Moving to DC with 7 months baby
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Anonymous
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Hi mons and dads from Washington!
My husband and I are moving to D.C. for a year, starting September 2014, with our little 7 months old. We are pretty new to your city so everything is to be learnt and your help would be much appreciated! Here are our main questions: Housing: We are currently looking for a furnished apartment (budget top 3000$/mth, 2BR) in Adams Morgan, Capitol Hill or Columbia Heights (my husband will be working at SAIS - Johns Hopkins University). We found two interesting options in AM and CH (between Howard University and Rhodes Island Ave NW). -Which neighborhood would you recommend (safety, baby friendliness, “walkability”, etc) ? -One of the place is quite small (800ft2) : would you say it’s still doable? -What would be the main things you would recommend we look for in and out of the apartment? (re: baby : we already rolled out all top floor places – too many stairs, and we are trying to look at quiet streets but there must be other things we are not thinking about) Day care: I will possibly be working part-time and will need an option for our daughter (something like 2day/w). Is it possible to send your child just two days (and not the whole week)? Do we need to apply for a place right now? Is it better to wait until we are there (will it be too late, we are arriving late August)? Should we look for having someone home instead? We would love her to spend time in an spanish-speaking environment, it this easy to find? Thanks for your help! Catherine |
Anonymous
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For housing, highly recommend Capitol Hill, but I live there and am biased. I think 800 sf is OK for a family of three for only a year, but closer to 1000 would be better. Are you considering row houses? You could get a little outdoor space.
Day care: definitely consider a nanny share. So much easier to do part-time, and quality part-time day care is very hard to find. |
catho16
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Thanks for your answer!
We will definitely check out the row houses option. About Capitol Hill, from what we saw so far it seems a little more expensive than elsewhere, just a coincidence in the ads we saw? Nanny sharing: I read it was very complex to arrange and, in the end, no so convenient.... I guess I was wrongly informed. Would you suggest a web site to pre-arrange? |
Anonymous
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Well, if you move to the Hill, join the Moms on the Hill Yahoo group ASAP! (Any one of your new neighbors with kids will sign you up.) That's how most people find their share partners (and how we also found our nanny).
Since your kid is not yet school-age, you don't need to worry about school boundaries. That means you could live in the less expensive parts of the Hill where schools aren't such a sure thing. You can expand your search to H Street/NoMa/Hill East. Good luck! |
Anonymous
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Welcome to DC!
The Kalorama (Neighborhood next to Adams Morgan and will be useful) Parents Listserv is KaloramaPlaygroup@yahoogroups.com. I would subscribe to that for nanny share recs. You probably won't find a daycare center with an opening in the area - most have 1 year wait lists. So an Nanny Share is probably the way to go. I live near Adams Morgan and everything is super walkable and baby friendly. Parks, grocery stores, the zoo, and restaurants. Depending on where you live in Adams Morgan will determine the noise. If you are looking to live right off of Columbia Road or 18th Street, it will be loud. But on other side streets, it will be fine. |
Anonymous
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Things to ask yourself:
Do you need to be within walking distance to the metro? Do you need a parking space? I would recommend getting an account at checkbook.org. It's a paid subscription but you get reliable reviews of dentists, daycare centers, plumbers, flooring companies, etc... |
Anonymous
| Where are you moving from? That will help us give you descriptions of recommendations. |
catho16
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Thanks all for your answers! It’s much appreciated!
I’m keeping in mind the websites you suggested, as well as the neighborhoods you mentioned. We are moving from Canada (Quebec City), and plan to arrive late August. We wouldn’t need a place for baby right away but hopefully by the end of September. We are having another question: bring the car or not. We are, in fact, planning on bringing it, any cons? |
Anonymous
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Hi. This is poster 16:10 - bringing a car:
It depends. If you want to live in Adams Morgan, street parking can be a little difficult sometimes, especially Friday and Saturday evenings. Also, there is street cleaning every week from (except between Oct. 31 - March or April). That means that you will have to move your car twice a week (assuming your husband will not be driving to work). For example - in my neighborhood, you can't park on one side of the street on Mondays from 9:30-11:30, and on the other side from 9:30-11:30 on Tuesdays. All that said - if you get a place with parking, fantastic! Having a car is nice for us. Grocery Shopping, and day trips to all sorts of places - Shenandoah Valley, Great Falls Park, Stuff in Maryland and Virginia! |
Anonymous
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Having a car with a kid is really handy. Given you're only here a year, you might want the car to be able to get out and about and explore the area. Sometimes it's just not worth it to wait for weekend metro depending on where you're going.
Rather than space, consider the layout of the apartment. Your seven-month-old will be eighteen months when you leave, so from crawling to walking which can be awkward stages. You want to be able to block off the kitchen, for instance, or be able to put up one of those baby yards to have a place for the baby to play that is contained if you're in the kitchen. |
Anonymous
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I may be biased (actually I am biased) because I live here, but I would recommend Bethesda, MD. You will be on the red line, so your husband would not have to change trains to get to work. His commute will probably be shorter (except for the occasional days there are red line delays- about once every 2 to 3 weeks).
All apartments and condos come with one parking space (at least the ones I looked into). There is a daycare called Children in the Shoe that offers part-time care. The waitlist is long and you have to call them every other week to push for a spot, so I would recommend getting on the waitlist as soon as possible. There are several parks and many restaurants, although it does not have the same city feel as DC. There is a free shuttle that runs every 15 minutes that goes from the north and south sides of Bethesda. http://www.bethesdatransit.org/transit-Bethesda-Circulator.shtml Current rentals in my building (Whitehall) go for $2,200 for a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom, 2100 sq feet. |
Anonymous
PP here. Edgemoor Children's Center also offers part-time daycare but they're even more difficult to get a spot than Children in the Shoe. |