Adding windows to DC rowhouse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't you put in skylights? Whole lot easier.

Solatubes are even easier to add than skylights.

Thanks for the info! Have you added Solatubes to your place? Down to the 1st floor? Could you pls share any cost info?

Different poster: solatubes are AMAZING and have completely changed our house. Cost about $500 installed, each. But we didn't not do them all the way to the first floor. I think that is possible though.

[Anonymous]

OP, when we built our DC rowhouse addition we were advised that we COULD put side windows in, so long as they were fire windows (more expensive) and right on the property line and so long as we understood that we had no right to light/view. That is, that our next door neighbors could at any time build right in front of the window. Presumably that parking lot could one day become a house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares what the zoning people think. What are they going to do, make you fill in the windows?

No they won't make her fill in the windows. But when adjacent lot gets developed (and it will)-that property owner may have the right attach a building to her house or within one or two feet. the OP need to decide if the cost of the windows now is worth the loss of them 5 or ten years from now. She will have no legal recourse to stop the adjacent property either since OP would be in the wrong. She needs to head to DCRA AND Office of Zoning for a definitive rulling on this.

But even if she got approval o build the windows, the neighbor could still build one or two feet (or whatever the standard minimum is). Nobody has the right to prevent a neighbor from building on his property just because they have a window looking in that direction... That would be absurd.