal return trip to America. He visited each of the then 24 states and was met everywhere with wild enthusiasm and adulation. Congress voted to pay back the $200,000 they owed him for the arms and equipment he had paid for, also giving him land in Louisiana and Florida. In a grand gesture of appreciation, they named the park that stands in front of the White House “Lafayette Park.”
Lafayette returned to France with a plot of soil from Bunker Hill. When he died at the age of 77, his son made sure his father was buried in that soil. Even though Lafayette himself designed the modern French tricolor flag, it is an American flag that flies daily over his grave in a small cemetery in Paris’s 12th arrondissement. It was here, on July 4, 1917, that Pershing’s aide announced that America had arrived to pay a debt. He said, “What we have of blood and treasure are yours,” and ended his speech with a resounding “Nous voila, Lafayette!” French schoolchildren learn that phrase to this day.
Donna Evers, devers@eversco.com, is the owner and broker of Evers & Co. Real Estate, the largest woman-owned, woman-run real estate firm in the Washington metropolitan area; the proprietor of Twin Oaks Tavern Winery in Bluemont, Va.; and a devoted student of Washington-area history.
The Auction Block
•
Bringing the Hammer Down
Final selling prices for last month’s featured Auction Block items.
Bonhams
James Edward Buttersworth, (British/American, 1817-1894)
“The America’s Cup yacht Vigilant”
Oil on canvas
Auction Date: June 25
Estimate: $200,000 – $300,000
Final selling price: $305,000
Freeman’s
Edouard Leon Cortes (French 1882-1969)
“Place St. Michel”
Oil on canvas
Auction Date: June 17
Estimate: $20,000 – $30,000
Final selling price: $43,750
Sotheby’s
Louis XV Ormolu-Mounted Chinese Lacquer Commode circa 1745, Stamped P. Roussel
Auction Date: June 9
Estimate: $150,000 – $250,000
Final selling price: $281,000
Doyle New York
Regence Style Walnut Marble Top Commode
Auction Date: July 16
Estimate: $1,200 – $1,800
The popular Doyle at Home auctions attract savvy buyers with an endless diversity of stylish furniture, elegant decorations and attractive works of art from prominent estates and collections across the country. Designers, architects, magazine editors and other trend-setters look to the Doyle at Home auctions as a resource for exceptional objects that combine quality, value and style. These auctions have also become popular venues for the sale of property from designers’ own collections or for furnishings that they have incorporated into projects for their clients. This auction of Fine Furniture, Decorations and Paintings from Prominent Estates and Collections, includes an impressive collection of furniture, prints, porcelain, silver and rugs.
Bonhams
Vasudeo S. Gaitonde (1924-2001)
Oil on canvas
Auction Date: September 17
Estimate: $300,000 – $500,000
Following a record-breaking auction of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art in March, Bonhams New York announces it will offer two seminal works by one of India’s most important modern artists, V.S. Gaitonde. The masterworks by Gaitonde will headline a special section of Modern South Asian Art and will be on preview in New York from September 14-17. Signed and dated 1961 and 1963, respectively, the paintings stem from the artist’s much coveted and pivotal ‘non-objective’ series. With record prices achieved at auction over the past six months, and an upcoming retrospective opening at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in October, Bonhams is anticipating strong international interest. This 1961 canvas, estimated at $300,000-$500,000, has a dramatic tonal variation with an abyssal vertical band of blue interrupting the median horizontal line.
Sotheby’s
Brian Belott
Untitled, 2014, mixed media and reverse glass technique, 40 1/4 by 32 1/4
Selling Auction: Hours of Operation
Monday – Friday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., and by appointment
S|2 is Sotheby’s Contemporary art gallery, offering year-round exhibition programming and bespoke private sales. With dedicated gallery space in New York, London and Hong Kong, S|2 presents selling exhibitions exploring the work of celebrated artists. In collaboration with curator Ryan Steadman, Save It For Later is a selling exhibition of paintings and sculpture created for this show by a group of young and emerging American artists working in a consumer environment of disposable goods. The exhibition features artists that work with salvaged materials and incorporate reuse and recycling in their practice. Featured artists include Brian Belott, Graham Collins, Rachel Foullon, Jack Greer, Dave Hardy, Jo Nigoghossian and Jack Siegel.
