OP, do you know what you like? I don't see the point in wanting what others have.

The great location (we love the neighborhood and it is in walking distance to almost everything we need), the big front porch, a small but flat yard that is functional/usable, and a comfortable amount of space inside for a family of 5.

We bought an old fixer upper and have since renovated almost every room, new floors, etc. I love old homes, even if they're small. Heavy solid wood doors throughout. Arched doorways. 13 ft. ceilings.

Neighborhood is awesome, close to DC yet quiet and beautiful. Can walk to a variety of shops, including a grocery store and pharmacy. Have great neighbors and little to no crime. A lot of my DC's friends live near us, makes it easy for playdates. Have a fireplace on both levels (one in basement). Our trees are over 100 yrs old. We're close to DC's ES.

A neighborhood that is not one everyone cuts through!

open kitchen/tv-living room floor plan. love it! last owners also built a breakfast area with windows all around, looking out onto the wooded backyard.

Our ikea kitchen, which we designed and DH built from scratch.

Steel kitchen cabinets and nice neighbors.

We built this home to be our forever home so we love it. Some of the things that we especially love:
- We converted the first floor study to a bedroom by adding a closet and a pass-through door to the bathroom which we converted to a full bath. This gives us a little "suite" for my parents and my MIL. My father and MIL both cannot walk easily upstairs anymore and we needed to have one full bedroom/bathroom on the main level for them.
- Virtually the entire back wall of the house is windows and the house faces north. With southern exposure and high ceilings, we get fantastic light. In the summer we don't have to turn the lights on until around 9pm.
- Bedroom level laundry. Love it.
- Huge master suite with his and her walk-in closets. My closet (his) is the smaller one and still big enough for me to keep two dressers in there. Several friends have joked that my wife's closet is bigger than their old college dorm or apartment bedroom.

But we designed many, many personal features into the house that we love.

backs onto capital crescent trail, five minute walk from stabucks and giant, 15 min walk to 3 different parks, five minute walk to library, 2 big upstairs bedrooms, built-in bo0kshelves in family room and kids room...

but we're moving!

Cul de sac with park and stream at the end and public library 5 blocks away, it's been a great spot for our 6 and 8 year old girls!

There's nothing really unique about my house. But best things, mostly put in by former owners:

-all new windows and doors, and a solar powered attic fan. our power bills are much lower than other people we know
-a bathroom on all 3 floors
-silly, but everything matches in the master bath - the towel rod, the hooks, the faucets are all the same brand. I love that.
-movie projector

+1 on the Cul-de-sac. I grew up on one, and we kids ruled it! The only thing that would make my house better would be if it were on a cul-de-sac...and maybe another acre...and a magic pool that appeared in summer and turned back to grass in fall/spring/winter...

is this an old home only thread or can the newer home owners play as well.

Love the upgrades, sunshine and newness. We lived in an old house before this one. It had a whole house fan, but still had that uncanny, unshakable old house smell. Even though it was the biggest lot So this is a nice change.

OP, do you know what you are looking for? Or are you maybe comparing too much? If you compare too much, you will never be happy.

Try for a cul de sac. Everyone I know who is on one would never move. And they could afford to!

Love hearing about the big lots! When you have a big lot, you can indeed have everything you ever wanted. You can't change the neighborhood, lack of cul de sac, playable/walkable (in actuality) streets, or increasing traffic, unfortunately. Those seem epidemic and undeniable, unfortunately.