Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

You know, the other night I was sitting around my house and my head was sort of cold, and I thought, wouldn't it be nice if there were big armchairs in here with these sort of metal helmets attached to them that swiveled down and blew hot air onto my head? But there weren't. So I put on a hat instead. I forgot where I was going with this.

Oh right. The open house. So THIS place – this is the place with the hot-air-helmet-chairs. I have to admit, I didn't realize until I got there that it was a house-slash-upscale hair salon. When I looked at the listing I thought it just had really quirky furniture. (Yes, I do this for a living.) Of course, as the agent helpfully pointed out, it doesn't have to be a hair salon. Just like you, me, and every other American – it could be anything! (The main difference is that with the house, it's actually true.) An office, a consulate, a private residence, whatever.

A beautiful historic rowhouse in the West End, with gleaming hardwood floors and tons of light, it's a live/work property, so the upstairs is still totally residential, with two very large bedrooms and a fine bathroom. Out back is a wooden deck and a large brick patio with a quirky little fountain, and lots of privacy. And the salon level could easily be converted to a regular house-type house where you do normal life stuff like sitting around and watching the entire first season of “Night Court” online while eating out of styrofoam takeout containers and then in a fit of existential disgust afterwards asking yourself, “yes, I'm biologically alive, but am I really living?” (I decided the answer was no. Then I watched Season 2.)

*Update: the present owners are going to remove the hair salon before the sale, so yeah ... no big chairs with air helmets attached in the living room.

1013 24th Street NW
2 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths
$1,299,000