Author: ARLnow.com Sponsor

Ask Eli: Who Is Responsible for Supply Lines?

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This regularly-scheduled sponsored Q&A column is written by Eli Tucker, Arlington-based Realtor and Arlington resident. Please submit your questions to him via email for response in future columns. Enjoy!

Question: We bought an older home with original water and sewer lines. Who is responsible for the maintenance and replacement of these lines and how do I know if there’s a problem?

Answer: You are responsible for the main plumbing lines for water and sewage running between your home and the public lines. In most cases, the gas company is responsible for everything to and including the meter (attached to your home) and you’re responsible for the lines after the meter.

The main lines are usually buried under your front yard and replacement costs (water and sewage) often start at a couple thousand dollars and can easily exceed $10,000. Costs vary based on a few key factors including:

  • Distance from the public line to your home
  • Pipe material
  • Type of excavation/installation (difficulty in digging up old plumbing, number of turns in new pipe)
  • Cost to return landscaping to original state (this is on you, not the County)

In most cases, Washington Gas will return your property/landscaping to its original condition, including hardscape and your lawn (even your driveway), after excavating for repair or replacement. It’s not a bad idea to find out where your gas supply line is and plan landscaping with that in mind.

Identifying Problems

The life expectancy on many of the most common materials used for main plumbing lines range from 50-100 years, but tree root growth, unnatural disturbances like new landscaping, corrosion and pressure build-ups can cause leaks, blockages and other damage that you should monitor.

The most effective and most expensive way to look for problems is to hire a plumber to scope the lines with a camera to see if there are any issues. The cost of doing this often exceeds $500 per line, but can give you peace of mind or early warnings of a problem.

If you don’t want to pay a plumber to scope your lines, you can monitor for signs of a problem.

  • Water Line: higher water bills, lower water pressure, flooding in yard when there isn’t rain
  • Sewer Line: slow drainage/clogs in multiple areas of the house, foul smell inside or outside, odd behavior from plumbing like bubbling sounds
  • Gas Line: if you smell a gas/rotten egg odor, hissing sound from a gas line/meter, hazy/cloudy near gas line, plants dying, issues with gas-powered appliances

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Last Chance to Register for DC Bike Ride This Saturday

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Mother’s Day has passed, but it’s never too late to celebrate!

DC Bike Ride is offering a $10 discount on registrations to their annual bike ride on May 18!

DC Bike Ride is the perfect way to celebrate with friends and family. The 20-mile closed-road ride means NO cars, just FUN! Say goodbye to the stress of having to dodge traffic — this is your chance to own the road worry-free. The ride is only a few days away — hurry to register and save!

In addition to cruising through the most iconic landmarks in D.C., you get to enjoy some of the best food and music D.C. has to offer along the course. And the fun keeps going after the ride! You can stop by the Finish Festival on 3rd street after you’re done with the ride to enjoy music, foods, drinks and lots of giveaways and fun!

Don’t miss out on your last chance to join the ride of a lifetime. Sign up for DC Bike Ride and let the fun times roll!

To redeem your $10 discount, click here and enter code MOM10 at checkout!

The Chew: Summer Treats For Your Pet

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

The following bi-weekly column is written and sponsored by Bark + Boarding, which provides a heart-centered and safe environment for your pets. Conveniently located at 5818-C Seminary Road in Bailey’s Crossroads, Bark & Boarding offers doggy daycare, boarding, grooming, walking and training services, plus in-home pet care.

By Chelsea Pennington, Bark + Boarding Writer and Animal Enthusiast

Nothing says summer like enjoying a sweet frozen treat like ice cream or a snow cone.

While you might be inclined to let your dog have a lick, many desserts are artificially sweetened with Xylitol, which is toxic to dogs. So instead of sharing your summer dessert, try one of these easy pet-friendly treats to beat the heat.

