Comments on: Judging Pop Ups

By: ET

ET — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:15:57 +0000

A house that looked like that in it’s entirety would be OK. But I agree with Nita. That style as a pop-up on a tradition row house (despite the modern over the door overhang) it looks stupid.

By: Nita

Nita — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:29:58 +0000

While it looks like it was constructed with quality material, that pop-up is terribly mismatched to the rest of the house and sticks out like a sore thumb(s down).

By: PabloMa

PabloMa — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:58:25 +0000

Not great, I agree… Having said that, I always believe that it’s better to NOT go with the matchy matchy stuff. We all know it’s an addition, so make it drastically different for some emphasis and creativity. Oh, and no vinyl please.

It’s kind of small-city-in-northern-europe, or something equally as ugly/cool.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:58:31 +0000

Even though the house is old, it’s not in a historic district and apparently not individually landmarked so the historic preservation review board would not be involved in the review of the pop-up. That said, at least this pop-up was shows some care in its design, as opposed to the vinyl-clad monstrosities that appear on too many other houses.

By: mt p

mt p — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:47:36 +0000

I looked at this house when it was for sale a couple years ago. Even with the pop-up and modern interior renovations I recall it being small and overpriced — somewhere around $450-500k I think. That block is noisy with all the traffic.

By: David

David — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:22:52 +0000

Some of the popups are well done and look old — some may actually be old. Of course, a lot are neither, unfortunately.

About the window issue: according to an architect friend, the fire code bans windows, doors etc. in potential party walls. That is, if your wall is along a property line and the owner on the other side can build right up to it (your standard row house situation), no openings.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:07:23 +0000

I’m in the process of trying to put a loft on top of a condo conversion project in Mt. Vernon. The law here is that it can’t be majorly visible from the street (It can’t hinder the “character” of the street scene), but Mt. Vernon is a historic neighborhood, so I would imagine that the rules are stricter.

I can tell you that the historic board is cracking down on pop-ups. Apparently they’ve been burned too many times- approving a small addition and builders adding much more- so now they are looking at each project extremely thoroughly before approving anything. Probably a good thing- I see a ton of cheap ones that totally dwarf the neighbors.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:54:37 +0000

it looks like a fancy tool shed.

By: Anon5

Anon5 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:43:35 +0000

Fugly. Does not even come close to matching the style and/or color of any of the homes around it. I wish people would just buy a larger rowhouse to begin with rather than breaking up the roofline of a nice set of houses.

I thought the law said that you musn’t be able to see the popup while standing at the curb in front of the house? At least that’s what my realtor told me.

Then again, enforcement of so many D.C. laws is enforced either loosely or not at all: for example how many basement rental units in the city do you reckon have front and rear private entrances, adequate ceiling height AND a COO? I’m guessing a tiny fraction.

By: vonstallin

vonstallin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:30:14 +0000

it stands out..so it looks ugly on its own, but it is one of the better pop ups…a real good one is at sherman and parkroad.

Once the rest of the surrounding houses do the same it will not look so out of place. The house is so tiny I needs the pop up..

Like in the other thread, $300,000 and take the $75,000 towards a pop up and gutting the place….