What do you do with a 13,000-square-foot patch of grass in one of D.C.’s most affluent and visually unified neighborhoods? For Azali Kassum and Hasan Dossal, the search for an answer started with a walk.
It helped that Dossal’s house is less than three blocks away. That’s not a coincidence. He builds one house at a time, and only in neighborhoods he knows well.
“I get to be a little picky about the lots I buy,” he said. “This one, in particular, is nice. It has southern exposure, and is flat and rectangular.”
The previous house on the property “could not be saved,” Dossal said, which meant that he and Kassum started with an empty lot in August 2022. The completed, nearly 10,000-square-foot Colonial went on the market in February with an asking price of $9,750,000. Last year, only six homes in the D.C. area sold for more than that.
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Kassum wanted the interior, like the exterior, to evoke Colonial style. She emulated formal living spaces at the front of neighboring houses, but left the back of the first floor open, “conducive to modern living and, potentially, larger families,” she said. More traditional parts of the house also have a contemporary spin. For example, the formal study on the first floor has a 10-foot ceiling, which, Dossal noted, you wouldn’t find in a house built in the 1920s.
“We tried to give it a little bit of both old world [feel] and modern conveniences,” Kassum said.
A small front porch leads to a foyer that has white oak flooring and is flanked by a study and a living room, each with a fluted Carrara marble fireplace. Beyond those rooms are the dining room and a butler’s pantry-prep kitchen that Kassum described as “dark and stormy” — a gray-green space with wine storage, custom cabinetry and a sink. It connects to the main kitchen.
This level also has a powder room, stairs and an elevator that connects all floors.
The main kitchen has three ovens and an island with a sink and seating for six. The kitchen is also part of an open-concept space that includes a family room, a breakfast room and a mudroom, each with access to a covered patio. The mudroom has built-in cabinets and storage hooks.
The second floor has a 700-square-foot primary bedroom with a plaster fireplace. The en suite bathroom has a tub, two toilet closets and a shower. The suite’s walk-in closet has built-in storage and designer lighting by Julie Neill. This floor also has a laundry room and three more bedrooms, each with an en suite bathroom and walk-in closet.
The third floor has space suitable for a game room or an office, a bedroom with an en suite bathroom, and storage space.
The lower level, which Dossal dubbed the “amenities level,” has a recreation room that he noted could “fit a golf simulator” or a pool table. Other features include an exercise room, an “entertainment kitchen” (the house’s third indoor kitchen) and a “wellness room” with a sauna. This level also has a bedroom with an en suite bathroom and a walk-in closet, and there is space for wine storage or a walk-in freezer.
The backyard is pool-ready, with drain lines, gas lines and hot water lines. Above the one-car garage is a space that could become a pool house, an office or storage space. A patio has the property’s fourth kitchen.
“All our neighbors have large yards, so we kept our landscaping, especially around the fences, low,” Dossal said. “Your visual sight line extends far beyond your property to include your neighbors’ yards, too.”
$9,750,000
- Bedrooms/bathrooms: 7/8
- Approximate square-footage: 9,900
- Lot size: 0.3 acres
- Features: This 2024 Colonial in Wesley Heights has bespoke details (like fireplaces and designer lighting), a sauna, a large recreation room, four kitchens, including one outside, and a big patio with two covered sections. There is a one-car garage, with additional parking on the driveway.
- Listing agent: Robert Hryniewicki, Adam Rackliffe, Christopher Leary and Micah Smith, HRL Partners at Washington Fine Properties
