Bye Bye Boyd Avenue

Moving from a ~600 sq ft, 1 bedroom apartment to ~1000 sq ft, 2 bedroom apartment in 2016 was a game changer. Not only did we get a 2nd bedroom and more square footage, but we also gained access to a storage unit/communal space that became Keizo's at home bike shop, a yard with a friendly dog, and great next door neighbors. We lived less than a mile from a trail, about a mile from the Takoma Metro station and a few blocks from bus routes, a grocery co-op, bakery, Korean restaurant, and small business center.

I'm not sure we would have stayed put for 6 years without the pandemic, but during the very crazy early days and aftermath, all of the amenities above, (plus rent control) made staying put very appealing. Let's go for a tour, shall we?

Patio

We lived on the ground floor of a 2-story building with direct access from the front yard. We used the patio a lot, especially in the summer to eat meals outdoors. It was also home to our compost bucket, which got picked up every week with the trash and recycling. The photos below show it decorated for fall, plus how the door looked for a 4th of July and the 2021 holiday season. I loved how the big holly leaves turned out and kept all of the materials to use again somewhere else.

Main Room

Entering the front door brought you into the main room (floor plan included at the end). The main room was L-shaped, and we decided early on to cut off the leg of L near the kitchen with tall bookshelves that fit nearly perfectly under a soffit. When we had just 2 bikes, they lived back there, along with other sports equipment, coats, shopping bags, etc. so we deemed this area the "garage." 

We divided the rest of the main room into our living and eating/dining areas. Pre-pandemic, the dining table was centered in the space and we had people over pretty regularly. A favorite memory was hosting 11 adults + 1 toddler for Friendsgiving in 2018 - a record for the number of people in our apartment at one time! During the pandemic, the dining table and chairs got pushed aside to make room for yoga mats. 

For Christmas, we set up the tree in both corners, but for the past two years, the tree replaced the big pink chair on the living room side, where we could see it from the couch. Much cozier I think!

The view coming in the front door. Since the door was in between two windows on the front wall, we didn't have much of a 'drop zone.' The cabinet in the background of the photo above was always a mess of mail, sunglasses, phones, etc.

The dining area all dressed up for Halloween! We bought the dining set at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore shortly after we moved in (along with some other odds and ends, including our first bike rack for the car for a cool $250), and we donated it back again with the move. It was a great set, with two leaves and 6 chairs, but rather bulky and passing it along to new owners helped us fit everything we wanted to move into 2 storage containers instead of 3.

The living room side. The black shelves we used to divide up the main space are visible on the far left above. It was a pretty cozy set up; good for two people who like each other, but not a lot of guests.

Kitchen

The weekend we moved in, I wasn't sure I'd ever feel at home in a kitchen where the top and bottom cabinets didn't match. Thankfully, I got used to it pretty quickly, and definitely appreciated all of the storage. 

The galley-style kitchen was cozy. When people came over or my parents stayed with us, they often asked if they could help, but the best thing was for them to stay out of the kitchen! Keizo and I frequently bumped into each other when we cooked together, but the compact size also meant it was possible to stretch across and grab the right utensil while simultaneously stirring or pouring something else. 😋

I wish we had painted the back wall a fun color or tried wallpapering the fridge, but oh well. The photo below is of the right hand side of the kitchen; on the left was more cabinets and counters where we had the microwave, coffeemaker, and cutting board, plus the fridge on the back left.

Hall / Bathroom

If this was an in-person tour and we left the kitchen and turned to our right in the main room we would now be looking down the hall to the bedrooms and bathroom, just like the photo on the left below. The hall stayed pretty bare all 6 years we lived there, and apart from a seasonal shower curtain switch or two, so did the bathroom. I didn't care for the pedestal sink - zero storage and it was hard to get a vacuum or mop around the base so it mostly just trapped dust. On the plus side, a small bathroom doesn't take very long to clean!

Closets

This 2 bedroom apartment had 5 closets, not including a white Ikea number we got for the "garage." This worked out really well for our different organizational methods. I had a closet for my clothes, Keizo had a closet for his clothes, and then we had a coat closet, a bathroom/cleaning supply closet, and linen/art supply closet. Four of the closets had mirrored doors, which I definitely thought about covering early on, but like those kitchen cabinets, I got used to them and they helped bring more light in. 

Main Bedroom

The main bedroom where we slept was only room in the apartment with two exterior walls. With one of the walls east-facing, there was a lot of light in the morning (pro). With the other wall facing north, it was definitely the coldest room in the winter (con). 

