There’s No Place Like Home

Row Houses, originally uploaded by JasperYue.

Lately J. and I have been doing a lot of downsizing in anticipation of our cross country move. We get a relocation stipend so hiring movers isn’t an issue but the size of our next home probably will be. We’ve decided to make Philadelphia our home since it’s convenient to traveling throughout the Northeast and they have the graduate program that J. wants to do. What they don’t have is large homes in our price range.

We’ve spent the past two weeks trolling craigslist and other websites trying to find a new home that is convenient to public transportation and able to fit our belongings. I know you’ll probably say we should downsize even more but really in this past year we have probably given away or sold a third of our belongings. This weekend we finished sorting the things in our garages into give away, sell and keep piles. We have also decided to sell our Xterra. I’ll get a company car with my new job and there really is no reason for us to have three vehicles. In fact we are looking at storing my hybrid at my Dad’s house so that we can drop the insurance down to next to nothing. It’s less than a year old at this point and while we plan on staying in Philadelphia for a couple years I just think it would be a losing situation to try to sell it at this point. That will leave us with my company car and the Whizzer that J. is going to get.  

MY WHIZZER !! 007, originally uploaded by pfreys2.

For the most part we will be able to get around Philly by public transportation but for anything else we will use the Whizzer. The company car will stay parked unless I need to go somewhere out of town. Hopefully the money we save on car payments and gas will make up for the increased cost of housing….

We are also “greening” our home search by using the internet to find and research homes. In the next couple weeks J. will go out there and check them out in person. There really isn’t a reason for both of us to go and this will save emissions and money. Most of the places we can afford are row homes which have the added bonus of being insulated on two sides by neighbors which should help with our heating and cooling. The rest of the ones we are looking at our converted warehouses. The lofts are larger then any townhouse or traditional apartment we can find and have great character. Plus who wouldn’t want to live in an old chocolate factory :). The downside to the loft would be dividing the space and we wouldn’t be able to have a garden. The rowhouses don’t have huge backyards be any means but we would have enough space to have a small garden or keep chickens (we haven’t decided which).

Ideally we will find a row house with about 1000 sq feet, a small backyard, and ready access to public transportation. Keep your fingers crossed for us.