HOUSE II vs. KUMQUAT...Round I

We fondly refer to Carlos' new project as House II. House II is located in the South East of Capitol Hill - one block from the metro, the capitol and the republican club! The earliest records we could find of the house date back to 1864 when it was owned by Mary A. and Charles O. Moore. He was a brick layer and when he passed away she turned the house into a boarding house. Not much work was done on the house after she left - or at least not according to official permit records. In 2006 the house was inhabited by young renters - most likely staffers from the Hill - and a fire broke out, caused by an iron left on. The fire burned much of the house, leaving little but an eyesore up for sale.

Carlos was intrigued by the idea of putting all the knowledge he had gained from our trial-and-mostly-error first renovation to use and it was before they cut the cord on sub-prime mortgages. It was meant to be....or it so it seemed to him. I looked at the burned out structure and saw impending doom and my dream of having a beach house fade away into the distant future. My aunt Mary chided me using a George Bernard Shaw quote: "You see things and say 'why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'why not?'"

I guess we'll see if it turns into bankruptcy or a beautiful home for Carlos, Me and the impeding Kumquat. The house has been all consuming for Carlos and so I decided to race him - can he birth a house quicker than I can birth Kumquat? We shall see. The winner gets an all expense paid trip to Paris (or something). In the meantime, we'll try to compile some of the adventures here of House II and the advent of Kumquat.