Featured Property
•
Centrally located on a quiet street in Georgetown’s sought-after East Village, this renovated, fully detached brick home has a history dating back to 1880. The three-bedroom residence was meticulously restored in 2011, preserving original details while accommodating today’s lifestyle. The main level has an elegant foyer, a powder room and a delightful chef’s kitchen with adjoining breakfast room. The living room features period moldings, original hardwood floors, newly installed LED recessed lights, crown molding, and a fireplace with custom mantel. The dining room offers a sweeping and sunny view to a garden and terrace. On the second level, situated across the entire rear of the home, is a handsome master bedroom with French doors opening onto a Juliette balcony overlooking the garden. The master bath has a steam shower, a soaking tub and double vanities.
Offered at $1,995,000
Washington Fine Properties
Karen Nicholson
202-256-0474
karen.Nicholson@wfp.com
Le Décor for Dad
June 30, 2014
•This Father’s Day, give Dad a gift he won’t throw in a closet and forget. These gifts give back, in and around the house. Toast Dad on his special day and get him something memorable – to be shared with family and friends alike.
[gallery ids="116442,116432,116438,116416,116421,116428" nav="thumbs"]Featured Property
June 18, 2014
•This Federal-style house – one of the most historic in the District – was built in 1798 on the northeast corner of Prospect and 35th Streets. Sold 10 years ago by Sen. Clairborne Pell and his wife Nuala to Ralph and Nancy Taylor, it has had many owners who were active in local and national affairs.
Offered at $11,000,000
TTR Sotheby’s International Reality
Russell Firestone
202-333-1212
russell.firestone@sothebysrealty
The Auction Block
June 4, 2014
•Doyle New York
Mexican Sterling Silver Tea Service
Auction Date: June 25
Estimate: $4,000 to $6,000
An important design resource, Doyle at Home auctions offer an endless diversity of stylish furniture, elegant decorations and attractive works of art from prominent estates and collections across the country. These auctions have also become popular venues for the sale of property from designers’ own collections. Among the array of options at the upcoming Doyle at Home auction is this elegant Mexican sterling silver tea service.
Bonhams
James Edward Buttersworth, (1817-1894)
“The America’s Cup Yacht Vigilant”
Oil on canvas
Auction Date: June 25
Estimate: $200,000 to $300,000
Bonhams’ Fine Maritime Paintings & Decorative Arts auction on June 25 will feature master paintings of the genre, along with artifacts and crafts from centuries of Eastern and Western maritime traditions: old model ships, merchant logbooks, even a scrimshaw walrus dusk depicting a whaling scene. The wide array of paintings includes beautiful smaller works by lesser-known artists and larger pieces by such masters as Montague Dawson, John Mecray and the legendary James Edward Buttersworth.
Freeman’s
Édouard Leon Cortès (1882–1969)
“Place St. Michel”
Oil on canvas?
Auction Date: June 17?
Estimate: $20,000 to $30,000?
As part of their European Art and Old Masters auction, Freeman’s will feature this mesmerizing, atmospheric French street scene by French Post-Impressionist Édouard Leon Cortès. Cortès was known as “Le Poete Parisien de la Peinture,” or “the Parisian Poet of Painting,” because of his Paris cityscapes in a variety of weather and night settings. Here, the reflection of the urban commotion from the wet cobblestone street on this glowing, rainy day lights up one’s sense of history. Other works include a maritime painting by Montague Dawson and the Turner-esque port scenes of Francis Moltino.
Sotheby’s
Louis XV Ormolu-Mounted Chinese Lacquer Commode, c. 1745
Auction Date: June 9
Estimate: $150,000 to $250,000
In addition to a selection of important English and European furniture and decorations from the Baroque to the late Neoclassical periods, this Sotheby’s sale will feature ceramics, works of art from across Europe and Oriental and European rugs and carpets. Among the highlights are a fine Louis XV ormolu-mounted gilt and black japanned commode and a rare Louis XV ormolu-mounted ebonized cartonnier clock attributed to Charles Cressent.
Historic D.C.
May 21, 2014
•The only two cities with more period apartment houses than the District of Columbia are Chicago and New York. Considering the District’s relative size, it is a genuine gold mine of these historic buildings.
James Goode meticulously catalogued them in his great book “Best Addresses,” and while there are dozens of architecturally noteworthy buildings, the height of their golden age came at the very beginning, from 1890 to 1918.
