more photos on flickr >>

 

(This is cross-posted at BlogHer.)

After several months of personal research and public discussion, I’ve finally located a new place to live. It meets the specifications I had in mind and I happen to be incredibly excited about my choice. I knew that if I moved, I wanted it to be something that I really liked and looked forward to moving into — I found it, and I’ll be moving in early next month. (Brrrr! A January move! I guess we’ll be okay, though, as long as it’s not snowing.)

I had given some thought to moving into DC, but it just never felt like the right thing to do. Either the places I liked were too expensive, or they were affordable but not in an area where I wanted to live. Or maybe they were in a pretty good area, and affordable, but I would have had to pay Big Bucks to park my car in off-street parking. (I’ve never had to pay Big Bucks for parking before, so I’m kind of opposed to that option, if you can’t tell.)

So I’m staying in Virginia, and I’m okay with that, because I was born in Virginia and I’ve lived in the state most of my life. Virginia is awesome.

I’ll be living by myself (which means I’ll be able to decorate any way I want!), in a building that I really like, and I’ll have my own balcony — which was really high up on the list of things I wanted if I moved to a new place. I’ll be living closer to a Metro stop, which was also an important consideration. I’ve been walking a mile one-way to the Metro almost every day for the past few years. It’s good exercise, yes, but the distance can be prohibitive when I’m making shorter trips into the city. I’m also looking forward to cutting some time off my daily commute to work.

I’m not going to say where I’m moving or which Metro stop I’ll be living close to, because I promised my parents I wouldn’t. It seems I’ve spent the last two years telling everyone that I live in Old Town Alexandria, a mile from the King Street Metro, along with other personally-identifiable details about my location. They’ve asked me to keep this information off the internet in the future, so I promised them I would. (And hey, they’ve been divorced for quite a few years, so it’s not like they tag-teamed me. They requested this separately and of their own accord, so I figured it would be nice of me to comply.)

I bought a sofa and chair from Craigslist yesterday, and I rented a U-Haul to pick them up (I’ll be keeping the furniture in my current apartment for the next few weeks until I move; luckily the living room is pretty large). I’d never rented a truck before, but it was surprisingly easy and painless. I even drove it myself, which was a little nerve-wracking but not too bad once I got used to it. Luckily I had a friend riding in the passenger seat with me, so he helped to calm my nerves a bit (I wanted to be the one driving the truck yesterday since I’d be returning it by myself later). Now that I’ve purchased the major furniture pieces that I needed, I can concentrate on smaller things, like a television stand and coffee table.

Speaking of friends, I love how they come out of the woodwork when something needs to be done. I had two male friends come over to my place yesterday to carry the furniture up to my second-floor apartment, and a number of people have volunteered to be at my disposal next month for the larger-scale move to the new place. (And lucky for us, the new building has an elevator — large pieces of furniture won’t have to be maneuvered up and around a staircase anymore.)

I’m really excited about this move. I know it will be good for me. I’ve already been thinking about when I should have a housewarming party. It will be the only large get-together I’ve ever hosted, and the only unfortunate part is that I’ve waited so long. But that’s okay. I’m getting started now, and that’s all that matters.

Related Reading:

At BlogHer, Liz Rizzo talked about the advantages of living on her own.

Apartment Therapy: 5 Confessions of a New Renter

Kristin Burleigh just moved out of a third-floor apartment and vows to never live above the first floor again (unless the building has an elevator!).

Law Girl takes us on a photo tour of her new apartment.