Studio Apartment

Ceola Lewis has been waiting a long time. In 1975, Lewis signed up for the District's Housing Choice Voucher Program, which used to be known as Section 8. At the time, she was 19, living with her mother and working a string of low-wage jobs to provide for herself and her newborn daughter. Today, Lewis is on disability and lives with her youngest daughter, now grown, and granddaughter to make ends meet. And she's still on the waiting list — 37 years later. For many years before the list was put into...

Ceola Lewis has been waiting a long time. In 1975, Lewis signed up for the District's Housing Choice Voucher Program, which used to be known as Section 8. At the time, she was 19, living with her mother and working a string of low-wage jobs to provide for herself and her newborn daughter. Today, Lewis is on disability and lives with her youngest daughter, now grown, and granddaughter to make ends meet. And she's still on the waiting list — 37 years later. For many years before the list was put into...

THE CHALLENGE Grace Maldarelli, a medical student in Baltimore, finally has her own apartment and calls herself an "absolute design novice. " She says her 330-square-foot studio unit (kitchen, living space and bedroom, all in one) feels "impersonal" and lacks cohesiveness. Maldarelli wants to decorate but doesn't know where to begin. Her requests are simple: She loves warm, muted colors and needs plenty of shelving for her schoolbooks. But the space is a challenge: With white walls, white wall-to-wall carpet and a...

Fashionistas seeking the adrenaline rush of a good deal have another weapon in their arsenals: clothing swaps. At events across the region, deal seekers bring their unwanted, gently used clothing, shoes and accessories to trade with others. Sometimes there's an entry fee. At other events, it's simply enough to bring five or more items and trade. For some women, it's become a way of life. "I like it because it's against consumerism," said Monica Buitrago, a Takoma Park resident who attended a swap in...

During our online chat (most Mondays at 2 p.m.), you ask and we answer your travel questions -- mostly. Here's one we couldn't get to last week. I'm planning to spend almost a week in Buenos Aires this fall and am thinking about renting an apartment for my stay. Can you recommend any reputable companies? You can save a lot of pesos on short-term apartment rentals in Buenos Aires compared with typical hotel rates. The city's Web site, http://www.bue.gov.ar , has a searchable list of lodgings by type, but there are scant details; you'll have better luck using...

Fashionistas seeking the adrenaline rush of a good deal have another weapon in their arsenals: clothing swaps. At events across the region, deal seekers bring their unwanted, gently used clothing, shoes and accessories to trade with others. Sometimes there's an entry fee. At other events, it's simply enough to bring five or more items and trade. For some women, it's become a way of life. "I like it because it's against consumerism," said Monica Buitrago, a Takoma Park resident who attended a swap in...

When Stacy Schwartz, a professional singer and actor, moved into her Southwest Washington studio apartment and saw a sea of yet-to-be-unpacked boxes, she panicked. Schwartz, 39, sublets a 600-square-foot furnished condo that is slim on storage space but fat with oversized furniture: a huge entertainment unit, a big Murphy bed , a dining table for four and an enormous sectional sofa. ("Who has a sectional in a studio apartment?" she asks.) Used to living out of a suitcase while touring, Schwartz has learned how to manage small...

If you were a baby copperhead snake in Montgomery County and you wanted to bite someone, you could do a whole lot worse than pick Sam Pettengill. For starters, there was the place the snake slithered into: Pettengill's studio apartment at Kunzang Palyul Choling, a Buddhist temple near Poolesville, next to woods by the Potomac River. Animals are loved there. Then there is Pettengill himself, who was still laid up yesterday at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. The 36-year-old has been known to buy...

In the category of likely heroes, the candidates typically include life-saving doctors or thug-catching police officers or game-saving quarterbacks. But a cable guy? Roderick Fennell? "I'm like God when people are having problems," Fennell said Friday, zipping around town to hook up televisions and the Internet as a monster snowstorm bore down on the region. He was exaggerating only slightly. In his routine rounds, Fennell comes face to face with the extremes of human nature.

The Barclay Ravenel is undergoing a serious overhaul. In the two-building rental complex on the 1600 block of 16th Street NW, lobbies in both buildings have been spiffed up with sleek contemporary furniture and art. Renovations to the apartments are ongoing, and, according to property manager Josh Baker, 40 percent of them have been redone since Carmel Partners, a California investment group, bought the buildings about four years ago. There are...

