From the Beginning

Many of you know I opted to transfer from my previous employment in Texas (Gods Country) to a new position in Washington DC. The thought of leaving my friends and family and move 1400+ miles away was a bit overwhelming, but I with the relocation package I was offered and only a one year commitment, I thought what the heck. So come March 6, 2012 I climbed on a Southwest Plane at 6:00a.m. to venture to my new house in Virginia.

To give some history, the agency paid for me to come on a house hunting trip. So January 23-26 My mother and I flew up to Northern Virginia (NOVA) to a suburb of Fairfax VA, called Fair Lakes. Having spent many hours looking at google maps to determine where the Wal-Mart was, so I could be close, I felt Fair Lakes would be my home base for my DC Adventures. Well I was wrong! I felt like I was on house hunters as my realtor drove me from place to place that day. All of the places we looked at were townhouses, which the condition of varied greatly. We started at the one furtherst out. This was the one I had my heart set on, simply based on the online pictures. Unfortunately we never actually got to see the inside, the realtor before us didnt put the key back in the lockbox.

The second place we looked at was a four story townhouse. It was nice, but lets be honest, its one thing when movers are moving you in and they have to carry it up the stairs, its another thing when you know you will eventually move out, and you will have to haul that stuff out yourself. So that one got crossed off the list.

The next two townhouses were of the older variety. One we had to tip toe through because the baby wa asleep upstairs. It didnt really matter much, after walking in, I had that gut feeling this would not be my home. The two townhouses actually had the same basic floorplan which offered one very convenient feature. You would not have to get up from the toilet to wash your hands, in fact im not sure you could have actually gotten up from the toilet to wash your hands and had room to stand between the sink and toilet.

We continued to drive around looking at places, and finally it hit me. You dont go anywhere here without sitting in traffic. So this profound epiphany made me realize I didnt want to be in Fair Lakes, its six miles to the closest metro station and that would be 30 minutes in Traffic. Lucky for me Nikki, my realtor and chauffer for the day, had picked out a couple of places that were 1000ft from a metro station.

When I had looked on my own I thought I couldnt afford a place close to the metro because they are far more expensive. I learned however, that if you have to drive to the metro you have to pay for parking. This can be anywhere from $100-200 per month, and the rent was actually less than that.

So with all of that said, I opted for this joint. Its a two bedroom townhouse style condo. Its actually slightly larger than my house in Houston, as is the monthly rent. I have the bottom two floors, and then I have a neighbor above me.....that walks really hard.....and stomps down the stairs......at odd hours of the night.