FROM THE TIME she opened her first antique business in college, Andrea Ridout has been hooked on home improvement, whether it's refinishing old Victorian dressers or laying new kitchen tile. The Texas-based DIY expert doles out tips on her nationally syndicated radio show, "Ask Andrea," and in articles for magazines like This Old House Journal and Country Home.

We caught up with her to ask for pad-updating ideas and to get the scoop on her just-published new home-improvement bible, "If I Had a Hammer" ($18, Collins).

» EXPRESS: What do first-timers need to know about owning a home?
» RIDOUT: I have two daughters in their 20s, and they don't realize the amount of work that goes into owning or even renting a home. Watch for anything that's going to deteriorate your space.

» EXPRESS: So, maintenance is crucial?
» RIDOUT: It's like anything else. If you don't brush your teeth every day, your teeth are going to rot. If you don't maintain your home, your house is going to rot. So, clean out the gutters. Make sure that everything is caulked. Check the drainage. Do anything that you can to keep surfaces primed and painted and not let your paint get to a point where it's peeling.

» EXPRESS: In the book, you write that some of these quick fixes can save you money. How?
» RIDOUT: When it comes to installation, gaps are the enemy. Just imagine Fort Knox. You could have Fort Knox, but if you have a little doorway open, people are going to run in and out. Look at your attic and your perimeter walls for those gaps where your money can leak out.

Continue Reading "Little Ms. Fix-It-Up: Andrea Ridout" »

WHEN M. MARIE MAXWELL, 37, decided in 2000 that she wanted to buy a house in the District, the archives specialist at the National Archives did the most thorough type of research possible: She moved into her future neighborhood to check it out in person.

"I wanted to try to find something affordable," Maxwell says, "and I figured I could probably find something if I was very familiar with what block it was on."

After a year of renting in Shaw, Maxwell purchased a 1,000-square-foot house there and has been pleased with her decision ever since. But if the Internet had held eight years ago what it does now — you know, everything from "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" clips to the lowdown on condos under construction — Maxwell might have had an easier time peering into her real estate future.

Now, her blog, In Shaw (An Historically Gentrified Blog), helps other could-be neighbors get to know her area. Like most other Web scribes, Maxwell writes about what matters to her. Sometimes that includes the history of her house or the peas she's growing in her garden. But more often than not, she offers musings on community news and local lore, which amounts to holding a virtual looking glass up to the Shaw scene.

It's a beautiful day in the bloggerhood when potential D.C. homeowners or renters can scour the Internet to find answers to almost any question they might have about
their future digs. Neighborhood blogs may be geared toward folks who already live in a given 'hood, but that doesn't mean you can't use them to find out about where to move in and around the Beltway.

Continue Reading "Blogs in The 'Hood: Exploring Real Estate Hot Zones Online" »

YOUR CONDO SITS by a Metro station, and has two huge bathrooms and a great dishwasher. It's going to be a breeze to sell it, right? Maybe not. Besides the housing slump, sellers have to consider how their pads look and feel to potential buyers before putting up a "For Sale" sign.

That's why they're often hiring stagers. These design pros come in and organize, decorate and sometimes clean a property to make it look better to house-hunters.
"Real estate is all about marketing," says Lyric Turner, a professional stager. "If you have $7,000 to invest in your property, you could renovate a bathroom or maybe refinish hardwood floors. But with the same money, you could also stage a three-bedroom house. It affects the entire property, not just one room. It's a total overhaul makeover."

Turner owns Red House Staging and Interiors in D.C. and is an accredited staging professional. She says staging gives sellers some control over the stressful experience of putting their pads on the market. "Three things come into play when you're selling your home," says Turner. "Two of them you have control over; the third is the market. You can control the price, and you can control how it looks. The agents help you determine the correct price. You are responsible for how it looks," Turner says.

Continue Reading "Condo Living: Spiffed Up For a Sale" »

ON HGTV's "Get it Sold" (Wed. at 8:30 p.m.), designer and stager Sabrina Soto helps people transform their homes from cluttered to chic before putting them on the market. Here are her tips for how to whip your place into shape, whether you're selling it or just wanting to do some spring cleaning.

