I got the call about 4:30 today offering me the job in DC, and I accepted. The target date is June 15, which give me and Leigh-Anne about six weeks to train replacements at our current jobs, find a place to live, etc.
After extensive conversation with my dad and some others, I think we’re going to concentrate on areas in Maryland and commute into Arlington. I’m going to go down in a couple weeks and see the office, meet the people I’ll be working with and start looking at apartments.
WOOHOO! Yay and congrats, Phil! I’m assuming you’ll be looking in the Montgomery County area for housing (I could be wrong, but hey). If so, email me…I live in Silver Spring, and would be happy to email/snail mail apartment info, housing guides, etc. Also, Rent.net ROCKS for this area…it’s how I found my current place.
Congrats, Phil! We’re looking forward to having you down here!
I’ll defer to Falcon with respect to renting, because where I am, out in Calvert Co., is a great place to buy, but there’s no rental market to speak of. But when you guys decide to buy a home, this is the direction to go!
Ye Gods, phil… yer workin’ in my backyard. Should be interesting, if we ever cross paths… It’ll be a knotty commute coming out of MD to Arlington… both 395 and the city routes can be nightmares, tho’ 395 is entirely pothole free.
Other than that, best of luck with the move!
Falcon: Yep, Montgomery is where we’ll be looking. My Dad lives in Frederick, and he recommended we check out Germantown. He says there isn’t a Metro stop there, but there are several buses that run to the stop in Rockville. He definitely told us to stay out of Prince Georges County. I’ll check out Rent.net, though. We’re also checking apartments.com, and my dad is sending me the Montgomery Gazette.
Lucretia: You just might! I was going to be down there anyway, on 6/18, to take my dad to Cmaden Yards for Fathers Day. Now it’ll be that much easier.
Olentzero: After those pics of you at the IMF protests, I think I’d know you anywhere.
THanks for all the well wishes, everyone. We’re really excited about it!
(holding head) Oh, Phil, I am so sorry for you. To think, you get moved close to, but not into, the greatest city in the country.You get to be within shouting distance of Baltimore, but forever denied the sweet fruit of that tree.Oh! The Agony! Christ, I’d kill myself! ( or wound myself)LOL- Welcome to the Mid-Atlantic, call me and I’ll show you around.
Welcome! Not to start off with horror stories but you do not want to live in Germantown if you’re going to be working in Arlington. Driving-traffic-wise it would be a nightmare, or you’d have to drive to the metro, take it all the way into the city, and then back out into Arlington. Germantown/G’Burg is the most convenient suburb to Frederick though (which is probably why he recommended it)
Commuting from Germantown to Arlington? No disrespect to your father, but how many times has he done that? Let’s see, that involves going from 270 to 495 to either 66 or 395 or the GW Parkway, depending.
I would seriously recommend that you drive that rush hour commute before you settle on a place to live. And before you move, put some DC radio stations on RealPlayer or whatever you use and listen to the traffic reports.
Plus Germantown is in the middle of nowhere, which makes renting/buying affordable, but what else is there? (I’ll admit that last is a genuine question - I only know that area up to Gaithersburg, and that’s far enough for me, thank you.)
Yes, I live in Virginia, and we all know those who live in VA don’t think much of MD and vice versa. But this isn’t entirely local prejudice (or not mine - I’ve heard enough stories from Gaithersburg/DC commuters and VA/MD commuters to shudder at the very thought.)
Oh, and close to the Rockville metro, please. Although being at the top of the line, you’ll always get a seat. Just as well, since you’ll be on the train for an hour.
Well, now I’ve said all that, welcome to the area. Believe it or not, I do like living here.
There are supposed to be lots and lots of Eastern Europeans here on the East Coast, but they seem to hide their sausage-making capabilities under a bushel.
I myself never visit Cleveland without stashing away at least five pounds of kielbasa in my socks, under my hat, folded into my newspaper, to bring back to New York City.
