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618 R St. NW

List price: $650,000

Previous sale price: $395,000 (May 2004)

Square footage: 1,710

This Victorian row house in the heart of Shaw is almost perfect. You’ll marvel at the wooden floors, which have been replaced and beautifully finished. There’s a spacious kitchen with new appliances. And it’s all a block from the Metro. But there are still plenty of upgrades left to make: The floors may be new, but the wooden stairs retain their shineless charm. And the three-bedroom house’s only shower is appointed in tacky stained glass and painted with itty-bitty fishies, a contrast to the elegant marble inlays adorning the hallway outside the bathroom. But you’ll have to wait to fix up the barren back patio: Because of an adjacent condo-construction project, and the giant pit they’ve dug into the ground to lay its foundation, that’s your problem, too. —Brian Beutler

Art accompanying story in the printed newspaper is not available in this archive: Photograph by Darrow Montgomery.