What's the No. 1 thing to do to freshen up a pad's looks? "Clean and clear out some furniture," says Soto. "That doesn't cost anything, and it can make such a big difference."

"Have a friend come over and give you an honest opinion," she says. Often, you live in a place so long that pet odors, mold or even plain old dirt aren't noticeable to you — but a pal will likely recognize them right away.

"Don't cook in the house for a few hours before an open house," says Soto. "You never know what might turn someone off. They might not even like the smell of banana bread."

Making your home look as light and bright as possible makes it feel more appealing, too. "Open the curtains, put on all the lights," says Soto. "It'll make the rooms look bigger."

Before letting potential buyers walk through your pad, "remove anything political or religious," says Soto. A McCain campaign volunteer might not bid if he spots "Vote for Hillary" signs in the home.

THERE'S AN OLD ADAGE that claims a man's (or woman's) home is his (or her) castle. But when your home is a condo, your castle is directly attached to the palaces of many other royal families, er, people. So, it's not as easy to rule your roost the way you could on, say, a 10-acre spread. In close quarters, you may find that your neighbors don't like listening to your Metallica CDs any more than you enjoy hearing them in the midst of their romantic conquests.

In her book "The Condo Owner's Answer Book" ($17, Sphinx Publishing), real estate pro Beth A. Grimm tries to help such buyers sleep easier. She delves into issues ranging from noise control to neighborhoods. We chatted with her recently.

» EXPRESS: What should people consider before buying a condo in this dropping market?
» GRIMM: One of the biggest things people need to be wary of is if they're squeezing in on a mortgage, there are likely to be increases in assessments coming in many associations because of the mortgage crisis. It's forcing more people out of their homes, and other owners in associations with lots of foreclosures are going to have to pick up the difference in money lost in assessments. So, the biggest concern [for buyers] is making sure they have a little financial cushion.

» EXPRESS: What are the advantages to owning a condo?
» GRIMM: The advantages of a condo are great. It's lock-and-go living. You don't have to do outdoor maintenance. There are more people around, so, if you leave, normally it's a safer situation because there are people milling around and it doesn't look like there's a vacant home. There are more amenities than you can usually afford in a home.

» EXPRESS: So, what's the downside?
» GRIMM: You don't have complete control over your finances. It's possible that your money could be mismanaged by volunteers. You have the mortgage plus assessments to pay, and you're subject to more market variations on building costs because you're involved in more construction — it's not just on your home but on the homes of others sharing the costs.

Continue Reading "Condo Living: What To Know Before You Bid" »

STEVEN DONERSON has a simple goal when he starts his work day at 9 a.m. A doorman at the Park Potomac Place condo complex in Potomac, Md., he'd like to walk outside and quickly scan the entrance way for that rare stray piece of litter.

"Usually I get a call before I even get the broom outside," he chuckles. Someone's entry card isn't working. The fitness room temperature needs adjusting. A resident wants help with a flat tire. Every day, there's an unpredictable roulette of requests.

Not that he's complaining: The 40-year-old D.C. native enjoys helping residents in the 10-story building with everything from picking up packages to advising would-be Romeos on which kind of flowers they should get their sweeties on Valentine's Day. As the holiday approached, Donerson became a popular petal pusher. "I'm like, 'Eh -- you don't want to do red. When was the last time you were in the doghouse? Three days ago? You definitely don't want to do red! You might want to do yellow, you might want to do pink. And if you're really in the doghouse, you just do purple.'"

Sure, he wears a gray uniform with navy lapels and brass buttons. He opens the door with a "Welcome to Park Potomac Place" and a big grin. But this self-professed perfectionist is much more than a smiling face who parks residents' cars and brings up their mail.

He'll wax nostalgic about the days in the '80s and '90s when he drummed with Tone Loc. A history buff? He'll show you a book of D.C. architecture he keeps in the lobby. He's a confidant: "When you deal with people on an every day basis, you develop a rapport with them," he says. "They'll tell you things they would never tell their family members." It's a good thing he's also good at keeping secrets.

Donerson is part of a new generation of pros who are stealthily and steadily integrating themselves into a few higher-end condos in the D.C. area. Call them hospitality hybrids, men and women who roll the responsibilities of gatekeepers, concierges and all-around go-to-guys (or gals) into one friendly package.