When Stacy Schwartz, a professional singer and actor, moved into her Southwest Washington studio apartment and saw a sea of yet-to-be-unpacked boxes, she panicked. Schwartz, 39, sublets a 600-square-foot furnished condo that is slim on storage space but fat with oversized furniture: a huge entertainment unit, a big Murphy bed , a dining table for four and an enormous sectional sofa. ("Who has a sectional in a studio apartment?" she asks.) Used to living out of a suitcase while touring, Schwartz has learned how to manage small spaces.

THE CHALLENGE Grace Maldarelli, a medical student in Baltimore, finally has her own apartment and calls herself an "absolute design novice. " She says her 330-square-foot studio unit (kitchen, living space and bedroom, all in one) feels "impersonal" and lacks cohesiveness. Maldarelli wants to decorate but doesn't know where to begin. Her requests are simple: She loves warm, muted colors and needs plenty of shelving for her schoolbooks. But the space is a challenge: With white walls, white...

In the category of likely heroes, the candidates typically include life-saving doctors or thug-catching police officers or game-saving quarterbacks. But a cable guy? Roderick Fennell? "I'm like God when people are having problems," Fennell said Friday, zipping around town to hook up televisions and the Internet as a monster snowstorm bore down on the region. He was exaggerating only slightly. In his routine rounds, Fennell comes face to face with the extremes of human nature.

If you were a baby copperhead snake in Montgomery County and you wanted to bite someone, you could do a whole lot worse than pick Sam Pettengill. For starters, there was the place the snake slithered into: Pettengill's studio apartment at Kunzang Palyul Choling, a Buddhist temple near Poolesville, next to woods by the Potomac River. Animals are loved there. Then there is Pettengill himself, who was still laid up yesterday at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. The 36-year-old has been known to buy crickets...

Once a week, Richard Hudspeth liked to walk by his dream home, watching as workers lay the brick sidewalks, planted grass and installed balconies, some with sweeping views from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument. The Dumont was a downtown high-rise to die for, with its promise of granite countertops, a rooftop pool and "a whole new level of living. " A year ago, without having set foot in the building at Fourth Street and Massachusetts Ave. NW, Hudspeth said, he put $15,000 down on a studio apartment priced at nearly...

The Barclay Ravenel is undergoing a serious overhaul. In the two-building rental complex on the 1600 block of 16th Street NW, lobbies in both buildings have been spiffed up with sleek contemporary furniture and art. Renovations to the apartments are ongoing, and, according to property manager Josh Baker, 40 percent of them have been redone since Carmel Partners, a California investment group, bought the buildings about four years ago. There are...

Once a week, Richard Hudspeth liked to walk by his dream home, watching as workers lay the brick sidewalks, planted grass and installed balconies, some with sweeping views from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument. The Dumont was a downtown high-rise to die for, with its promise of granite countertops, a rooftop pool and "a whole new level of living. " A year ago, without having set foot in the building at Fourth Street and Massachusetts Ave. NW, Hudspeth said, he put $15,000 down on a studio apartment priced at nearly $300,000, confident...

The Pentagon Memorial was designed in a studio on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, but not the kind with skyline views or a brass nameplate on the office door. No, the 280-square-foot studio apartment where Keith Kaseman and Julie Beckman were living at the time was decidedly more modest than that. Kaseman and Beckman were a young couple barely out of graduate school in 2002 when they made the rough sketches of what would become the nation's first major September 11th memorial. Their lone architectural...

The Pentagon Memorial was designed in a studio on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, but not the kind with skyline views or a brass nameplate on the office door. No, the 280-square-foot studio apartment where Keith Kaseman and Julie Beckman were living at the time was decidedly more modest than that. Kaseman and Beckman were a young couple barely out of graduate school in 2002 when they made the rough sketches of what would become the nation's first major September 11th memorial. Their lone architectural collaboration to that point had been a...

During our online chat (most Mondays at 2 p.m.), you ask and we answer your travel questions -- mostly. Here's one we couldn't get to last week. I'm planning to spend almost a week in Buenos Aires this fall and am thinking about renting an apartment for my stay. Can you recommend any reputable companies? You can save a lot of pesos on short-term apartment rentals in Buenos Aires compared with typical hotel rates. The city's Web site, http://www.bue.gov.ar , has a searchable list of lodgings by type, but there are scant details; you'll have...