(1978-79) Our first apartment was on the 2nd floor above the dumpster in a high-rise, a half mile or so out Lee Highway from Rosslyn. We could walk to the subway, mostly on the abandoned railroad right of way.
(1979-81) We rented a funky old frame house at 3501 N 17th St. It had a nice if unkempt yard, and a decent front porch. But it was cold in the winter--the kitchen was unheated, as it was in an enclosed porch--and it had no closets. There were two very small BRs and a full bath upstairs, a LR and DR down (besides that kitchen). The landlord (Mr. Biro) was a funny little guy but quite decent. The rent was $350/mo. We did a good bit of painting and some small repairs. There was an (extremely) unfinished basement in which we put a used washer and dryer and through which poor Chloe entered our lives. We married while living here.
(1981- ) We bought ($106,000) 4419 4th St So in July 1981 from the Elliots. Weird times for the economy: 8.5% $60k primary mortgage assumed, plus$30k second at 16.5% which we paid off in three years. First mtge refinanced twice, once for addition and once because rates went down. All mtges paid off by 2008. ¼ acre, spacious old wooden garage at the end of a long, wide blacktop driveway. Stone wall at sidewalk. Great front porch. Until we added on in 1991, it had 2 BR upstairs; after, 3 BRs upstairs and a much more spacious kitchen, and a family room in the back. Unfinished basement that is great for storage and laundry. I spent a lot of time on the yard, though to little good effect until after retirement, when I dug up the lawn and replaced it with raised beds and a perennial jungle. Patio in back, which we had to redo after the addition.
The neighbors are the big draw here. On our West when we moved in were Roy and Nellie Long. Roy had lived there since 1933; Nellie was his first cousin who he married after his wife died. To the East was Anne Noll, another longtime resident who moved away after a decade or so, but not before inspiring the annual Barcroft 4th of July parade, still going strong. (Deborah made a VHS tape of the first parade and sent it to Anne in Georgia; Anne died not long after.) Other neighbors were “Captain Al” Wood (still here in 2019!), Mr. Jones whose huge yard was an azalea nursery, and quite a few other older people who were dead or in nursing homes not long after we moved in. Now we’re the oldsters, except of course for Al. The Longs moved to Florida each winter (Nellie’s idea) and decided to stay for a couple years; their (not so) great nephew Jerry Long squatted next door for that period. What an asshole. The driveway was filled with cars from a towing business, there was an ill-behaved mistreated dog chained in the yard, and a roommate who was trouble. Roy and Nellie did move back, evicting Jerry; when Roy died, his son Bobby and wife Sylvia moved in, with daughter Sally until she moved out.
Bobby was a trip. Roy liked to talk, though his mental state meant I heard the same five or six stories a few dozen times each. But Bobby was the world champion in the talking department. I had to check through the window to make sure I could get to my car without being accosted and either blowing him off or having to listen to him for twenty minutes. Really nice guy, and Sylvia was great. When they moved out to live with Sally and her husband, they sold the place to Jenny, who we love, and not just because she has great cats. Dan lived there too for a while, then Jenny upgraded to Markham, who she married.
Anne Noll sold to a strange couple (Kolar Bowen and wife, who was the stranger one) we got along with, then they sold to Bob Alcorn and Paula Levin, fantastic neighbors whose three kids grew up here. Jenna has just graduated HS; Dahlia and Ian are still in school. The house across the street went through two families we didn’t get to know, plus our friend Dick Ives, who met and married the delightful Lauren Munro when he was living there. When they moved to Lake Barcroft a standoffish couple (Gwen and Eric) moved in for a couple years and they sold to Pusha (Paul) and Leslie Olkhovsky, whom we love. Their daughter Anna grew up there. Contemporaries of the Levin-Alcorns who moved in about the same time are Heather and Jim Sheire and Matt and Jennifer Swanston (in Jones’s old house). They had kids of the same ages as the Levin-Alcorns: Gannon and Gage Swanston and Kate and Ellie Sheire. It was a great situation for them, always at one another’s houses.
Other neighbors we had less interactions with: Larry, Sally, and Lew and Karen behind our property; Becky and son Skylar on the corner (where the execrable McKinney used to live before he died and his house was moved behind a house on George Mason); Regine and Sidane next to the Olkhovskys’; and too many more to mention.
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When we started, we became a two-car household by virtue (?) of Deborah’s '69 Camaro, an old family car. That one didn't last terribly long, and I did not miss it. But we have been a two-car family ever since.
The Camaro was replaced by an 82 Subaru ($7000, no big complaints). The Honda rusted badly after 13 years and about 80,000 miles and I sold it to a friend for $5 who needed a car that ran, which this one did just fine, for another six months anyway. That was replaced by an 88 Subaru wagon for $12,000 (underpowered, and our first car with A/C). I never cared for it much, although it never did anything to earn my disfavor.
The older Subaru was replaced after 12 years by a 96 Plymouth Grand Voyager minivan ($23,000), mainly because our kids made every family trip a hell on wheels because they had to share a seat. They were thrilled by the van; the first day after we bought it they were out there first thing in the morning playing in it with their dolls. My wife and I were not so thrilled, as it suffered from numerous annoying and expensive problems with the doors, windows, and windshield wipers. But I have to admit that it was nice to be able to take the seats out and haul furniture, bikes, and stuff around. It was also our first automatic--and every car since has been one too.
The wagon got some serious problem or other and we dumped it for a 2000 Civic sedan ($14,000) which I loved almost as much as the earlier Civic. The van’s place in the driveway was taken by a 2006 Subaru Outback Ltd wagon (my wife's idea--I wanted an Accord). $23,500, and it has our first sunroof. The roof rack supports are great for the kayaks, and we like this car a lot. The van gave us 120,000 miles, farther than any previous car and in less time. It was donated to some unsuspecting charity, which despite the duct taped bumper fetched $900, according to the tax document they sent me. The 2000 Civic was given to Audrey in 2010, who used it to travel cross country with Hamish and then took it back to William and Mary. I sold it to a friend of hers for $20 to keep it “in the family”--the frisbee family, that is. It was still going strong a year later, at about 120k miles and 13 years.
It was replaced by a new 2010 Civic ($18k?), which is also treating us very well.
We replaced the blue 2006 Outback...with a blue 2019 Outback. It’s amazing how similar the cars are, except of course for the electronics. It’s a Limited, loaded, and cost $32k even out the door--but then we were upsold into the extended warranty (to 10 years) and service plan for another $3700, the first such warranty I’ve ever sprung for. We got 96k miles in 12 and a half years from the old Outback.
[Ed] We gave the 2010 Honda to Audrey and Tom, since they both needed to commute to work, in October 2020, and since then have had just one car, after more than 40 years with two.
