Mark Merlino, a builder and architect who has worked in the D.C. area for more than three decades, learned of the property, then being used as storage space for an adjacent building, in 2000. It had no electricity, water or sewer connections. It had recently been an auto repair shop, but a double barn door was a reminder of its time as a stable, carriage house and a repair shop for horse-drawn buggies in the mid-20th century.
Merlino saw the building’s potential and bought it in 2003 for $200,000.
“That just comes to you,” he said. “You don’t get an opportunity to get many spaces that are as unique as that. It’s a trapezoid [a four-sided figure with one pair of parallel sides] stuck in the middle of a triangular shaped block.”
Merlino spent two years emptying the building, securing power and water supplies and drawing up plans for the interior, which included replacing a ladder to a hayloft with stairs to second-floor living space. The auto repair shop’s wooden hoist is an eye-catching presence at the second-floor landing, and exposed beams and compressed-air tubes are visible overhead.
A longtime renovator, Merlino made use of salvaged materials, from other work sites, in this renovation.
“Some of it I had for 15 years before I got a spot to stick them,” he said. “And that was a good spot to stick stuff because nobody was complaining they didn’t like it.”
The reclaimed materials include handrails, now on the second-floor landing, from a site in Baltimore; closet doors from a garage in downtown D.C.; kitchen doors from a D.C. church; radiators on the second level; and a cast-iron whale that once embellished an oven at a Baltimore seafood restaurant and now decorates the fireplace mantel.
Merlino sold the property in 2017 for $1.17 million, and since then it has been an owner-occupied residence and a rental property. One owner was looking for an investment property and knew others would be more lucrative, but “fell in love with the character and history,” real estate agent Kara Fenclau said.
A pale-green front doorway opens to a foyer with a closet. A skylight, two stories up, is visible from the entrance. The living room has brick walls, painted white, and built-in shelving next to a fireplace. A full bathroom on this level has a clawfoot tub. The kitchen has a breakfast bar and glass-fronted cabinets with red trim. The dining room, with a built-in bench and matching table, has exposed brick on one wall.
Upstairs, the primary bedroom suite has three built-in closets and an en suite bathroom. Two more bedrooms on the second level share a hall bathroom. The house comes with a small patio, in front, on a lot that is taxed separately.
“If I owned the home myself,” Fenclau said, “I would be caught between a rock and hard place of whether to use [the lot] for parking or to have a nice patio area to put up string lights and enjoy a drink at night.”
- Bedrooms/bathrooms: 3/3
- Approximate square-footage: 2,000
- Lot size: 973 square feet, plus 647 square feet for the patio
- Features: The original structure was built in 1930 and converted to a residence in the early 2000s. In the meantime, it was, among other things, a repair shop for horse-drawn carriages and, in relatively recent years, an auto repair shop. It has four skylights, heated floors and parking for two cars.
- Listing agent: Kara Fenclau, Nomadic Real Estate
Read More: Former auto shop in D.C. on the market for $1.35 million