Doorman-building lovers in New York City have long realized that a familiar face at the front desk is nice. But many modern condo owners in D.C. also like having a mobile person who can be immediately dialed to cater to their needs, or sometimes, whims.

Continue Reading "Really, He's a Gate Guy: Condo Doormen" »

FORGET WORRYING ABOUT whether to go with a white linen or ivory damask tablecloth at your next dinner bash — your condo is so tiny, it can't actually fit a dining table. And yes, that Indonesian shindig in the latest issue of "Food and Wine" looks groovy, but where are you going to put 40 mango martini-swilling friends in your 500-square-foot junior one-bedroom? Entertaining in cramped quarters might sound more challenging than becoming a Cordon Bleu chef, but it is possible to host a fete that's big on style even in the smallest studio.

"You've got to play around with the space a little bit," says Josh Short, executive pastry chef at Buzz in Alexandria (901 Slaters Lane), who himself lives in a 750-square-foot, one-bedroom in Dupont Circle. He entertains several times a month, throwing events that have ranged from four-course dinner parties to cocktail receptions for 30.

"Utilizing your space properly is definitely the biggest challenge," says Short. "You really need to experiment. Be creative and use all the space you have."

Continue Reading "Condo Living: Parties in a Puny Place" »

INSPIRED INTERIORS ARE are a lot like memorable meals. In both cases, the most delicious ones mix and match a variety of ethnic influences, colors and textures. But it wasn't so long ago that if you wanted to inject your space with anything close to an exotic vibe, all you could do was plop down one of Pier 1's Papasan wicker chairs in the middle of your cookie-cutter living room.

But, thanks to globalization, we're now not only traveling to far-flung places, but those places are also arriving on our doorstep home design-wise via specialty stores and mass retailers selling everything from Chinese cabinets to West African masks and Swedish settees. The style sea change allows people to craft condo interiors that you might describe as trades wind chic — no stint in the Foreign Service required.

Take Pat Richardson, 45, who works for defense contractor Science Applications Incorporated at the Pentagon. In his 800-square-foot loft-like condo near U Street, he's combined mid-century modern classic furniture by Le Corbusier and Saarinen with exotic elements.

Think a Tibetan rug in his living room, a Japanese Tansu chest in his kitchen, and a Canadian weaving, French country armoire, Vietnamese pots and World War I recruiting posters in his bedroom.

"For years before I bought my condo, I rented an apartment in Mt. Pleasant from a guy who owned a design shop on F Street in the 1970s," says Richardson. "This is where I learned how to pull a place together. I started with clean-lined classic furniture and then layered in pottery, textiles and artifacts."

Like many Washingtonians, Richardson travels for his job and for pleasure — mostly in Southeast Asia, where he has purchased many of the accent pieces for his condo.

Continue Reading "Condo Living: Global Warming Trend" »

WITH TWO KIDS AND A MOTHER-IN-LAW crammed into their Olney townhouse, Sage and Nancy Maas decided it was time to go house hunting.

But the couple, who moved to the D.C. area after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina, soon ran into a problem — Nancy Maas liked the idea of a pad in urban Takoma Park, but "my husband was pushing rural," she explains.

So, to convince her of the joys of country living, they didn't just scope out a Carroll County abode; they took the whole family to spend the night there, making s'mores by a fire, playing around the pond and cooking breakfast with eggs from the neighbor's chickens.

The Maas clan's unusual slumber party experience came courtesy of the new HGTV show "Sleep on It," which promotes the idea that savvy shoppers can really get to know a house only by living in it. (Catch the next episode Jan. 30 at 10:30 p.m.)

Continue Reading "Condo Living: Sleep On It" »

SOME CONDO BUILDINGS include gyms, indoor pools and other add-ons to entice would-be buyers. But a new structure planned to rise in Arlington will boast an atypical amenity: a ground-floor funeral home.

The project is the Club on Quincy, a building slated to be constructed near the Ballston and Virginia Square stations on the Orange Line. And as The Post's Jerry Markon reported on Saturday, the jokes have already started about how the current Arlington Funeral Home, pictured here, will be incorporated into the new building.

Continue Reading "New Arlington Condo Amenity: A Funeral Home" »