Monday, March 11, 2013

The New Digs

new house

Back in November, we started looking for a new house that would accommodate the four of us and Allen's dad. We fell in love with an "urban castle" which featured a turret and exposed brick, and put an offer on it right before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, someone with a much bigger bank account also fell in love with it, and beat us out in a heated bidding war.

We kept looking, but finding a three bedroom plus in-law suite house in NE Capitol Hill, preferably on a corner lot (in order to insure the in-law suite had some light) wasn't particularly easy. Our real-estate agent early on suggested a renovation a half block off H street, but I, having lived just off Columbia Road in Adams Morgan back in the nineties, was adamant that that being so close to the bars and restaurants was not conducive to a safe and happy family life.

So we forged on. We went to every 4 bedroom open house on the Hill over the course of two months (that sounds more impressive that it really was, as inventory on the Hill is notoriously low). Nothing seemed to fit the bill and interest rates began creeping up, so I relented. We got into another bidding war with someone with a bigger bank account that us, but this time we managed to outmaneuver them. 30 days later we owned a new house and last Friday we moved in (with a lot of help from Aunt Katherine).

And then Saturday, we had Katherine, John, Uncle Pete, Aunt Jeannine, cousin Molly and her boyfriend Tyler over for dinner.

The kids love their new rooms (Owen in particular who's living space has roughly tripled), Owen's balcony, the back yard, and the wide open spaces (we still need to buy some more furniture...). Allen likes our spacious new kitchen and master bath (though we've been having trouble figuring out the fancy new shower) and parking. Grandpa Fawcett hasn't officially moved in yet, but he seems good with it all.

As for me, I'm still trying to figure out how to sleep in our new room without window treatments to block the city lights and some sort of sound proofing for weekend nights. I'm also feeling a bit sad to have left the house we brought both of our kids home to, but I think we'll eventually be settled and happy here (once everything is fixed, we've sold our other house, and used the proceeds to buy some blackout shades).

And speaking of which, anyone interested in 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bathroom house?

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