Building for sale

Liquid amber or sweet gum tree's colorful leaves today. Dec. 6th, 2012

 The past month has been a bit stressful due to the sign that we found in our front yard when we returned home from Williamsburg last month. For Sale, the whole apartment building we have lived in for the last ten years was on the market "as is" meaning the current owners were anxious to get some money. We have had a great relationship with our owners. They cut the grass and we keep the garden full of flowers and our rent hasn't been raised since we arrived. So we were very upset when we drove up and the sign post was there welcoming us home. We panicked for a day or two but after looking at a couple of similar apartments that cost more and were not as nice in the neighborhood realized maybe we were not going to be out so fast. Common sense says it's good to have long term tenants and ones who do the garden and help rent empty apartments to copacetic new tenants has to be worth something. After the first open house we had some possibilities of new landlords that would value us and what we bring to the building. It is a great investment for who ever owns it because of our location in DC and near metro and a huge University which is developing more housing and shopping right now all around us. We live across the street from Turkey Thicket a city recreation center with a heated indoor pool and huge playing fields and tennis courts. So when we saw the development begin near the University and metro station we got a little nervous that our building might go on the market to a developer who would run us all out. Now that the SOLD sign is up and we have met our neighbors who are buying the building we have high hopes that are rent increase won't blow away our budget and that we can stay and see things improve along with other long time residents of the area.

 

besides the sold sign, another surprise was a new redbud tree planted by the city last week you can see it there in the shadow of the telephone pole in the foreground. Also notice our huge rosemary bush at the side of the stair railing. 

 4 unit garden apartments built in 1930's needs some work 

 
It was a different story the last time we had to move. Initially we were told by the buyer  9th St. NW to stay put that she was not going to change anything except paint the front facade. On 9th St. NW across from the vintage O St. Market and Giant food grocery store it had a mixed use commercial/residential zoning so the cards were stacked against us. We were asked after a couple of months to move out in 2 weeks. The rent was legally doubled to help us hurry up and get out. This turn of events was done so the new owner could gut the entire building and remodel and upgrade the space into a restaurant which took over a year to complete. It took Keith and I three months from the day we got that notice to vacate the 9th St. apartment and garden. We were lucky to find this garden apartment that is even better than the one on 9th St. Living near Logan Circle and the Convention Center our 9th St. neighborhood was hip, cool and fun but Brookland is more like a home and as we get older it fits better than hip, cool and fun.  We have been very happy here and endeavoured in many ways to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood. Gardening and doing neighborhood watch has added to the safety around here where drug dealers used to sit on our stoop and meet clients. We also have some great neighbors in particular a lot of poets which is a really new experience for me as a visual artist. So we are going to do our best to stick it out. We won't know if we get to stay until the sales negotiations are complete and we get to plead our case with the new owners but we are very hopeful that we can continue to call 10th St. and Brookland our home.
In other news: Some flowers started showing up in our house recently and I thought it was time to share some images with my readers. Not so much quilting this month worth showing at this point. The actual work of making all those stitches to bind the backing, batting and quilt top together isn't quite as exciting as making the colorful top pieces. I am trying to get back in the swing of piecing and getting ready to go to a group meeting of the DC Modern Quilting Guild Saturday for some inspiration. I did find a neat trick for basting using a product that is like water soluble spray glue. I am going to try it on my Seminole quilt so stay tuned for reports of my success or disaster in the coming weeks.

We also had a bird of prey catch one of our many sparrows for a luncheon and pause to eat in our white cedar tree by the bedroom window! Not sure what it was but some sort of hawk we think. It did have long legs and seemed kind of small for a hawk but had the right colors of ruddy red and white breast feathers. Sorry the bright sun against white across the street turned these into shadow representations.