Comments on: Hmm, People Don’t Want Historic Districts?

By: JAMIII

JAMIII — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:29:16 +0000

I’m so down with what AK has said. Quit your griping about DC Neener and just move to the burbs. You are always referring to Marion Barry as if he is still the mayor. In case you haven’t noticed the majority of us who were actually here in DC during that time have moved beyond it. Seems you can’t so do yourself a favor and sell your house and move out. It gets tiring listening to your overbearing, holier than thou, sadistic, anti DC rants. That you try to pass off as truth. Your the biggest idiot of them all.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:25:24 +0000

This Berkely study, http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2373&context=lbnl , shows that weatherstripping and storm window installation on wood windows is just as energy efficient, and cheaper than vinyl replacement windows. There’s lots of big words and scientific calculations, so most here would rather stick to myth, stereotype, and misinformation.

Wood windows last 100 years and can be repaired. Vinyl windows last 10 years and cannot be repaired (once the little rubber gaskets fail they’re useless).

Over 90% of building permits reviewed by HPO are approved in less than 15 minutes.

A certain Mt. Pleasant ANC member is on a jihad against HPRB and exporting his falsehoods and distorted opinions to surrounding neighborhoods. That’s the source of the yellow signs.

By: AK

AK — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:02:33 +0000

Yeah, you folks are griping. Honestly people, please just move out to NoVA or MD. Find a nice green suburb with energy efficient windows. Leave the historic housing to the rest of us. Prices might actually become reasonable enough after you gentrifiers leave. But perhaps that’s why you complain so much, eh? You spent too much for a house that needed some work…hmmm. I wonder…

By: neener

neener — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:58:48 +0000

I mean one of the worst situations I dealt with was when one next door neighbor died and her house was overrun with termites and rats- damaging my house in half a dozen locations and introducing termite swarms on FOUR different occasions before I got her elderly children to handle it.

Them the neighbor on the other side dug up their back yard and a torrential rain damaged their foundation and causing a 1.5 mm wide crack to form on about 17 feet of my wall that abuts their house- home inspectors and engineers we paid for said it was nothing, but…

NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED in a freestanding single family house and that’s all I should have looked at.

By: neener

neener — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:54:02 +0000

There are people posting this same story in defense of historic neighborhoods. To reiterate my position:
1. Historic neighborhood construction is controlled by the same local government that gave us Mayor Barry and Hariette Waters- it’s not perfect and it’s not fair and the court ruled against their policies w/ regards to handicap access anyway.
2. My window frames were damaged by an owner who, from what I understand, lived in my house in the 70s and 80s. People who bought it in the early 90s renovated some of it and I renovated a lot more. The wood accents on the inside of the windows had dangerous lead levels and were, unbeknownst to me, trashed.

To comment on 4:41, yes, if I knew:
1. how bad the condition of my house was
2. how little the home inspector would really be able to check for
3. how much damage was hidden by “improvements” like new basement ceilings, wall to wall carpeting and paint
4. How much poisonous lead paint was in the decorative woodwork
5. how rotten the insulation was
6. How poor the 1950s addition was architected and built
7. and how much more contractors would charge than my realtor suggested they would charge (She suggested a $25k kitchen remodel, but quotes I saw were not one penny lower than $45k and the other two were in the $50k and $60k
8. that the interpretation of the historic district rules could change over time, eventually claiming that rear-facing facades where a populated coach house exists in an alley would be affected

Then yes, I never would have bought my house.

Had I known what I know now, I never would have bought my house.

Of course I wouldn’t.

I have spent, on average, $6000 per year on home repairs vs my parents who spend about half that.

and TRUST ME, as someone who bought a house for the antique fixtures and historic look at feel and who has a basement chock full of antiques I’m restoring, I should LOVE historic preservation. Remember I have a price quote detailing rebuilding the back of my house WHILE KEEPING ALL ORIGINAL FIXTURES! However, I learned that repairing old windows is not cheap and not something that someone can learn to do while managing 20 people who would do anything to get out of work.

I have two friends at work who have run into the same problems I have- they loved the IDEA of a historic DC townhouse, but lost all their cool fixtures during lead abatement.

By: eric in ledroit

eric in ledroit — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:10:55 +0000

i’m not griping, i’m saying that this anonymous person ranting about how superior historic windows are is being naive about the condition of the historic houses in much of DC.

personally I’m glad to be in a historic preservation area because I hate siding and popups. but i am realistic about things too.

By: John

John — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:41:37 +0000

So for those of you who are griping about the condition of the houses you bought in LeDroit, etc. that were borded up… why did you move there? Wasn’t it because you liked the old house to begin with? Now you are griping that your do-gooder efforts at restoring your house and neighborhood are being made more expensive by preservationists? Are you kidding? Sounds more to me like buyer-beware. You should have bought a condo.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:35:45 +0000

You know what, do the research. Look at what the average life span is of vinyl windows and, worse, double paned Low-E glass. When the seal goes, the window frame might look fine but it will need to be replaced. But I’m done arguing with you. The data exists, whether you want to look into it or not.

Yes, there is a lot of deferred maintenance in CH and Petworth. That’s a shame. But the problem is the lack of maintenance, not the material. Neglect can be expensive but, again, in some cases (Note I’m not saying ALL), repair is cheaper than replacement in the long run. It deserves consideration.

By: eric in ledroit

eric in ledroit — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:57:34 +0000

“right on Neener. Most house in Petworth have a lot of deferred maintenance and in real life people simply cannot afford to renovate them the way they would on This Old House.”

exactly. many of us in ledroit park are living in houses that were boarded up or used by squatters for quite a while in the 80s and 90s.

By: PetworthRes

PetworthRes — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:53:42 +0000

right on Neener. Most house in Petworth have a lot of deferred maintenance and in real life people simply cannot afford to renovate them the way they would on This Old House.