Frozen Fresh Breath Treats 

  • 1 cup of plain or Greek yogurt
  • Small handful of fresh parsley leaves
  • Small handful of fresh mint leaves

Blend all the ingredients until the herbs are evenly disbursed. If you’d like the consistency to be a little thinner, add a splash of water. Pour into an ice tray and freeze. The parsley and mint will help freshen your dog’s breath, while also providing other health benefits.

Parsley can reduce inflammation and aid digestion, while mint is antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral to help prevent bacteria growing in your dog’s mouth.

Doggie S’mores

  • Dog biscuits
  • 1 cup of carob chips or 1 tablespoon of carob powder
  • 1 cup of plain or Greek yoghurt

Put carob chips in a bowl and melt over boiled water. Once melted, mix with the yogurt. For carob powder, mix it directly into the yogurt. Dip the top of the dog biscuit into the mixture, then place another biscuit on top to create a sandwich. Line a tray with as many s’mores as you want, then freeze.

Since chocolate is toxic for dogs, regular s’mores aren’t an option, but carob has a similar taste and texture to chocolate, and also contains healthy nutrients to help flush toxins from your dog’s body.

Bark + Boarding Ice Cream

  • Equal parts plain yogurt
  • Peanut butter, pumpkin puree or chicken stock

Blend ingredients together. Pour into ice trays, then freeze until solid. Here at Bark + Boarding, our doggie-friendly ice cream is always a hit! Using the pumpkin puree has the added benefit of aiding your dog’s digestive health. If you go with peanut butter, make sure you get a naturally sweetened brand without Xylitol.

Tennis Ball Surprise

Combine two of your dog’s favorite things: tennis balls and treats! Carefully cut a slit into a tennis ball, revealing the hollow center. Fill it with treats, then give it a toss. This is sure to liven up any game of fetch, and will also give your active dog something to keep busy as they snuff out the treats.

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Neighborhood Spotlight: Powhatan Skate Park — Carve, Grind and Bail at Team Pain’s Latest Creation

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This content was written and sponsored by The Keri Shull Team, Arlington’s top producing residential real estate team.

In this Arlington Spotlight video, Tyler Marrin and Drew Carpenter of The Keri Shull Team visit the newly-renovated Powhatan Skate Park at 6020 Wilson Boulevard.

Arlington skaters waited years for a new place to carve, grind and bail. The wait is over.

The county has fully replaced the crumbling, damaged concrete of the old park with Team Pain’s sleek redesign. The refreshed layout will give you nearly any skating experience you want, from the chill snake zone all the way up to a traditional pro bowl and a doorway to carve over.

While there are spots in this park that call for courage, there’s also plenty of beginner-friendly terrain.

Hone your street skating on the park’s new ramps, handrails, boxes and ledges. Here you could learn to front feeble grind a rail like Leticia Bufoni, experiment with no comply variations inspired by Ray Barbee, or just work on your skating fundamentals.

There’s a small egg bowl to carve. When you’re ready, make like Steve Caballero and try dropping into the deep pro bowl.

Powhatan Skate Park officially reopened on May 4 with a ribbon cutting ceremony, but word traveled fast. Days before the ceremony, the park was already crowded with skaters finding their lines through the new extended street section with kickflips and 50-50 grinds.

Team Pain is famous for their innovative specialty structures that push the limits of skating, like loops and 128-foot vert ramps. They’ve built structures for MTV and for ESPN’s X Games. They’re also known for their indoor wood skate facilities and cutting-edge outdoor concrete parks like the one just unveiled here in Arlington.

This is not just a new park with smooth surfaces, but a place for skaters to build community, challenge themselves and build their skills. Who knows? Maybe Rodney Mullen will drop by next time he visits the Smithsonian.

Powhatan Skate Park is open from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. every day.

We may not be able to help you land a Caballerial kickflip… but if anyone you know needs to buy or sell a home in the DMV, contact The Keri Shull Team.

Your Beermonger: Water, Water, Everywhere

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

There are any number of issues that keep breweries from turning out their best beer.

