Out and About - There is no mistaking an estate sale

When you walk in, the aura is unmistakable. Everything is clearly dated. The stairs creak. The plumbing may shriek. Not only are the walls painted unfashionable colors, but every surface needs attention. Of course, the floors need refinishing and the garden, replanting. And let's not dwell on the musty odor, the shabbiness of bygone elegance and the inescapable gloom of a home fallen into disrepair.

Such is the lot of a property on the market as an estate sale. One of them is now once again on the market, reduced from last fall's $5.35 million to $4.5 million today. The home has been in the same family for more than half a century. It encompasses nearly 8,000 square feet on more than an acre of land in a Cleveland Park enclave. Expanded from a farmhouse, this is a place built for entertaining. It has a 30' x 45' living room and 30' x 20' dining room, a master suite with two dressing rooms and inelegant bath, servants' quarters, guest rooms and so on.

This is where lived the political journalist Joseph Alsop, who died in 1989, leaving his widow alone in the dwelling, which reverberates with the echoes of dinners enjoyed by historic figures, even presidents. Photos from those days portray a glorious home, one now with its potential to be realized all over again.

According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Alsop joined the New York Herald Tribune as a staff reporter in 1932 and moved to its Washington, D.C., bureau in 1936. His Washington political column, written (1937-40) with Robert E. Kintner under the title "The Capital Parade," was later renamed "Matter of Fact." After World War II, Alsop resumed the column, writing it with his brother Stewart from 1946 to 1958. Stewart went on to write for the Saturday Evening Post and Newsweek. When Joseph Alsop retired in 1974, the column was believed to be the longest-running nationally syndicated opinion column, appearing thrice weekly in 300 newspapers. Although consistently anti-Soviet, the column expressed opposition to Senator Joe McCarthy's "Red scare" tactics. Stewart described himself and his brother as "very square, New Deal liberals," but Joseph was a conservative on foreign issues and supported the war against Vietnam.

For history, perhaps the cracked bathroom tiles and laminate kitchen counters can be forgiven. For today, though, everything, but everything, needs to be improved. The cost will be astronomical. But to many with the resources, the patina of perished souls may well be worth the price.

Some of the properties listed by other agents and seen in the past week:

• A curious 1920 Takoma Park, Md. Home that is part bungalow, part Craftsman, part colonial. On nearly a quarter acre, this property boasts nicely landscaped grounds, an 18' x 18' detached studio without running water beyond a free-form heated in-ground swimming pool. It is the main house, which has an inviting front porch that will appeal only to a narrow segment of potential buyers. Additions have made for odd flow upstairs, where the master bedroom and bath are jammed into what may have been a sunroom beyond what certainly was one of the three other bedrooms and now serves as an awkward sitting room. But this is a home that draws you into unusually airy rooms on the main floor, including a very large dining room, a marginally updated kitchen and warmly welcoming family room, which has a wood stove sans hearth and lovely deck with wide steps to the backyard. There is no central air conditioning, and the price of $785,000 seems about right.
  
• In Brightwood, a gut renovated condo conversion with 14 one-bedroom apartments and a single two-bedroom apartment that range between the mid-500 square feet to the mid-700 square feet. There are five parking spaces separately available for $17,500. The apartments are decent with high ceilings, open floor plans, gas fireplaces, washer/dryers, recessed lighting (some of it edging into the crown molding), high-end stainless appliances, granite countertops and good-looking baths. The prices range from $259,900 to $364,900, and anyone rash enough to buy one of these condos, which have monthly fees below $200, deserves the inconvenient commute by almost any means of transportation.
  
• A four-level, four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath Victorian rowhouse that has been splendidly renovated in Dupont Circle. This 1885 dwelling has gorgeous original pine flooring, very high ceilings, custom stained glass, three-car parking (at the expense of any yard at all), a deck, a one-bedroom rental unit so nice that an owner might well be happy there, and a location par excellence. Among the home's numerous assets or a 20' x 20' living room, an expansive open center island kitchen, first-rate appliances and finishing, ample closet space, baths dripping with marble, and two zones for heating and cooling. Withal, the asking price of $1.689 million is pretty steep.
  
• In Silver Spring's North Hills neighborhood, a three-bedroom, two-bath colonial with a terraced backyard, small dated kitchen, hardwood floors, period knotty pine recreation room complete with bar, and small rooms. There are, as well, central air conditioning, built-in bookcases, a sunroom and slate patio. Perhaps the biggest asset of the house is also its biggest drawback: such proximity to I-395 that the traffic noise is readily audible. But the price, reduced from $589,000 to $569,000, is within reason.
  
• A Chevy Chase, D.C. red brick colonial on close to a quarter acre with four bedrooms, two and a half baths, an updated kitchen, screened-in porch and an expanse of lawn and gardens. But those four bedrooms are on the second floor with a single bath, and the family room downstairs is straight out of the 1950s with its dry bar and knotty-pine paneling. Still, it's a lot of space and a lot of land, making the price of $899,900 within reason.
  
• In Mount Vernon Square near the Convention Center and central business district, new construction containing what are described as four high-end condos being sold with 46" flat panel LCD televisions, exceptionally stylish features and unstintingly expensive details – from the travertine marble floors and mosaic stone tile showers to the hot tubs on balconies and full-size laundries. But . . . the developer must be from Mars and his sales team from Venus. The admittedly breathtaking penthouse, which comes with a parking space, one bedroom, a second-level unenclosed loft termed a second bedroom and two balconies is listed at $799,900 with a $295 monthly fee. "Make me an offer," says the agent. "Everything is negotiable." It better be.
  
• An ordinary two-bedroom, two-bath condo renovated in 2004 in Petworth. On the first floor, this low-ceilinged 829-SF apartment with some hardwood and some carpeted floors is more than adequate, coming as it does with gated parking, updated appliances and free laundry. It is listed realistically at $315,000 with a $231 monthly fee that does not include utilities.
  
• In Columbia Heights, a newly converted building with 19 apartments that are being very well done a few blocks from the Metro and the Tivoli development. The units (the biggest of which is 750 square feet), feature nine-foot ceilings, open floor plans, fancy kitchens and baths, depending on upgrades, in-unit washer/dryers and good use of space. But their prices – from $249,900 with a $145 monthly fee for a basement one-bedroom condo to $364,900 with a $167 fee for a two-bedroom unit on the third (and top) floor – need to come down.
  
• A quaint three-bedroom Cape in the Highland View subdivision of Silver Spring. Facing a highly trafficked street, this brick home built in 1936 has a detached garage, very large rear yard and only a full bath upstairs and half bath in the basement, which has a so-so family room with new Berber carpet and lots of storage space. The main floor has small living room, dining room, sunroom and an outdated kitchen. It is offered at an appropriate $500,000, which takes into account its location and the absence of central air conditioning.
  
• In Logan Circle, a three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath attached Victorian on two levels, plus a storage basement and a carriage house (now garage) with essentially unfinished second floor. Among its features: 11-foot ceilings, original southern pine floors and stairs, period ceilings and built-ins. Although the main floor has been respectfully opened up and kitchen decently updated, the bath shortage is a significant drawback, and that carriage house may sound more romantic than it is in reality. The price of $945,000 is too high.
  
• A Mount Pleasant attached rowhouse with a hard-to-find front entrance, a pleasant in-law suite, covered parking, four bedrooms on the second floor along with two dual-entry baths, and a choppy layout yet an eccentric charm. Built in 1930, this home, which also has two heating/cooling zones, is slightly overpriced at $724,000.