real talk

real talk. hehe. it's from here. you should listen, if you don't already. my work wife, elisa, and i listen to it and giggle all day. 

we have lived here for four months. we love this house. a lot. i am so happy all those other houses didn't go through. there was the ballston townhouse with french doors that opened up the entire living space onto the courtyard, the mount pleasant dream house that went for more than $50k over asking, the rhode island mansion multi-family that the inspector told us to run away from, a capitol hill rowhouse with no backyard but near a nice park, and the burleith gut-job with orange wallpaper inside the pantry but a garage. oh, and i had to run and vomit in the alley behind that one in the middle of signing the offer papers. bad omen? guess so. and that doesn't even count the seafoam green columbia heights house we almost offered on back in 2008. anyway, we are exactly where we are supposed to be.

there are so many things i love about this house. so many.

1. this. oh and the programmable thermostat for the radiant heat under the bathroom floors. i didn't even know that's a thing. but, yes, it is, and it is magnificent. look out, january, you can't get the best of me and my post-shower happiness!!

2. my garden. it may be small, but i feel my stress just lift off my shoulders within a few minutes of puttering after work. with a beer, of course. i mean, what self-respecting person doesn't hold a beer while watering their hydrangeas at 7.30 pm on a tuesday while the bus drives by? : ) 

3. our neighbors. well...i don't really know them that well. so maybe i won't love them in the long run. but what i do know of them is that they are sweet. and friendly. and helpful. 

4. we trust that the previous owner did the renovations correctly. i cannot tell you the peace of mind this gives us. and i love that the house is largely renovated.

5. the light. even though we are the middle rowhouse on our block, i don't need to turn on lights during sunny days, except when chopping in the kitchen.

6. the central air!!! i feel like a fancy lady with our a/c and lack of radiators. not to mention a programmable thermostat. this is not something i ever thought i would have on a house pro/con list. i remember visiting my uncle in st louis when i was probably 11 or so. i was shocked that so many people had window units! no one i knew in texas had that. then i didn't have a/c at all when i lived in denver. we had window units in rosslyn - ugly, noisy, dusty things. i never felt like we had clean air blowing in. so being able to put hepa filters on my own system? love it!

anyway, there are some less-than-perfect aspects to our place. in all fairness...

1. we have one bathroom. this bathroom is small. and upstairs. watching a movie downstairs? have to run up and turn on three lights so you don't trip. having a party? get ready for a line. and don't forget to check on the toilet every 5 people so you can fix the flusher that's always breaking. want to plug in your flat iron while you blow dry your hair? better unplug the toothbrush and hope that no one else needs the room. 

2. we are not on the metro. while i think this keeps our neighborhood relatively quiet and safe, it also means a 10 minute drive to work takes 45 minutes on the bus. or bus/metro, if outside of commuting hours. i am starting to spend a LOT of money on cabs (well, more accurately, uber - it's the best!). 

3. the neighborhood skews a little, ummm, fratty. the bus in the morning can feel like the college bus that went to sorority row. this affects our retail quite a bit. we went to town hall a few weeks ago and i felt about a million years old. and dowdy. maybe i am. maybe this is not a negative on the house. maybe i'm just old. i have been going to town hall since we moved here, when i was 22. i think i fit in more then. but it does mean that we get a lot of bars and restaurants that cater to the deep south croakies crowd. if you know what i mean. 

4. most of our friends do not live nearby. and see number 2. it makes it a bit of a trek to get back and forth to the hill. especially with the one car.

i'm sure that both lists will grow the longer we are here. but i am happy : ) hopefully the positives keep growing and the negatives shrink!