We went down to Northern Virginia to try to find a place to live on Saturday. It's a bit of a complicated situation since Jim will be moving in the beginning of August but I'll be staying in State College primarily until after I defend (still no date).
So, we were ideally looking for something that would be pet-friendly, flexible in the lease (since I don't have a job there yet, and we don't know about the commute), and ideally inexpensive, since we're keeping our (expensive) house in State College (because, really, the stress of finding a cheaper, temporary, pet-friendly place here is just not worth it right now.)
We saw a bunch of places in Front Royal, which is a nice town - about the size of State College, but without the college, so if you can imagine State College without the University and with an expanded, more interesting downtown area you have Front Royal. It also borders Shenandoah National Park and has a ton of water sports like kayaking and canoeing in the river, which I'm really excited about!
We also saw a couple houses in Warrenton, which is about 40 minutes SE of Front Royal, and about 50 minutes SW of Fairfax. They were very cool places to see (one in a converted stable from the 1820's) but the town's a bit far from anywhere, and it's quite small, and very expensive ($6 for a loaf of white bread? I mean, it was from a bakery, but really?).
Anyway, we *think* we've decided on a place in Front Royal. It's in the historic downtown area, which is a first for us, we haven't actually lived *in* a town before. It's not too expensive and it's
really cool- it has beams in the ceiling and a clawfoot tub and a nice kitchen.
The catch: it's a 1 bedroom (it's pretty big though) and it's in a renovated hospital. From Civil War times.
I just know I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night next to some bloody Civil War soldier while a nurse is leaning over me with a knife or something.
(http://www.freewebs.com/free-offers/brown_lady_ghost.jpg)
Anyway.
So we'll need to get a storage unit until we can find a more permanent situation, and we're going to be downsizing considerably. Which isn't a bad thing.
Some pics:
The house - we'll have the unit with the door on the left. It extends to the right a bit:
The kitchen in the 1 bedroom that will hopefully work out for us:
There's an oven and at least as many cabinets on the other side. There is also a large table and 4 chairs (the apartment's furnished). The front door is behind you, and the rest of the apartment is through a door on the right. The living room is really big, and the bathroom and bedroom are beyond it. It's surprisingly spacious for a 1 bedroom apartment.
Downtown Front Royal has a really nice courtyard and gazebo in the middle where they play concerts in the summer. There are a bunch of little restaurants and bars - it seems really nice.
I'll miss State College, and moving is a pain, but northern VA looks pretty awesome too.