The bed divided the room into his- and her- sides. Keizo's side, with the white dressers is visible in the middle photo, and my side, with the brown dresser is shown on the right. The hanging jewelry was the main decor on my side - definitely Pinterest inspired. I tend to wear the same 2-3 necklaces now, so I kind of doubt this will be recreated in our next space.

2nd Bedroom / Home Office

I don't seem to have any photos of this space! It was the last room that we 'finished' after moving in; in fact, it was mostly boxes until just before my family came for their first visit. For the first few years, it was used mostly as a guest room / laundry hanging spot / occasional reading room, but in March 2020  it became my home office and I spent many hours within its walls. 

As a home office, it got more plants and an adjustable sit/stand desk. I am very grateful to have had the separate space to make working from home as pleasant as possible. The window faced east, so it had great natural light in the morning, and it was probably the warmest room in the winter (unless the oven was on in the kitchen). 

not to scale

And there you have it! Boyd Avenue was a wonderful place to call home for six years. I got a little misty eyed as our moving/storage containers were picked up and driven away. That feeling was replaced by exhaustion though as we triaged what was left (lots of donations!), cleaned, and packed the car for our trip west. But that is a different topic for another time. 😊

Currently - November 2022

Welcome to the 11th Currently post of 2022! I'll give myself a little pat on the back for consistency, and then let's jump in. Please check out the other posts on Jennifer's blog as well.

View from the GAP somewhere between Frostburg and Cumberland

borrowing - these prompts (ha ha). And it's not really borrowing, but I've definitely appreciated all of the packing/moving tips and well wishes friends have been sharing with us as we prep for our move.

buying - Fresh food only. And annoyingly, some more dish soap and other essentials that we're out of but still need. We're also mentally adding things to our Christmas wish list and will be doing quite a bit of shopping on the other end of the move once we've found a place to live.

planning - With our bike adventure behind us, it's time to plan our cross-country road trip to AZ. As the amount of time before Thanksgiving gets shorter, our route has become a bit more direct than initially planned. Also trying to plan our last outings with friends and extended family in DC, which include a happy hour, my last knitting group meet-up, and visits to the Library of Congress and big Air and Space Museum out by Dulles.

prepping - For the move! We're making some progress each day, although this week we've got to ramp it up, rent a truck to donate furniture, etc.

reading - Not a whole lot I would recommend lately, though I did enjoy a break from packing with this month's Real Simple magazine. I redeemed some airline points a few years ago for a subscription and it just keeps coming; I've thought about canceling it, but I do enjoy the bit of off-screen entertainment it provides each month.

Best of October

• DC Bike Party - Something I've always wanted to do, but been a bit discouraged by the ~6 mile ride to the starting point in Dupont Circle. Thankfully this year's Halloween edition was on a Friday, and a few of Keizo's co-workers were participating, so we decided to join and had a great time. Also learned that the metro runs late on Friday nights!
• "Finals Week" at work - Working late to get things wrapped up, then spending almost 1/2 a day clearing ~8 years of papers out of my desk at the office maybe wasn't the most enjoyable in the moment, but afterwards I did feel like I'd done my best to leave things in good shape. There was also a goodbye happy hour and a separate company gathering after work that felt nearly pre-pandemic/hybrid work in terms of the number of people that came, which was really nice, though somewhat bittersweet as I will return to work in January almost fully remote.
• GAP/C&O bike ride - Stay tuned for a separate post about this, although it's hard to put into words exactly how awesome it is to spend a week riding bikes past gorgeous fall foliage on 300+ miles of trails without motor vehicle traffic.

Currently - October '22

A new month, and new Currently host! Jennifer has picked up the reins and is hosting the Currently link up on her blog; you can check it out here. I hadn't read her post before picking out this month's photo, I swear! But it's not like you can have too many fall leaves, and seeing them start to change is always magical.

anticipating - Just 9 more days of work before taking personal leave through early 2023. We'll spend the end of this month on an outdoor adventure before getting serious about packing and getting ourselves across the country in time to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family (<-- pretty big motivator right there).

admiring - Anyone who has packed and moved across the country. I know this includes me, but it feels like such a long time ago, my mom helped a lot, and there was only my stuff to deal with. It did me good to stumble on the Young House Love blog posts about downsizing and moving two years ago. We don't have a new place lined up yet, but imagining what our stuff might look like in it or could be repurposed in different ways is kind of fun.

