News

I was going to write this big long post and end it with some big news. Kind of a reward for those who actually read to the end (I know I can be wordy).
But I also tend to blurt things out. So the big news is that we're moving!
We decided sometime early last week (or rather, I was strong-armed into agreeing with Erich) that we should move. Our main reasons are that we haven't felt totally safe in this neighborhood - it's gotten frustrating not being able to walk home from the metro after 9. And we've felt isolated from the rest of the city (mainly since we can't just walk every where like we did in Adams Morgan). We want to prioritize the neighborhood over square footage, parking, and uh, the budget.

So we viewed a couple of apartments throughout the week and built to a flurry of 4 in one day on Saturday. Oddly enough, in the end we went with the one that we first saw right at the beginning of our search (we saw it a 2nd time on Saturday). As of Saturday afternoon, it was really down to 2 places. And because I like lists, here is the breakdown:

Place #1
Pros:

• neighborhood: smack in the middle of Columbia Heights - on top of the metro
• gym, pool table, roof deck with hammocks and grass
• balcony
• brand new; 1st ones to live in it, sweet kitchen
• safety

Cons:

• no parking
• top top end of our budget
• unit is pretty small and living room is a little awkward, so we'd have to get rid of some things, including the grill.

Place #2
Pros:

• neighborhood: also in Columbia Heights, about 4-5 blocks from the metro
  
• tiny outdoor space slightly below ground where we could keep our grill
• parking included
• a little more square footage than our old place in Adams Morgan and Place #1
• 3 yr. old condo, sweet kitchen

Cons:

• Basement apartment
• no roof deck or gym
• no bars on front door and window, not sure if that's a safety issue

So after an agonizing afternoon of icecream cones and discussion, and another look at Place #1, we decided to put in an application and deposit. We were cleared today, but we actually celebrated on Saturday night with a bottle of wine that friends gave us when we got married :)

Moving day is June 27th - pretty much the same day that the apartment is due to be completed - oh, did I mention that they've only finished floors 1-4? Our floor will be finished up in the next couple of weeks.

We're so excited to live in a more central area, have a gym in the building, and relax on that roof! We're a little less excited about figuring out which furniture we have to get rid of as we downsize by about 200 sq. ft. To that end, we have spent obscene amounts of time playing with Google Sketchup trying to fit our existing furniture into the new apartment's layout. This was more fun than last year since we had already measured and built our furniture for the last apt hunting season. This time around, all we had to do was build a new living room, bedroom, and kitchen floorplan based on the layout they posted on the building's website and add in our furniture models. We've already started a list of things we need to sell or give away - stay tuned.

I'm all typed out - this is the only news this post will be getting. I'll save the lesser news for another post. I bet you're already on the edge of your seat.






The entry is next to the kitchen. And we haven't really sketched the bathroom, but you can sort of see it in the corner between the kitchen and the bedroom.