Home Sweet Home

Now that I’ve said goodbye to Van Ness, it’s time to talk about the new place! In May, I moved to a two-bedroom with my friend from Brandeis, Rachel H. We’re located in between Dupont and Logan circles, and it’s such a cute place. In fact, it’s so wonderful that when we saw the place in April, we RAN back to my office so that we could immediately email the application in. We didn’t want to miss out on it – and it toNow that I’ve said goodbye to Van Ness, it’s time to talk about the new place! In May, I moved to a two-bedroom with my friend from Brandeis, Rachel H. We’re located in between Dupont and Logan circles, and it’s such a cute place. In fact, it’s so wonderful that when we saw the place in April, we RAN back to my office so that we could immediately email the application in. We didn’t want to miss out on it – and it totally took us less than 15 minutes to get all the way to Metro Center.

Since I’ve been here for about two months, I can now accurately say what my favorite things about my new home are. In no particular order, they include:

1. This apartment feels much more like a HOME. I moved into my Van Ness apartment very quickly, and while I liked it, it never really felt like I had any sort of ownership over it -- perhaps because I was in a room with a fake wall, but more likely because I didn’t really help figure out how to set it up.

2. Our cute and decidedly full-of-character neighborhood. There's a crazy house next door, with flamboyant colors and odd figurines in the window. There's an abundance of cute and friendly dogs. Some people have baby envy; I totally have dog envy. And best of all, there's amazing people watching, fabulous little front yards, and alleys full of people having summer parties.

3. There's access to not one, not two, but three (!) Metro stations. Of course, none of them are quite as close as Van Ness was, but I am no more than a 15 minute walk away from all 5 Metro lines!

4. In similar, transportation-related reasons why I love our new home -- I can walk to work! This was one of the requirements of moving downtown, and I am so grateful for my 20-minute walk down 14th street every day. (I don’t actually walk EVERYday, sometimes I take one of the very convenient 50-buses there!).

5. I have an amazing new roommate, Rachel H.! She introduces me to great TV shows (see: 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother) and lets me read her books! I'd say it was an uneven relationship, but I DO cook with garlic often, and I feel that that's an advantage in a roomie.

6. The apartment includes a WASHER and a DRYER. in unit. Need I say more? No, but I will. This makes me so excessively happy -- I always ended up in the dorms at Brandeis that required outside travel to do laundry, and at the Albemarle there was always a line to laundry . . . lame. The point it is, this is the best thing since Ethel Merman in Anything Goes.

7. The ceilings of the apartment are soooo high. And it's full of light (which necessitated blackout curtains for rooms, but I revel in it! although I may need some curtains soon), which makes it an altogether-decidedly-cheery place to live.

8. There is wonderful food shopping. I’m a mile from Trader Joe’s, a ten-minute walk from the lovely (if overpriced) Dupont Circle Farmers Market on Sundays, and two blocks (!) from a Whole Foods. Although I sometimes miss the reliably inexpensive almost-suburban experience at the Van Ness Giant, there really is a lot of great food shopping around here. And when I don’t want to cook, there are about a hundred restaurants within short walking distance. Actually.

9. The new apartment is downtown and convenient and wonderful, and clearly other people think so as well, because I have lots of great neighbors, many of whom I knew before but am really excited to be living near now!