Life Roulette − 11 June, 2008

Ever watched the game of Roulette? The metal ball, that's us. The world is a spinning wheel, and each number is one of the houses we saw on Wednesday, June 11th. A realtor took us through Loudoun County on a whirlwind tour of townhouses.

Eventually we came to rest in one: a four story in Sterling, VA. Well, really, 3 1/2: basement, 1st floor, 2nd floor, and finished loft.

I knew it was the right place as soon as I saw the loft. Right now, writing this from weeks later, I'm sitting at my computer in the loft, which has become my music room. Yes, heat rises, so it's fairly warm. But the artistic feeling of the place can't be beat. I can see clouds blow past through a skylight, and see a cityscape if I look the right way through the stairwell window. I look down over a rail, into our bedroom. The Hammond organ and a newer keyboard (a Roland digital piano, 88 keys) sit under the skylight. There's an overwhelming feeling of openness, like being on top of a great tower.

Finding the place was only part of the battle. Those of you who have been through the process know it well -- applications, forms, payments, negotiations. We worried that no one would want to rent to us because of our two dogs. However, they are not energetic puppies: they are older dogs, now, and spend about 90% of their day asleep. They even look at you like you're an idiot if you disturb them.

The homeowners were great about it. They agreed to let us rent, and we planned the move in date for June 25th -- two weeks away.

That evening, we went to Hannah's brother's house in Alexandria. They were excited to finally have more family moving into the area.

And so was I. In Florida, we got very few visitors. Now, here we sit, right next to Dulles Airport. There's no excuse, now -- we're on the main line.

We dropped our framed artwork off, for safe keeping until our return.

-plonk-

Added 11-July-2008: photos I took one month ago, when we were looking for houses. These are views of the nearby Potomac River, from Algonkian Regional Park.

potomac1

potomac2

Posted on July 8, 2008. and has been viewed 172 times.

Comments:

peahayes (July 8, 2008. 10:39pm)

Your loft sounds awesome! Do you accept visitors by car?

bmccosar (July 9, 2008. 02:52pm)

I'll have pictures up later -- right now most of the house looks like you'd expect: as if our entire life were stuffed into the back of a U-haul and dumped in a strange place. The basement is sane, the first floor is sane, the loft is sane, but the 2nd floor is about like Deep Space 9 when the Federation took over from the Cardassians.