Bringing His Work Home

Abdo set out immediately to open up the house, to let in light and improve the flow. Rooms were connected by narrow doorways or not at all.

Inside, the house has a minimally furnished living room with a grand piano. It leads into a formal dining room, which flows into a rear family room, where a 72-inch plasma TV hides inside an 1860s French sideboard cabinet. Wall-to-wall French doors open to the patio and pool area. An interior door leads to a breakfast nook, formerly the butler's pantry. It adjoins the kitchen, which has Viking appliances and an island counter of pedregosa, a porous stone, on top of an antique pharmacist's table. An old metal pot rack hangs overhead. Abdo intentionally left it outside in snow and rain to make it appear "a little more distressed." This was "very consistent with what we do: pristine and elegant but very edgy, merging the old with the new. We wanted to do that with this house."

Outside, Abdo turned the overgrown back yard into a well-landscaped area with inviting patios, a pool with a 52-foot lap lane and two pool houses. There is a separately heated eight-person spa and a misting system "so, if it's a really hot summer day, you can have a cold margarita in the fog," Abdo says. Three illuminated fountains create an almost mystical, rippling effect.

Having his own construction company cut down on delays, Abdo says, but the project still took nearly 10 months.

The Abdos got help from designer Darryl Carter. He helped choose fixtures, colors and fabrics, and he found some of the antiques now on display in different rooms. Carter said the Abdos "have an appreciation for both the modern and traditional, which fit right in with my point of view, so it was a very easy relationship."

Design on a dime? Not exactly. The house was "a total gut job," Abdo says. The current assessed value is $4.2 million.

"It's really a gem," Abdo says. "There are deer, red fox. It blows your mind. We can walk to Dupont Circle in 10 minutes. We love it."

The house adjoins the Canadian ambassador's residence. To the rear is the residence of the ambassador from the Dominican Republic. The former finance minister of Pakistan is also a next-door neighbor, while Vernon and Ann Jordan live across the street, as does Robert Lehrman, of the former Giant supermarket family. The late Herbert Haft's former house is on the corner.

Abdo is equally excited about his newest residential rehab. It's the former Nigerian ambassador's residence, a mansion of 10,000 square feet at 3100 Woodland Dr., also in the neighborhood. He bought the building for $3.25 million in 2005, after it sat vacant for five years. "There were raccoons living in it," Abdo says. "It was a disaster."

This one he plans to sell, and he already has several inquiries. But for now, he's turning away prospective buyers. He says it's not quite ready for showing.