Tradeoffs when purchasing a rowhome

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would put location over more space any day, especially if you like the rowhouse, which I assume you do.

I am a little confused though that you "tried" to like Georgetown, but preferred Foggy Bottom. I work in GT and FB, and can't imagine a universe in which this could possibly be true.

I don’t really have an explanation, just a combination of available housing options, the congestion on M street, and also not wanting to be in a concentrated wealthy area where everyone is sending their kids to private school. Sounds like there’s a good community around Hyde-Addison, but we felt like we’d be the odd people out in most of the Georgetown houses we looked at.

Yes. Dupont is for the poors. 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you typically near neighbors through the walls of a row home in DC?

In the three rowhomes I have live in dc (all between 150-110 years old), no.

In a brand new “luxury” building? Absolutely.

What about smoke ? Cooking smells?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you typically near neighbors through the walls of a row home in DC?

In the three rowhomes I have live in dc (all between 150-110 years old), no.

In a brand new “luxury” building? Absolutely.

What about smoke ? Cooking smells?

For us yes we notice when our neighbor is smoking pot in their basement. It's not super strong, but we can tell. No cooking smells.

[Anonymous]

Do it! We did the same thing and stayed until we had our 4th. We were right by Ross and loved it! The kids are old now and still have great memories and reminisce when we go back for brunch, farmers market, etc. As long as you have parking, you’re set.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do it! We did the same thing and stayed until we had our 4th. We were right by Ross and loved it! The kids are old now and still have great memories and reminisce when we go back for brunch, farmers market, etc. As long as you have parking, you’re set.

Love this, thank you, it's help putting my mind at ease. And yes, off-street parking.

[Anonymous]

One aspect nobody touched upon here: kids' social lives. It will be difficult if there are no families nearby walking distance away you can be friendly with, so that you don't always have to drive out of your way for playdates. You will find it difficult to host playdates where parking is competitive and not have guest parking. When they are little babies and toddlers it's not that challenging, more people with babies around as people usually move to the burbs when kids are older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would put location over more space any day, especially if you like the rowhouse, which I assume you do.

I am a little confused though that you "tried" to like Georgetown, but preferred Foggy Bottom. I work in GT and FB, and can't imagine a universe in which this could possibly be true.

NP. IDK, I'll just list my opinion here being familiar with both. I used to live in FB before kids, had a family in Dupont and went to Gtown all the time, it's all really close.

FB is more central to other places in DC if you want to walk everywhere and has Metro with 3 lines. It also has more choices of practical everyday things people need to do accessible on foot (jobs, groceries, drug stores, banks, medical offices, etc). I love Georgetown for its residential feel and architecture, waterfront/views, cute shopping. Both are close distance, so it's really about type/price of housing/vibe. FB has more highrise living, more casual with many students and tourists and more transient. Gtown has long term residents and more families, but also likely wealthier and may have more status obsessed crowd. FB seems more easy going to me. West End and Dupont are sort of in between?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One aspect nobody touched upon here: kids' social lives. It will be difficult if there are no families nearby walking distance away you can be friendly with, so that you don't always have to drive out of your way for playdates. You will find it difficult to host playdates where parking is competitive and not have guest parking. When they are little babies and toddlers it's not that challenging, more people with babies around as people usually move to the burbs when kids are older.

why wouldnt there be any kids? you people are absurd. dupont is totally the right move here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One aspect nobody touched upon here: kids' social lives. It will be difficult if there are no families nearby walking distance away you can be friendly with, so that you don't always have to drive out of your way for playdates. You will find it difficult to host playdates where parking is competitive and not have guest parking. When they are little babies and toddlers it's not that challenging, more people with babies around as people usually move to the burbs when kids are older.

why wouldnt there be any kids? you people are absurd. dupont is totally the right move here

+1. There are lots of families, and no one drives to a play date— you just walk over.

[Anonymous]

We’ve lived in a row house in Mt Pleasant for 23 years. We have a 7 year old who goes to Bancroft. I can’t speak to the Ross community but our school community is fantastic. My kid has tons of friends in the neighborhood. This place is overrun with kids.

The downside of rowhouse living with kids is the lack of outdoor space for them to play. We are right near RCP, so that helps. We have several playgrounds nearby. We love being walkable to lots of restaurants, CVS, Safeway, etc.

I think city living with kids is great. I know more neighbors than lots of my friends out in the burbs. I can’t speak to the friendliness or cohesiveness of Dupont, but if it is anything near what Mt Pleasant is, you won’t regret living there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Choosing Dupont over the Hill seems weird to me.

Not the op (in fact, I live in a far flung MoCo suburb, but I commute to DC), but I suspect the op and their spouse work somewhere off CT Ave or near DuPont. It makes sense to live close to work rather than on the Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Choosing Dupont over the Hill seems weird to me.

Not the op (in fact, I live in a far flung MoCo suburb, but I commute to DC), but I suspect the op and their spouse work somewhere off CT Ave or near DuPont. It makes sense to live close to work rather than on the Hill.

+1. I live on the Hill because I work on the Hill. I’d never live here if I had to work in DuPont.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you typically near neighbors through the walls of a row home in DC?

In the three rowhomes I have live in dc (all between 150-110 years old), no.

In a brand new “luxury” building? Absolutely.

What about smoke ? Cooking smells?

For one 150 year old home (they had top floor and we had bottom two floors), when our neighbors smoked pot, we could smell it. We never heard any noise though.

When we had a full rowhome to ourselves, we didn’t have any noise, smoke or cooking smells on our end. Except our neighbors on one side always seemed to know when I was baking cookies from one particular place in their backyard (next to where the exhaust was)!

Basically, an old rowhome cut into multiple units will have more problems with those things. An old rowhome that is just attached in either side will be pretty quiet and self contained. The newer rowhome, I’m not sure. Houses were more solidly made in the past so I’d always lean towards an old home in this case.

[Anonymous]

I love Dupont. Lived there for years and walked everywhere. Especially love the easy access to Rock Creek and trails.

[Anonymous]

I think you’re gonna love it. It would be so cool to live in a Dupont rowhouse with a small family. As others have mentioned, schools later on are going to be your biggest concern.