Open House Hopping: Taylor Swift Autograph Not Included

The first installment of a weekly feature checking in on houses up for sale.

A homey touch.

Yesterday, the Sunday before the last Sunday before that $8,000 tax credit expires, was a huge open house day in the District: Seems like every other house had a sign out front, welcoming strangers to traipse around spit-shined interiors. It was, in fact, a nationwide open house declared by the National Association of Realtors and advertised by Long and Foster, which has a clock on its website ticking down the seconds until April 30.

But those interested in the house I stumbled into, at 3333 Cleveland Avenue, might not be as motivated by a few thousand bucks. The five-bedroom abode, complete with two dishwashers and all original Victorian glass doorknobs, is asking $2,179,000. The owners, Dagmar and Carl Farr, are selling the house independently—they put it on the market in October, but took it off over the holidays and just started showing it again this month.

It’s staged just as the residents had it—Dagmar’s mother recently passed away—with a full liquor cabinet and the whole bit. But the detail that caught my eye was a framed photo in a boy’s room on the third floor, nestled in between Redskins paraphernalia, which Taylor Swift signed when the Farrs’ son attended her concert.