sumeera younis.: House Tour Number Two

We moved!

The move was relatively painless. We used Bookstore Movers and they did an amazing job. They showed up at a little after 8 am and by 11 am, we were sitting in Kebab Palace having lunch, with all our furniture and boxes safely tucked away in our new place.

I'll tell you all more about the new place soon but lets take a tour of the house we just left.

After I was mugged, Feraz and I wanted to move to the safest place we could find in DC. One day I was parousing Craigslist and saw what looked like the perfect apartment. I immediately contacted the lister and within a few hours, we were standing outside the house waiting to see the place.

Feraz always warns me to not show my reaction to a place so we have negotiating power. Sadly, as soon as I walked in, I said, "I love it! We'll take it." It was such a beautiful space on one of the best streets in Georgetown. I loved the layout and how it felt like you were walking into a home, not an apartment. As much as I loved this place, I learned a lot more about what I didn't want in an apartment than I expected.

Lets start with the living room. The living room had two things that most people traditionally like in a home; a fireplace and skylights. We ended up only using the fireplace once (although that was to make s'mores so it was one time well used). So, although I liked how it looked aesthetically, I realize now that not having fireplaces in the house will not be a relevant consideration for us.

As for the skylights... I curse the skylights! They made the home so energy inefficient. When one service woman came to our house to help figure out why it was so cold all the time, she learned that the temperature was ten degrees cooler at the top of the room opposed to the bottom of the room. Since the vents were high up in this room, the heat was literally being sucked right out of the house. In the summer, the skylights made the family room unbearable. It would get so hot and no amount of cranking up the AC would help. So, if they are not put in correctly, skylights can be a huge problem. I am sure there is better technology available for the glass or that you could get remote controlled blinds for the skylights but to me it just isn't worth it!

Like our last place, this apartment had 2.5 baths. I love this and am of the mindset the more bathrooms the better! I liked that the powder room for guests generally stayed clean and we never had to worry about having guests show up at any time. Feraz used the guest bedroom bathroom and I used the bathroom attached to our own bedroom. We both had our own space and could always get ready without bumping into each other. I loved this and it is going to be a huge adjustment to have just ONE bathroom at the new place.

The master bedroom in this home was ridiculous. It was certainly an impressive room to walk into when we saw the house but there is no reason that this room shouldn't have been broken into two bedrooms. It was such a waste of space! Because of how the windows and closets were placed, we had few options with regards to placing the furniture. There was a lot of dead space and even if it was better laid out to accommodate more furniture, I don't really see the point of putting a bunch of couches and seats in your bedroom. (This might change once we have kids. I guess you might want your own space more then? I doubt it would matter then, either.)

This is a huge bedroom set but looks so dwarfed in this huge room!

The guest bedroom was great. It was a much smaller size and Feraz spent a lot of time watching soccer in here. Since it was smaller, it was actually the warmest room in the house so when our heater broke this winter, we spent a lot of time in here.

For me, a dining area is a must. Even if it were just a small table on the side of a room, I need a place in the home dedicated to eating food. Here, we sectioned off part of the living room to create a dining room.

After having a great big kitchen at the old place, I was a little nervous about having a galley kitchen. Especially since we both love to cook and I bake all the time. The kitchen was amazing! The cabinets were so well laid out and I had just as much storage space as the first apartment. Since the kitchen was small, it was always easy to quickly grab whatever I needed. So, I learned that more than a big kitchen, you just need a well designed kitchen.