Sometimes you buy a house that is a little on the small side. Sometimes you want to add a bedroom or two, maybe a breakfast nook. Sometimes you go ahead with it. And sometimes you do something insane like build three additional stories on top of that V Street rowhouse. Oh wait, you should never do that.

But that’s exactly what’s happening on one house at 11th and V Streets NW. PoPville pointed out the house yesterday, but we simply had to stop by to make sure that it wasn’t some visual photography trick that made the house seem more ridiculous than it really is. It’s not. It really looks like this. (See below for what it used to look like.)

This is what we could dig up on this house: it was sold to a Leesburg-based LLC in September 2011 for $386,000. In May 2012, the LLC was granted a permit to convert the two-story, 1,072 square-foot home into a five-story monstrosity that will eventually contain three condos. We’re still checking on any D.C. regulations that might govern taste and scale. Sadly, they don’t exist. (Let us be clear: if existing regulations say it should be built, let it be so. That won’t spare it from mockery, though.)

At some point in the next year, a realtor will have to explain to potential homeowners why living in a structure that looks like it could be toppled by a strong breeze would be a great idea. Good luck with that one.