The most influential of these early buildings still standing is the Cairo at 1615 Q St., NW. Built in 1894 by gifted young architect T. Franklin Schneider, this fanciful, Moorish-inspired creation was the tallest, and probably the biggest, residential building in Washington. It drew heavy criticism for its style, its size and, most of all, its height. Firemen couldn’t get near the top in case of fire and mischievous residents would drop pebbles from the roof garden to the street below, scaring the horses pulling carriages.
The Cairo single-handedly brought about the 1894 building height regulations, which are in place to this day and make Washington the only major U.S. city to have kept its low skyline, a characteristic cherished by Washingtonians.
Our great apartment buildings are a product of the City Beautiful Movement that emerged from the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The temporary “White City” in the great exposition was filled with inspiring examples of classic Beaux-Arts architecture created by Americans fresh from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Their devotion to classicism was complete, and visitors who saw the gleaming “city” were enchanted.
Meanwhile, the McMillan Commission in Washington decided it was time to complete Pierre L’Enfant’s great plan for the city, building the grand boulevards and classic buildings that would complement the White House and the Capitol. Enter the architects fresh from Paris and Chicago, who were ready, willing and able to design the great public buildings – as well as grand apartment houses for the white-collar workers moving to Washington to fill the ranks of the expanding federal government. The makings of a real estate success story were at hand.
The list of architects and apartment buildings is truly monumental, but here are a few favorites:
James G. Hill designed the Mendota and the Ontario, and T. Franklin Schneider went on to add an incredible list to his achievements, including the Iowa, the Albemarle, the Farragut, the Cecil, the Burlington, the Woodley, the Rochambeau, California House and California Court. Three of these fabulous buildings were razed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Jules de Sibour mastered Beaux-Arts techniques with the Warder (razed in 1958) and the McCormick Apartment Building, which until recently housed the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
We can thank B. Stanley Simmons for the design of the Wyoming on Columbia Road and Arthur B. Heaton for the Altamont. The architectural firm of Hunter and Bell was responsible for 2029 Connecticut Ave., NW, and Albert Beers designed the Northumberland and the unique Dresden, which perfectly fits its commanding site on the corner of Kalorama Road and Connecticut Avenue.
It was very fortunate that classical architecture had its renaissance at the same time that the federal government decided to promote the massive reconstruction of our city, making L’Enfant’s visionary design – of more than a century before – a stunningly beautiful reality.
Donna Evers, devers@eversco.com, is the owner and broker of Evers & Co. Real Estate, the largest woman-owned and woman-run real estate firm in the Washington metro area, and the proprietor of historic Twin Oaks Tavern Winery in Bluemont, Va.
Georgetown Garden Tour Has Banner Day
May 15, 2014
•Despite a downpour and drizzle — something every garden needs — the Georgetown Garden Tour enjoyed a busy day with visitors checking out gardens, each with its own noteworthy and high qualities.
While the Pyne garden got top attention, across town there were nine gardens for lovers of horticulture and home with arrivals at most place continuing right up to 5 p.m.
[gallery ids="101731,142126,142118,142123,142112,142131,142133" nav="thumbs"]
86th Annual Garden Tour, May 10
May 7, 2014
•The 86th annual Georgetown Garden Tour – presented by the Georgetown Garden Club, an affiliate of the Garden Club of America – will take place this Saturday, May 10, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This year’s chair is Liz Evans. Ticket holders set their own pace, visiting the featured gardens in any order and enjoying afternoon tea, including light refreshments made and served by Club members.
There are a total of nine gardens this year. According to Barbara Downs, publicity chair, the “showpieces of the garden tour” are the Pyne garden on 30th Street and the Bradlee and Crocker gardens around the corner.
Tickets are $35 and may be purchased online at georgetowngardentour.com or on Saturday at Christ Church, 31st and O Sts., NW, or at any of the tour sites. The tea, in the church’s Keith Hall, will be served from 2 to 4 p.m. There is also a garden boutique where Haitian linens, handwoven silk textiles, vases, pots, statuary and other garden-related items will be sold.
All proceeds from the tour are returned to Georgetown in the form of maintenance and beautification of its parks, green spaces and trees. In addition, funds go to support the Student Conservation Association at Dumbarton Oaks Park, which trains at-risk youth to remove invasive plants and carry out other horticultural work.