Sometimes (read: often) there are equipment malfunctions; sometimes ingredient supply chains are interrupted, or a hop producer has an off-season; sometimes the demands of expansion cause a brewery’s consistency to suffer. What’s happening in Belgium to one of the world’s best-known breweries, however, may be a harbinger of an issue we’ll see more often in the near future.

The Guardian reported recently about the brewery of the Trappist order of monks at the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy of Rochefort, Belgium — better known to us simply as Rochefort — and its efforts to keep a local lime quarry from drilling into the area’s aquifers, lowering the overall groundwater level.

Popular Mechanics (yes, they’re writing about beer now, too) notes that the quarry wishes to drill some 60 meters deeper than the current level in order to extend the quarry’s lifespan from 2022 to 2045.

The fight has been ongoing since the quarry, owned by the Lhoist-Berghmans, one of Belgiums wealthiest families, first revealed its plans for drilling deeper into Rochefort’s groundwater about a decade ago. A December ruling by a regional administrator to allow the quarry to test the effects of drilling on the local water supply has taken the dispute to a more urgent level.

The Rochefort monks have accused the administrator who approved the testing of bias (once again, the quarry is owned by one of Belgium’s richest families) and are passionately fighting even the testing of deeper aquifers. Rochefort believes the drilling will not simply affect their beer. Luc Perez, a representative for the monks, was quoted saying that “The water that Lhoist will pump up is not drinkable.”

Issues surrounding the quality and availability of freshwater are rising and will continue to rise due to the effect of climate change. While worldwide freshwater supplies are currently arguably good in terms of being able to sustain society and industry, they are unevenly distributed. Belgium specifically is in relatively decent shape, but there is still reason for concern.

European groundwater overall tends to run cleaner than its lakes and rivers, the issues that are found are usually due to “nitrates from agricultural run-off, salt intrusion and hazardous chemical pollution from industrial sites, mining areas or waste storage. Mercury was one of the most common pollutants, with common sources including mining, coal combustion and other industrial activities.” (European Scientist, 5.7.18.)

Still, Lhoist’s testing is slated to begin mid-month. It may turn out to have no effect at all; it may irrevocably alter one of my personal favorite beers ever — the sublime Rochefort 10. Even if the monks manage to fight the quarry off, they won’t be the last to be put in this position.

As demands on freshwater supplies increase, there will be some cases where industry flexes its muscles, and others where the greater societal need will outweigh the concerns of a mere brewery. Something worth keeping an eye on.

Open Houses in Arlington This Weekend

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Looking for a home? There are plenty of houses and condos open for viewing this weekend.

Check out the Arlington Realty website for a full list of homes for sale and open houses in Arlington. Here are a few highlights:

1005 N. Kentucky Street
5 BR/4 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Kw Metro Center
Listed: $1,375,000
Open: Saturday 1-3 p.m.

 

6001 1st Street N.
5 BR/3 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Weichert Realtors
Listed: $969,900
Open: Saturday 1-4 p.m.

 

1881A N. Nash Street #405
1 BR/1 BA, 1 half bath condo
Agent: Keller Williams Realty/Lee Beaver & Assoc.
Listed: $839,000
Open: Saturday 1-4 p.m.

 

1020 N. Highland Street #308
2 BR/BA condo
Agent: Compass
Listed: $725,000
Open: Saturday 2-4 p.m.

 

1913 S. Quincy Street
2 BR/1 BA single-family home
Agent: Keller Williams Capital Properties
Listed: $585,000
Open: Sunday 12-2 p.m.

 

888 N. Quincy Street #1005
1 BR/1 BA condo
Agent: Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc
Listed: $440,000
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

2005 Key Boulevard #11577
1 BR/1 BA condo
Agent: Compass
Listed: $284,900
Open: Saturday 12-2 p.m.

Just Listed in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Just Listed highlights Arlington properties that just came on the market within the past week. This feature is written and sponsored by Team Cathell, “Your Orange Line Specialists.”