Congrats on the move. DC can be loads of fun as some of the others have already posted. This weekend for example I had a friend up from San Antonio and him, my boyfriend, and me all went out to the Millenium March and Equality Rocks Concert. It was a lot of fun plus I got to take off Friday and Monday. WOOHOO!
I am assuming that you are going to be driving when you get here. If that is the case, then MD to VA would be a nasty ass commute. I was living 15 miles from work and it took me an hour to an hour and a half to get to work every day (one way). It is even worse going into VA. Since I assume that you will be driving, you can live in some nice places in VA and not have too bad a hell commute and still live in a reasonably priced area. (If you live around the metro your rent will jump several hundred dollars for the convenience.) 647 had it completely right though, you would much rather be on the metro because the highways are infinitely worse.
One other thing, if you are going to live out in the burbs and need/want space the only way to do that affordably is to live way out (i.e. at least 20-30 miles from DC proper).
If you are willing to live in DC with the high crime and all there are nice places to live both ghastly expensive and cheap. The cheaper the places the less convenient they are and they will also usually have higher crime. I am one of the few that actually live in the city. I think there are around 5 or 6 other that live in the city, the rest live out in the burbs.
I strongly, STRONGLY recommend that you reconsider living in MD and commuting to Arlington. The traffic will be horrendous and unless you enjoy killing three hours a day on commuting, I would not consider for a second living where you are currently considering.
As an alternative let me suggest to you three beautiful, quiet, convenient locations in VA that will make your commute to Arlington as hassle free as can be.
McLean
Falls Church
Tysons Corners
The areas are very safe. Plenty of rental properties with lot’s of vacancy. Anything from brand new townhouses to appartments. Lots of shopping including great malls and restaurants. Easy access to the subway which will get you to the White House in 20 minutes. If you want to drive, a very pretty ride down the Washington Memorial (along the Potomac) will get you into downtown in about 20 minutes as well (30 during rush hour).
Please please please stay away from the 270/495 commute… there are enough unfortunate souls clogging up that route and wasting precious moments of their lives.
I’d also like to recommend reconsidering living in Germantown. It’s a nice area, but the commute will be hellacious. I had friends that used to live there and commute to Silver Spring. Which is roughly…15-20 miles, TOPS. It took them routinely an hour and a half, and if one thing went wrong, BINGO! 3 hour commute. If you’re planning on doing metro, that’s okay, but fair warning - you WILL be on there for an hour. Rockville is at one end of the Red line. You’d have to go all the way into the city, transfer, and ride back out to Arlington. Main reason I never took metro when I lived in Annapolis.
However, I would ALSO disagree with the McLean/Tysons Corner/Falls church idea. Traffic there is just as bad, if not worse, than in Maryland. The Dulles/Tysons corridor is the fastest-growing place in the metro area. Unfortunately, the roads haven’t kept up. Your choices are: Route 7 (traffic light hell), or the Dulles Toll Road (toll city, and massive backups at the toll plaza every day.) And no offense, QuickSilver, but the GW parkway? half an hour??? Not bloody likely.
Then again, you may be able to learn to live with the traffic. My dad commuted from Annapolis to Bethesda for 25 years. I did it for 2, until I was able to move out. And honestly, I learned to live with the daily backups. If you can get flex-time at all, I’d highly recommend it. Then it doesn’t matter WHERE you live.
(Now that we’ve all probably scared the life out of Phil, I think I’ll leave. ;))
Hi, Phil! Confused? Horrified? Welcome to the traffic situation in the District of Columbia!
If you’re going to be commuting into Arlington, you’re probably better off actually living in Northern VA (and the taxes are slightly lower); it’s the difference between an hour commute and a two-hour commute (easiest way to explain- over a hundred thousand people commute between MD and VA every day. There are two bridges that connect MD and VA. You can start to imagine the bottleneck).
Uhhh, Uke? Haven’t you been paying attention? Phil is a vegetarian; he’s as likely to worry about finding good sausage as I am about finding a good non-alcoholic beer.
