Kim was a great host! Check-in was easy with a lockbox near our own private entrance at the back of the residence with a code that she emailed me after I booked. The basement apartment was lovely, double bed (reasonably comfy) with clean and pretty bedding/linens, a comfy two seater sofa, a bar fridge, cups, plates, cutlery etc, a coffee maker with pods that she provided and a microwave. No toaster though, so stick to cereal. There was filtered cold water in the fridge as well as some soda. Lovely clean bathroom with a tub shower and large washing machine and dryer! The tv doesn't have cable but Kim provides access to her Hulu and Netflicks account which is AWESOME! Never having used either of these before I was a bit sceptical at first but I've been converted! I almost made excuses to come home early from sightseeing just to watch some of my fav shows! There is also wifi, an air con and Kim provided a guest parking pass which you put in your dash and two metro passes which came in handy since that's all we used while there! Kim lives upstairs and she can access the basement from outside through the private entrance or internally via a set of stairs with a partition curtain (maybe a door too?) as all you could hear was footsteps above when she was walking around. There are quite a lot of Mosquitos in the backyard and several enter when you do as there are two doors into the apartment, but when I mentioned this to Kim she provided insect repellant, so that's my recommendation too. A few creepy bugs crept in during the night through the door somehow (like centipedes but with a larger almost circular body?) but these were quickly killed with a shoe.
The train is located quite close to the apartment, around a 7-10 minute walk (Kim provides details on how to get there on an information sheet) but there is also a bus that leaves at the end of the street to Union Station.
We had an issue with the shower (let me clarify, the issue wasn't the shower, it was my husbands inability to operate said shower) however Kim quickly returned from a dinner to show us how to use the shower (you need to pull the handle outwards fairly hard which isn't something we need to do in Australia, so our bad) and she stayed around for a chat which was nice however left us to our own devices for the rest of our stay. We communicated via text messages and I never had any issue getting a hold of her.
Overall, had a great stay in DC, would definitely stay with Kim again in the future and I highly recommend her apartment if you want an inexpensive and better alternative to a hotel :)