What an incredible week for Arlington’s real estate market.

Both buyers and sellers set new records for the year with buyers ratifying 82 contracts and sellers listing 86 homes. Half of the homes that sold this week (41) were on the market only seven days or less. And 17 of those sales were homes priced above $1 million.

The average days on market for those sold homes is just 18. At the current rate of sales, and with only 268 homes actively available on the market, Arlington has only 0.8 months of inventory. This is the lowest level of inventory I can remember since the crazy days of 2001-2005.

This helps to explain two growing trends in our national housing market. Seniors are increasingly choosing to age in place and spend their savings on renovating and modifying their homes for one-level living. Part of that decision is because they can’t find a suitable and affordable replacement home. And part is because they already have their support network where they live.

The other trend is that millennials are moving in large numbers to smaller cities where unemployment is low and housing prices are more affordable. They are moving into places like Madison, Oklahoma City, Durham and Grand Rapids.

Mortgage rates have closed out the week with essentially no change, even though Wall Street has the jitters because of new talk about trade wars with China and the damage it could do to the U.S. economy. Rates ended the week at 4.25% for a 30-yr fixed rate.

Click to see all the fresh new inventory in MRIS and call Team Cathell (703-975-2500) when you find a home you like.

True Food Kitchen Now Open at Ballston Quarter

True Food Kitchen is an award-winning, health-driven restaurant & seasonal bar rooted in the philosophy that delicious dining and conscious nutrition can go hand in hand without sacrificing flavor, creativity or indulgence.

The flavor-forward menu rotates seasonally to showcase the freshest, in-season produce and nutrient-dense ingredients, and caters to preferences of all kinds with a variety of gluten-friendly, vegan and vegetarian options.

Enjoy lunch, dinner, cocktails and weekend brunch at its new location in Arlington.

For more information, visit TrueFoodKitchen.com/Arlington.

Boring Title: John Downs From MVB Mortgage

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Title insurance is boring, but Allied Title & Escrow is here to decode the jargon and make it (somewhat) more interesting. This biweekly feature will explore the mundane (but very necessary!) world of title insurance while sharing interesting stories of two friends’ entrepreneurial careers.

This week we met with the area’s long term top producing loan officer John Downs from MVB Mortgage.

John has some really unique approaches including managing your debt for life and you’ll be shocked to hear what he has to say about where rates might go!

Have questions related to title insurance? Email Latane and Matt at [email protected]. Want to use Allied Title & Escrow when you buy a home? Tell your agent when you buy a house to write in Allied Title & Escrow as your settlement company!

D.C. Area Professionals Benefit from Experiential Learning Approach

The working professionals who pursue the Arlington-based Executive MBA at Virginia Tech get a rich education in the fundamentals of business — accounting and finance, marketing, operations, ethics, communications and leadership.

But woven around those foundation courses are “experiential modules” designed to accelerate development in four essential and current areas:

  • Business analytics
  • Entrepreneurship & innovation
  • Leadership & governance
  • Global business

Each module includes two concentration classes plus a “big experience” course that puts the learning to work immediately, says Barbara Hoopes, academic director for Virginia Tech MBA Programs.

Corporate leaders are brought in “to provide guidance and bring real-life projects to students,” adds Parviz Ghandforoush, associate dean for graduate programs in the Pamplin College of Business.

What does this look like on the ground? For the analytics module, which covers BI and data mining along with marketing analytics, Hoopes brought in four software vendors — Microsoft, Qlik, SAS and Tableau — to provide access to their products and act as coaches.

Students addressed pressing issues with U.S. infrastructure using publicly available data to analyze Congressional airport funding and its relationship to economic growth, identify causal factors for large utility outages and predict hazard classifications of dams in order to prioritize inspections.

Hoopes asserts that students really “need to understand how data can be used to support their decision-making.” That means “learning how to tell a story that convinces others” — in other words, traversing that last mile between the data scientist and the people at the very top.

