A place to call home

Craig, my husband, and I are house hunting. We currently live in a two bedroom apartment "on the hill". For those of unfamiliar with Washington, DC lingo, "the hill" consists of the Capitol and the housing around the area.

We were first thinking of moving to Virginia. I don't see us making the trek out there though, not right now anyway. We really enjoy living on the hill. We like walking to the restaurants on 8th Street, Eastern Market, and Nationals Stadium. We also like that for blocks there is nothing but houses--no hotels, no big grocery stores, just homes and the people that live in them. We really have all the conveniences of a city with the laid back feel of a small neighborhood.

I think we really started looking at houses in November. We've seen some things we've liked. We've seen a lot we didn't like. And we spend hours at home, in front of the tv, looking online at houses.

Our criteria: preferably near the Eastern Market metro, two big bedrooms, LOTS of closet space, a half bath on the first floor, and a little backyard. Now that doesn't sound unreasonable does it?

We are a little smitten by a property we have named "The Bakery". The building served as the neighborhood bakery some years back. It is now a two bedroom home with two full baths. It looks like a bakery from the front, with a large bay window and decorative trim. I would like to think that the display cases held all kinds of yummy sweets. (I am half French. I do enjoy dessert. So this is all more appealing to me than you may think.) Although I am thinking it was more of a bread bakery than a place for pies and sweets.

And there's more... The house was redone in the 1970s. So think California style ranch in a row house. Are you scratching your head? Sounds odd, but it actually works. The style helps to alleviate many of the issues us modern day people have with the architecture of the early 1900s. Instead of many small rooms, they took down walls to create big spaces (room for that 50+ inch tv). And the issue of light, or lack of light, is solved by replacing the many small windows with floor to ceiling glass.

Sounds like I'm in love, huh? We'll see. We have another more traditional property we'd like to take a look at. This other property has a garage! I know everyone up north is thinking, big deal. Well this is a huge deal in the city. Street parking is what you usually get around here, and it works out just fine. A garage would be totally sweet though. I would love to keep our new CRV free of as many nicks and bumps as possible!

We would like to be out of our apartment asap, but there really is no need to rush. To be continued...