October 2008 Weddings
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
**Kathy**
Beautiful place! Why are you moving? Where are you going? Sorry if you already answered them before you DD'd; I didn't check back soon enough.
Re: **Kathy**
I did answer and did DD... sorry you didn't see!
Anyway, first of all, THANK YOU! I really have loved living there, and have put a lot of sweat and $ into it (The unit and the condo building itself) to make it great. I'm sure it's going to go to a great owner! :-)
As for why am I moving, it's really about the amount of space. I bought it by myself in 2002, when 880 square feet was fine for just one person. When Robert moved in with me in 2007, we adjusted well enough, but it's been a little tight. We bought the NH place in 2009, which helps us a lot -- not only in terms of places to put our "stuff", but it really gives us different space for "fun" vs. the normal week.
Ultimately, we'd like a 3rd bedroom (our second is a combo of office and guest room and sewing room and all sorts of other stuff), another half bath, at least, an actually dining space for entertaining (our kitchen works for 2 people, and we don't have any other space for meal-based entertaining) and, ideally, a garage, or at the very least, off street parking. In my current town, you can't park on the streets overnight. So, we each rent a spot, about a third of the mile down the street, and it costs us about $275 in total EACH MONTH for the privilege of having a place to park! AND it's not very close!
But another aspect, quite frankly, is that I am tired of the interpersonal dynamics and responsibility of being in condo living and being the president of the association. And I don't really trust any of my neighbors to be in charge if I'm not involved. I'm done with the complaints about leaks, about noisy neighbors, about snow removal schedules, all of it....
So, single family home, about 15 minutes north of the city, 3 beds, 1.5 baths (or 2), garage, potentially an actually dining space, and not a lot of property to take care of (less than quarter of an acre, for sure), within about a half mile of a commuter rail station so that we can still commute easily, is our plan! We're looking in the towns of Melrose (esp near Melrose Center) and Wakefield, the southern part of it, as our primary towns.
Thanks for asking -- sorry you missed my response before the DD!
I hear ya on the parking. That sucks. It's the #1 reason why we don't live in a city. I can't tell you how much I love having an attached garage. This winter was the icing on the cake.
Condo associations seem like such a mess; it's hard to have your invest tied to people who can't get their act together. Good for you for trying, but at some point you have to cut your losses.
My cousin lives in Melrose in the house you described. They like living in Melrose; she takes the T in to Boston for work. Their family has expanded to include 2 kids, so the space is getting tight, but they bought at the height of the market so they're not selling any time soon. I wish they were so I could connect you, though!
Your parameters are the same that we'll have, location-wise, if either of us ever get a job in the area :'( We'll have to chat in a few years when we finally get our butts back to Mass.