courtesy of Capitol Cluster School
There are a few heralds of autumn that happen each year on Capitol Hill. First, it’s the street festivals on 8th and H streets, then comes the arrival of pumpkins at Fragers and the Dead Man’s Run at Congressional Cemetery, and then there’s the Renovator’s House Tour, a major fundraiser for the Capitol Hill Cluster School.
It’s the 14th year of the tour and you’re sure to be wowed by the eight homes on display next Saturday, October 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The walking tour features houses with stunning top down renovations, homes with clever solutions for the challenges (and stuff) of family life, and others with amazing DIY interiors. The focus of the tour is how to create the house of your dreams on a real-life budget. Trust me, you’ll walk away wanting to save your pennies and dreaming big — or maybe moping as you arrive home and face bulging closets and a dated kitchen.
The Capitol Cluster School is a unique DC public school that serves 1200 students at Peabody Primary, Watkins Elementary and Stuart-Hobson Middle schools. Every cent the PTA raises from the event goes to the school and is applied to programs a variety of enrichment programs.
Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 on day of tour. You can buy them at Frager’s Paint Store, Hill’s Kitchen and Schneider’s of Capitol Hill or online.
You learn on these tours that you’ll always be surprised when you do a renovation and creativity is key to make the most of our hundred-plus year-old houses. Tight budgets are workable, especially with a little (ok, a lot) of elbow grease.
courtesy of the Capitol Hill Cluster School
One home in Hill East, owned by an architect, is a lesson in how to get the most from your budget. The couple said the renovation of the house, with it’s clean lines, open light-filled spaces and mid-century vibe, brought their family and friends together with different tasks such as painting, millwork, and caring for the couple’s young children. The husband spent numerous weekends constructing and installing millwork and transformed IKEA-brand closet units with molding and paint. Their tidy backyard is a bit of a quiet suburban oasis on a busy urban block.
Another home, a grand dame Victorian on Massachusetts Avenue, shows how expertise brought to renovations by builders and designers, can be key to saving not only the time for busy professional couples, but money as well. The 140 year-old home is filled with nods to the past such as glittering chandeliers and original plaster and doors, but also modern updates such as a kitchen designed for storage and entertaining, and a sleek itty-bitty bathroom. You’ll find a bedroom bench perfect for a child that resolved an oddity left from an earlier renovation and walk on a new reclaimed heart-of-pine floor. During demolition, the builder discovered weeds growing under the original floor due to the minimal foundation built in the home’s original construction.
After hundreds of buckets of dirt were removed, there’s not only a safer floor but a basement with enviable eight-foot ceilings that is the center of family life and features guest and laundry rooms and a hub of tech circuitry.