Simply Elegant Home Designs

It's Time to Build! Almost every day I ask myself why more people are not taking advantage of this crazy building market. By crazy I mean this is a ridiculous buyers market. The answer seems to be fear. We can't seem to get away from all the bad news. Just turn on your tv or your computer and you get nailed with it. I cannot say if the fear is justified or not. Each persons

Simply Elegant Home Designs

It's Time to Build! Almost every day I ask myself why more people are not taking advantage of this crazy building market. By crazy I mean this is a ridiculous buyers market. The answer seems to be fear. We can't seem to get away from all the bad news. Just turn on your tv or your computer and you get nailed with it. I cannot say if the fear is justified or not. Each persons

Mary E. Stewart mansion

Directly across the street from The Lindens is my favorite house in DC still in private hands, the Mary E. Stewart mansion, designed by Paul Cret. Cret started work on the house for Stewart, the daughter of a lumber baron, in 1938 and it was completed the next year in 1939. Stewart's sister, Devore Chase, lived next door in a (slightly smaller) grand Louis XV style mansion designed by William

The Lindens

The oldest house in DC is not the White House, and interestingly enough, did not start life out in 'the district' but rather north of Boston! The Lindens (also known as the King Hooper House) was originally built in 1754 as a Georgian styled country retreat in Danvers, Massachusetts. The house was dismantled and moved to Kalorama in 1934 by George and Miriam Morris who bought the house for

A cozy retreat

We have a long holiday weekend (in reverence of Martin Luther King) and the weather here in DC is decidely cozy: Cold and rainy. One of my favorite past-times is taking an evening walk. Everything looks so beautiful in the dark and you catch private glimpses into houses (nothing voyeuristic, I just want to see the house!). While in Paris one evening , we caught a glimpse into this cozy retreat

A very Vervoordt stair

In the heart of Antwerp lies a 16th century warehouse which now bears the Vervoordt stamp. Not Axel, but his son Boris. The former coffee warehouse, from 1577, was one of many in Antwerp owned by the family. In 1995 Boris moved in and slowly took over, floor by floor, turning it into his private home. A feature which most caught my eye, the staircase from a 1970s renovation, is a pre-cast