D.C. Area Nesties
Dear Community,
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.
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.
If you moved here, why do you like this area?
my dh and i (and our 3 young kids) are moving to the DMV area from the suburbs of Cincinnati. we have a large home with a nice yard and space with a relatively low COL. dh is out there now working in Arlington and living in DC. i love that the kids will get to go to a great school district since dh works for arlington public schools. i'm also glad to be closer to our families (most of our family is located on East Coast). Neither of us want to live in DC (feels too urban and cramped, and expensive), so we're considering further out in VA and MD.
if you moved to this area, what do you like about it? also, where do you live and do you have kids?
Re: If you moved here, why do you like this area?
we live in the district (but we're child-free so this is a lot easier for us) and after long commutes in NYC, we did not want to be outside the city. and having never really lived in a low COL area, the COL here was mostly better than expected for us.
things we like:
living downtown. both DH & i can walk to work. we value the time, money, and irritation saved A LOT.
the amenities in our apartment - central air, in-unit washer/dryer, and not hearing our neighbors at all hours (all things that were sorely lacking in our NYC apartments)
i love living closer to my bff (she's out in VA 'burbs and we used to only see each other 2-3 times/year)
occasional wegman's trips - this is kind of silly but it is one of the best grocery stores. ever.
the milder winters but that said, the summer weather makes want to cry because a heat index of 110 when i can't be at the beach 24-7 is NOT FUN.
good luck with your move!!
We do not have any kids ( see ticker below ) so we went to the dog park and ended up meeting someone DH went to high school ! Craziness. Either way, by meeting her, we met her now DH who shares a love of Jeeps so our circle is now about 15 people.
Overall, I do not like this area ( we live in PWC ) But we have met a lot of great people, so it's not too bad. The money is really great, DH is the director of operations for an IT company, so we will be sticking around ... that beingsaid, we are looking to Fauquier county. We lived here almost 5 years and we've never really done the Dc tourist thing !
We left Ohio to move here
we were living in Columbus not Cincinnati.
We had a much easier time finding jobs and we get paid a lot more. Plus I feel like MD has more trees and beauty than OH did and I really missed the beach and mountains when I was in Cbus all summer.
We live in Kensington, no kids. I teach at the elem school in my neighborhood
I moved from OH (Toledo, so a little more dull than Cincinnati) to Arlington after college. I like that Arlington is close to DC and all the stuff like museums and restaurants when I want to partake in those things, and pretty central to doing just about anything in the region for weekend outings. Arlington feels comfortable to me, a good compromise between being in a cramped urban place and out in the suburbs where running errands could require a long drive to a strip mall. I grew up in an older neighborhood in a city (vs the true burbs) so I think Arlington is about as close as I could get to what I was used to in OH.
Since I moved here straight after college, I long ago accepted the COL difference and being able to afford a SFH (or not) wasn't a consideration back then.
With a toddler, I don't do a whole lot of the things in DC proper that I used to, so being close to the city is mainly just important to me for my commute. But it's still nice to be able to go out to a nice restaurant and bar downtown on the weekend once in a while, and I would like to think that we will start doing more museums or cultural outings with DD as she gets older and we aren't working around naptime or a super early dinner time.
We moved here from MI when I was a kid and I know my parents liked it for the following reasons:
When we moved back the big draw was coming back to family and much better job market for me and DH (nonprofit and IT).
we have kids and live in Ashburn. I would not, however, want to commute from Ashburn to Arlington!
welcome to the area!
I'm moved here from FL for grad school. I live in Arlington & love it. I mostly echo quesarah's comments:
-Close to DC. This not only means it's easier to get into the city (like, for commuting) but also it means that there are great ethnic restaurants, cultural activities, etc. in Arlington b/c it's close to the city.
-I love Arlington's growth model with all the little "urban-y" pockets...and then having public transport or bike paths to get to those pockets. It greatly increases the likelihood that you'll be able to walk or bike to somewhere fun. i also really like arlington's recycling program.
-close to rural areas. In about an hour, we can be in the middle of farmland. we love doing U-Pick or going to wineries or going a bit further to the mountains. it's also not that far from the beach.
-lots of parks. i never really noticed before i had a kid, but there are like 5 parks within walking distance of our house.
In general, i like this area more than where I grew up in FL because of the diversity & that there are things to do other than go to the mall or go to the beach. I do have a kiddo which means we don't get into the city as much as we would like, but we do go to the zoo or wander around the national arboretum frequently. Plus, being in a more cosmopolitian metro area means there is more diversity of not only races & ethnicities but also religion & thought...even not living *in* the city. I also really enjoy having seasons now! Even though it's 100+*F today, I know that it won't last long...unlike the endless heat & humidity where i'm from.
The downside is obviously the cost of living & the traffic (although, living in Arlington means that I'm a reverse-commuter so it's never been *that* bad for me).
We moved there, then moved away. We don't have kids. DH grew up in Rockville, and I'd visited a lot since one of my BFF's lives in NoVa.
I loved living there because of all the cultural opportunities - museums, theatre, great restaurants. I'd like think if we'd stayed, and had kids, I would have exposed them to all those things. Like one of the pp's said, if you live there, you can go to a museum for an hour and if your kids get restless, you can just leave, because it's easy to go back.
I also loved being close to my BFF, and my cousin and her husband who live in Ashburn. I was also driving distance to most of my family.
Those are the things I miss about living there!
I also moved from Ohio (Grew up outside C-bus, went to college in cincy, and worked in Dayton). I love this area.
We live in Va near Tyson's corner. For me one of the biggest things I love is that I don't have to get into a car to go to dinner, to go to the grocery store, or to see a movie, etc.. I love the walkability of everything!
I also love the lifestyle. I think the smaller homes encourage keeping less 'stuff', I prefer the simplicity of this.
There is always something to do. I have lived here 4.5 years and I have never felt bored (I often felt bored in Ohio).
I also like that the beach and New York City are both close.
We live in Herndon (Fairfax Co. Virginia) with our son. I lived in Columbus, Ohio, Paris, France and Chicago before moving here. We did a year in Phoenix and then moved back.
I love Paris. I love Chicago. I don't love NoVa/DC. I like it. It's the best place for us where we are in our lives and for DH's career (he does intelligence stuff).
What I like about this area--- you have the best of everything nearby. The shopping is great. Culturally, it's a dream. You get first run theater, concerts, etc. The museums are amazing. Schools are good.Close proximity to the beach, mountains, hiking, farms, NYC is just a short train ride away.
As far as housing. You will pay a premium to live within the beltway. Houses in places like Falls Church tend to be tiny and pricier because they're closer to the city. If you want an affordable house with lots of space, they're available, you just might have to move out.
I don't have any children, so I can't comment on that aspect, but my husband and I both moved here to Northern Virginia from Michigan just about three years ago (in two weeks!). The idea of living here terrified my husband. Coming from a small town in Michigan, the idea of living in a giant city was overwhelming. We live in Alexandria (suburbs), so it was a great place to transition from a small city to the urban life without being thrust right into the middle of the city/DC. And , after just over two years here, we started to make a good group of friends, learned where things were, and found some of our favorite places. Now, my husband likes living here more than me!
A few reasons we like living here:
There's ALWAYS something to do - and a lot of it is free.
There are a lot of great restaurants.
DC is a melting pot of people from all around the country. It's great to have friends who have lived all over with different life experiences - that's something you usually don't find in the Midwest.