Ron Ginsburg is a serial builder and seller of homes. Not content to be a homebody, he’s quick to move on even after he’s created a masterwork such as this:

The house in DC's Forest Hills is selling for $6.5 million. Photograph by Bob Narod

“I do this for fun. This is my fourth one,” says Ginsburg, an investment and real estate executive. But with this style, in this economy, the house has been on the market for eight months — unusual for his record. “This is the first time peple aren’t knocking down the door.”

He invited a mix of brokers and bloggers to his home last night in an effort to drum up more interest. He is already in the planning stages for his next home in the DC area — he wouldn’t say where — where he will build a structure such as what you would more likely see in Miami rather than the Mid-Atlantic. It will be an airy, multi-story beach house with a pool on the roof that has a see-through bottom.

Ron Ginsburg, left, sits with the team that designed and built this house, and will stay on to do the next one. From Ron's left: Josh Rosenthal of Rosenthal Homes; Architect John Coplen of Alter Urban LLC, and his intern from Germany, Fabian Achenbach.

Ron bought a small piece of property in an established neighborhood filled with classic architecture and historic homes. The property, in fact, had once held the caretaker’s cottage to a large turn-of-the-20th-century manse across the way.

“I didn’t want to be the poor little stepchild of the neighborhood,” he says. I think he got what he wanted:

Photograph by Curtis Martin

Photograph by Curtis Martin

Photograph by Curtis Martin

Ron says he was pleased to find a local team of architects and builders (although his interior designer, Sam Ewing, comes from Winter Park, Fla., where his family lives).  They include John Coplen of Alter Urban, Josh Rosenthal of Rosenthal Homes, and Thorne Rankin of her eponymous landscape firm. “I thought I’d have to go to Seattle or Chicago to find contemporary,” he says. For more on the house, see the big feature it got in Home & Design Magazine last year, right here.

So the question becomes, why sell now, in such a down market? “I’m totally crazy,” he says, matter-of-factly. “I like building things and getting rid of them. Building something new is part of the fun. I guess I like collecting things and disposing of them as much as I like living in them.”

But he’s not so crazy as to start on the next project before he sells this one. “I can only handle one giant mortgage at a time,” he jokes.

I took some of my own pictures yesterday of elements I absolutely love — it’s the details that count, right?

The rocket-ship doormat is on either side of the front door. It's Ron's personal calling card, and it's repeated everywhere in the house, from napkins and cups to the night light in his bathroom. "I love kitschy '60s cartoon sci-fi," he says.

Don't you love the trashcan? No really -- I love that the catering kitchen has a space under the sink for a huge trash bin for parties -- genius.

Ron had glass put on all the cabinets in the catering kitchen so anyone could see what's inside without hunting around. .

What an adorable sink for a tiny powder room -- and Ron thought enough to purchase soap and lotion in dispensers that match -- bestill my heart!

I have never seen Maya Romanoff wallpaper in person -- gold with glass beads, a powder room to impress any party guest.

The door to the golden powder room -- what a brilliant idea to have a "vacant/occupied" lock, especially at big parties when tipsy people aren't likely to knock.

It's the little things that count -- a purse drawer in the huge front-hall closet, which also has shelves where you can recharge electronic devices. This guy thinks of everything.

A great decorating tip -- if you don't have a budget for fine art, decorate huge walls with sconces. The effect here is so cool. Photograph by Curtis Martin

Who said men where slobs? Photograph by Curtis Martin

And alright, if I had $6.5 million to spend, this house would be worth it for nothing else other than this 2,600-pound, egg-shaped marble tub. Even without water, it’s so comfy that I didn’t want to get out.

Photograph by Josh Rosenthal. Frog by Prince Charming.