fedward, tumbling

Snowpocalypse 2009 (via Don Feduardo)

Holy crap there is, like, NO milk left in the store. Snow mak… on Twitpic

I’m both amused and saddened by this. I hadn’t been paying attention to our own milk supply, and it turns out there’s just enough left for my coffee this morning, but not enough for my afternoon milk and cookies. Considering what our local Safeway looked like before Thanksgiving I’m willing to bet it will look just like this today.

The plot thickens!

I had always assumed that the neighborhood names “Old City #1” and “Old City #2” that show up in the MLS were just vague realtorisms, but it turns out that they are, in fact, actual DC tax (aka Real Property) neighborhoods. That they are unknown as city neighborhoods is just one of those strange things about the District.  The gubmint here defines tax neighborhoods and neighborhood clusters [PDF] with actual boundaries, but usually appears just to handwave over the outlines of the specific neighborhoods themselves.

In some neighborhoods it just doesn’t matter, but in others there can be virtual fisticuffs about what’s what. I’ve been curious, though, about what neighborhood the new apartment is in.  Going by the original plats it’s not actually in Petworth (which was bounded by Georgia Ave); it’s not in Columbia Heights the way I know it; the land wasn’t ever part of Pleasant Plains (everything I’ve found indicates that the Holmead property that became Pleasant Plains, Park View, Columbia Heights, and Mt. Pleasant was bounded on the north by Spring Rd). In local use, however, the immediate location is known as “Petworth” if for no other reason than the fact that the Georgia Ave/Petworth Metro station is located there — despite the fact that it’s on the opposite side of Georgia Ave from Petworth.  Until the Metro station opened, however, the realtorism might have been Columbia Heights, but it might also have been Park View, or 16th Street Heights. It depends on the whim of the realtor.

Today I found, however, that the tax neighborhood of 16th Street Heights (distinct from the realtorism) is bordered on the south by Upshur St NW, which sent me looking again. And this is where things get really weird.  The DC Citizen Atlas Real Property search (not to be confused with the “Where You Live” search - and whatever you do, don’t just try the Citizen Atlas home page, because the web server isn’t set up right and thus there isn’t one) says that the new address is in the Columbia Heights tax neighborhood (despite that address being outside the land that became Columbia Heights in the first place), and in the Petworth city neighborhood (despite being across Georgia Ave from historic Petworth).

I think I need to lie down now.

I signed the paperwork today on a new apartment, although it still doesn’t quite feel real.  There are several contributing factors:

1. I was just in the building for the first time yesterday.
2. This turned out to have been the first day the office was even open.
3. And by the office being open they mean that there are people in the office space while contractors are still patching drywall and painting.  Their computers are a couple mini-PCs sharing an EVDO card.
4. The apartment it self was a bit surprising, as it’s basically a one-off in the building.
5. When I went back today, it was already unavailable.  It was, in fact, snapped up maybe two hours after I saw it yesterday.
6. You might note that yesterday was the first day the office was even “open.”
7. Today I decided to stick around and look at a few more units the next floor up with the manager, and by the time we were done, the woman who rented this particular apartment was on the phone to say she had changed her mind (ironically, to the unit I had wanted to look at first).  No backsies!
8. I didn’t actually have any checks in my checkbook, so they’re holding it until I get back there tonight with a check (and probably with Kate so she can have a look around).

So none of this is real until they cash the check I haven’t actually taken them yet and we move in next month, but it’s moving in that direction.  Details:

• Park Place building directly on top of Georgia Avenue-Petworth Metro station (we’re moving one stop up the Green line).
• It was built as a condo building (in fact, the folder for marketing materials the manager handed me yesterday still said “condominium”).
• One of only two apartments on the first floor, accessible just off the crazy plastic hallway with the multicolored lights (that’s not going to get old AT ALL).
• The first floor itself is only half a floor; at the end of the hallway you go up a couple ramps and find yourself in the “second” floor, with retail beneath you.
• Since it was built as a condo, it’s got fancy everything: Grohe fixtures, GE Profile appliances, nice gas stove, deep double-basin sink, washer and dryer in the unit.
• The apartment has 10’ ceilings, windows and a glass door facing west, and its own private, split-level patio.  It’s located underneath the terraces of the 3rd floor, so there won’t be much in the way of noise from upstairs neighbors.
• The apartment is just under 796 square feet (well, officially it’s 796 but that includes some dead space so it comes out around 780); the patio is a whopping 488 square feet.
• For code and safety reasons, gas or charcoal grills are prohibited but electric ones are OK.  There are all-weather outlets at several places in the walls of the patio, plus built-in lights.  I guess the housewarming gift should be an electric grill.

I’m psyched.  It’ll be nice to see the sky.