trash day!!!

we got new trash cans!!! the city brought a big truck and dropped off new trash and recycling cans on everyone's front yard and it is wonderful! i can't believe that i am excited about this, but, you know, i am. if i could only get the city to come get the old ones...

the first year

yikes. it's been awhile since i've written! i completely missed our year anniversary in the house!

i have loved this year. we love this house and our life in it. yes, it is too big for just the two of us. that's why we have a housemate in the basement. yes, it is a little inconvenient since we're not on the metro. that's why i can finish my reading for book club during my quality bus time.

we recently went on vacation to peru. it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. we ate well, hiked it the glorious sun, met friendly people, and relaxed in a real way. i'll do a full series of posts detailing our adventure... hopefully! but one of the best parts of the vacation was coming home. phil pushed me to pack early so we had time to clean the house before we left. walking into a clean house (our house!) was so calming after 11 days away and a red-eye flight.

there are a lot of projects planned for year two. we've spent the first year getting to know the house. does that sound crazy? i can't paint a room (and be happy with it) until i've lived it in all types of light. there's no way i could really work in the garden until we'd been through all the seasons together. so now, we have a better idea of where we want to go with our home. we also have a better handle on what it costs to run the house for a year. we've watched the local real estate (phil is a hawk!) to see how much we should invest in improvements. we've entertained groups of all sizes - from a single friend to a party of 75, from a neighbor dropping in to multiple overnight guests - and know better how we can best make the spaces comfortable for us and others. i can't wait to share each project as it unfolds!

cheers, beloved house, and here's to many more happy years together!

six months

well, here we are. april 20 to october 20. not moving quite as quickly on the house projects, but we're comfortable. and still super happy.

the location is still awesome. walking to bars, restaurants, shopping and the grocery store have us so spoiled. yes, not being metro-accessible is tough. but really only when we go to the airport. and that's what uber is for : ) i've joined car2go, which is amazing. it's a super cheap way to take a one-way trip. but mainly i commute via bus and then we share the car on the weekends. it works for now.

knock on wood - no major problem yet. we have small issues: a broken toilet flusher that's too close to the vanity to replace without removing the toilet, running out of hot water when all three of us shower in the mornings, the chilly upstairs (old houses don't have much or any insulation!), dirty carpet in the den (that just may be phil's tendency to spill when he drinks red wine)... but these are all minor in the scheme of things. ummm so maybe the chilly upstairs is a big deal. i'll let you know in february. as i type in homeless gloves.

progress that we've made is minimal. the guest room is painted, but still lacks new linens or headboard. the master has a new bed and linens (see above for the great hotel linens i found on rue la la!). and is the home to the refinished dresser - still lacking final knob choice. walls are still the blah tan - waiting to  paint until we strip the walls down to the plaster upstairs. the upstairs back room is...ummmmmm...a wreck. no more boxes, but that's the main positive in that negative. downstairs is okay: all except the front room. that room doesn't know what it wants to be yet. it is fun to see the continual evolution, though.

the garden is also in progress. it has been nice to see the random things that have popped up throughout the year. like these mums! i have a lot of work to do, but it is exciting. i want a lush cutting garden by spring... but, you know, there is life. we travel. we work. we have family and friends. and that is important. so we do those things. does it mean that the living room is still rug-less and furnished with the horrid red couch we got for free from phil's coworker in denver? yes. but it also means we've seen our family multiple times this year, gone to new york and chicago with friends, met our work deadlines and studied for professional registration exams (phil has to take another portion of the real estate exam and i am wading through my seven architect registration exams - rough stuff). so i think i'm okay with the fact that the brick in the den is still not grey. because i love our life : ) and i wouldn't trade these last six months for a finished house - not for anything.

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!