Sara's place is in a great location, and is beautiful and very clean. I would have given it 5 stars except:
1. We arrived in DC about 2 hours before we were allowed to check in and Sara was nice enough to let us drop bags, but asked we not stay as the house was being cleaned. Fair enough, and when we arrived there was someone cleaning. However, if I wouldn't have walked the rooms, I would not have realized that the 2 pull out beds we needed did NOT have linen on them, and the linen closet was locked. The woman cleaning was happy to get out the linens I asked for, but they would not have been available if I wouldn't have come by early. We had a group of 9 coming in, and we were never asked about linens we would like. This could have been a HUGE problem.
2. The kitchen is really poorly equipped. I've seen dorm rooms with more stuff. No cookie sheets, 1 non stick skillet, 10 forks ONLY, less than 6 cereal spoons, no can opener, no drying rack, BAD knives. I cooked breakfast for 9 people every morning, and dinners 3 nights, and let me tell you it was a excersise in work arounds. I realize that Sara doesn't want parties to be held here, but we are a family of 9, it takes equipment to feed everyone. I will say we asked for a can opener and was brought 2 which was really sweet, but the only spatuala in entire place was for an outdoor grill, and there is NO outdoor grill at all! but that is what I used to make pancakes. Quite interesting.
3. The back yard is over the top awful. It looks like it hasn't been mowed since last spring. This wasn't a huge problem, but several people in our party would have loved to sit outside and chat as the weather was great, but were unable to walk to the 4th floor patio. Just too many steps for them. They ended up sitting on the front stairs at night.
4. The no shoes policy was an issue for us. We did adhere to this for the most part, but 4 different people fell because they were wearing socks and no shoes. The floors are beautiful, but they are wood, and can take a tennis shoe on them. My house at home is all wood as well, and I've never had issues.
To sum up, you should really look at this house, it's in a great loccation, and it's really a nice place, but if you plan on cooking limit what you are planning on making to 1- 12 in skillet, a pasta pot, 1 -13x9 in pan and 1 -cake pan. Yes, there are a few other pans, but they are super small, not for use with a big group, and I'm assuming if you are looking at a 5 bedroom house you aren't 2 people. And bring your own knives! And plan on washing between EVERY meal, otherwise you wont' have enough silverware for everyone.