Ghandforoush notes that students often arrive with an expectation that the data work they will do during their MBA is a throw-away “because they don’t need it or they have analysts at work who will do this for them.” And yet faculty hear back from former skeptics that those lessons turned out to be the most valuable in the program “because they’re actually using it at work and they’ve seen the results.”

That’s just what Virginia Tech had in mind when it undertook its redesign of the MBA for working professionals. “It’s not like students graduate and four or five years later we will hear if they have benefited from their MBA,” he concludes. “This is like a laboratory. We get to watch this as it’s happening right before our eyes.”

Arts Focus: County and Community Collaborate on Columbia Pike Blues Festival

By ARLnow.com Sponsor
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This column is written and sponsored by Arlington Arts / Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

A great example of collaboration between Arlington County and the Community, the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization presents the Columbia Pike Blues Festival for the 24th year.

It’s a collaboration with Arlington Arts, that celebrates artists for this highly anticipated annual event. As ever, the lineup is designed to get you on your feet, headlined by soul/blues vocalist and veteran Marine, Sugaray Rayford. Admission is free.

In addition to an array of available food and beverages and plenty of kids’ activities, the Festival will showcase a new Arlington Art Truck installation — Guggenheim Fellow and Baltimore artist Neil Feather’s interactive sound sculpture Futura Percussion 1860 featuring only mid-19th century technology and built from reused materials.

GRUMP is bringing local arts and crafts vendors from the area to show and sell their handmade work, from watercolor art to handmade soy candles to small batch silk screened shirts.

The Festival covers three blocks at the intersection of Columbia Pike and Walter Reed Drive.

  • Sugaray Rayford — Rayford is nominated for two 2019 Blues Awards: “Soul/Blues Male Artist” and the “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year” Award. The Desert Storm veteran spent ten years in the Marines and says, “…I’m proud of the time I served. I wouldn’t have my wife and the life I have right now had I not served.”
  • Thornetta Davis — In such a musically ‘storied’ city as Detroit, it speaks volumes that in 2015 Thornetta Davis was crowned “Detroit’s Queen of The Blues” by official city proclamation. The winner of over 30 Detroit Music Awards, Thornetta’s 1996 debut solo album Sunday Morning Music (Sub Pop) received raves in the national media. Her song “Cry” from that album was featured on the HBO hit “The Sopranos.”
  • Hardway Connection — The smooth, passionate, sometimes funky and extremely “tight” sound of The Hardway Connection will make you get up and dance! The D.C.-based band has opened for everyone from Johnny Taylor and Toni Terry, to Chuck Brown.
  • Lauren Calve Band — Washington, D.C. area singer-songwriter, guitar and lap steel player Lauren Calve’s dynamic voice, Bonnie Raitt’s smoky aura and Ben Harper’s unique slide style. She released her debut EP, “Between the Creek and the Tracks” in 2014, for which she earned a Washington Area Music Association nomination for Best Roots Rock Vocalist.
  • Funky Miracle — Funky Miracle is an exciting collective that brings a unique organ trio + vocals lineup and an improvisatory approach to classic Soul, Funk and New Orleans tunes. Members of the group have performed with some of D.C.’s funkiest outfits including The Funk Ark, and Three Man Soul Machine.

The Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization (CPRO) is a coalition of businesses, civic associations, property owners and the Arlington County Government. Our Mission: To champion and connect business and community along Columbia Pike, Arlington’s oldest and newest main street, where authentic diverse neighborhoods connect to the world.

Arlington Arts, a Division of Arlington Economic Development, exists to create, support and promote the arts, connecting artists and community to reflect the diversity of Arlington County.

Taking place at the intersection of Columbia Pike and South Walter Reed Drive, the 24th Annual Columbia Pike Blues Festival takes place on Saturday, June 15, from 1-8:30 p.m.

Click here for more details.

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