This location is superb for walking access to the U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court, Botanical Gardens, east end of the Mall, and Union Station, not to mention great coffee shops and restaurants including Ben's Chili Bowl and We the Pizza.
We felt extremely safe in this neighborhood, with walking, leaving windows open during the day and night, and leaving our rental car on the street. The home is surrounded by a low wrought iron fence and I believe if your brought your bicycle(s) and carried them down to the basement apartment entry, there wouldn't be much worry at all about theft.
The basement apartment is very cute, with five windows for natural light (two in the eating/living area, two in the front bedroom and one in the back bedroom) and two in-window air conditioner units. Furniture and appliances are "smaller" to fit in the space but all flows well and is comfortable. The floors are ceramic tile throughout and cool to the touch, which helped after a warm day outdoors. We loved the fact that a stackable washer and dryer was available and this was so helpful to us during our travels. We were instructed to open the adjacent window and turn on an air conditioner in another window in order to decrease humidity as the dryer is ventless and adds to moisture inside the apartment. We didn't use much of the kitchen due to dining out but I think one could cook a full dinner just as easily as a simple breakfast.
The double-sized beds had comfortable mattresses and linens and we were able to sleep well. Ear plugs were provided for our convenience just in case and we felt this was very thoughtful of the owners to do so. There are step-ups from the living/kitchen areas to each of the bedrooms so be mindful you don't catch your toes and trip, and the bathroom is directly accessible by both bedrooms with doors on both sides of the bathroom. The sink area is cozy, and the shower is smaller in diameter, completely tiled and a little slippery so move slowly when entering/exiting. The shower walls are all clear glass and looks custom-built in order to have space for the washer/dryer on the other side of the wall.
The apartment entry is beautiful and original to the time of construction, so understand that the steps down to the basement are steep and shallow, so use the railing that is there. The apartment would be difficult to access for anyone with limited mobility or balance issues.
Our family of four (ages 50, 50, 14 and 10) visited for four nights and had a wonderful time staying there, and look forward to staying again when our travel dates match up with the host's availability dates. A nice little basket of snacks awaited us when we arrived, as well as two Metro cards (ready for $ to be loaded on, by us) so we didn't have to buy two cards ourselves.
Thanks to Karen and Matt :)