spending/consuming - Not proud to admit it, but there's quite a bit of procrastination going on these days in the form of too much time on the couch consuming some of the many things Netflix has to offer. I've watched some good stuff though, including Junior Bake Off and Call My Agent. Another form of procrastination recently has been attempting the NYT crossword most mornings, but a couple of tricky ones over the weekend have broken my streak. 

wanting - To finish a draft report that's been two years in the making before I take leave, but it still needs a lot of work. I also want to fit in at least a few DC 'bucket list' type things before we move. Not working 5 days a week will give me more time for that, right? 

purging/deleting - The living room and both bedrooms each have bags or boxes collecting items for donations. Today I went through and purged picture frames (anything with crystal embellishments or a novelty shape got the boot), but there's still a long way to go. How did we end up with so many books!?!?

Best of September

• End of summer baking - A friend in my knitting group helps test recipes for The Washington Post, and she brought along her test batch of this blueberry poke cake to one of our meet-ups earlier this summer. When the recipe popped up in my feed a few months later, I definitely wanted to try it for myself. The results were quite good, though next time I think I might add some cream cheese to the topping to see if it cuts some of the sweetness.
• Bike rides - Keizo and I revisited a couple of our favorite MD trails for some longer rides "preparing" for our adventure in a couple of weeks. One weekend we did a 20-mile spin around College Park and Hyattsville with a stop at Streetcar 82, and another we did the loop around BWI airport and part of the BNA trail. 
• The last Thursday evening outdoor yoga class - since it's now pretty dark when class finishes at 7:30 PM. So glad I found this series earlier this summer. Even before the pandemic, it had been ages since I'd gone to an in-person yoga class. Being outdoors, this one had the added bonus of bird sounds and sweeping views of the sky and leafy green trees.
• Hyper-local professional conference - My first in-person conference in ages, it was nice to dip my toes back in with a small, local conference hosted by the Montgomery County Planning Department. Most of the sessions I attended were well done, I earned some continuing education credits, and learned about aspects of planning (environmental planning, housing) that I don't deal with often at work.

Currently - September '22

For this month's prompts, I took a look back at the prompts from September 2020, which I found in an unpublished draft. The last couple of weeks in 2022 have included a lot of soul searching, and I intentionally picked September 2020 to see what I was doing/thinking during another challenging time. Most of the 2020 responses could easily apply two years later, but I also came up with some new ones for 2022, apropos of the 'soul searching' bit above.

1st trip back to National Portrait Gallery in a long time 

appreciating - (2020) social connections. 

(2022) Still so true. I've had two recent happy hours with longtime and former colleagues, and we had friends over for dinner for the first time in a long time at the end of August. 

anticipating - (2020) The changing of the seasons and cooler fall weather. I'm sure I'll be complaining when it gets too cold and dark way too early, but for now, I'm looking forward to any changes in temperature that permit wearing something other than shorts and tank tops. 

(2022) Some big changes, like taking a sabbatical from work and using the time to move across the country and travel. Most of the details are still to be determined, but after meeting with my supervisor last Tuesday, I started telling people (including my family!) about it last week.

collecting - (2020) left blank

(2022) I'm adding to the collection of books from high school and college that I'm re-reading now, nearly 20 years later. Recent re-reads have included Fahrenheit 451 and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. The descriptions of the talking walls and constant search for distraction in Fahrenheit 451 felt eerily accurate to the social media landscape of today, and I'm trying to remember how old I was when I read Roll of Thunder for school. This time around, I was really struck by the racist violence, and it's fair to say that most of it went straight over my head back in the day. It's excellently written, and is one of the best books I've read this year.

starting - (2020) left blank

(2022) To figure out the details of taking time off work, moving across the country, traveling etc. One thing we would like to do before we leave is a week-long bikepacking/camping adventure from Pittsburgh back to DC on the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal. There's not a lot of time to train, but I can definitely be more intentional about getting more rides in. 

finishing - (2020) A couple of books. After tearing through Where the Crawdads Sing on vacation, I've managed to keep the streak alive at home with a few books collected from various Little Free Libraries, including Kitchen Yarns (memoir) and Postscript (fiction). I'm also most of the way through Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (short stories).

(2022) - Finishing out summer by enjoying the bounty of produce as long as possible - peaches, corn on the cob, tomatoes, etc. We're really going to miss our weekly CSA when we move, and we will have to seek out another farmer's market after we get settled in AZ. 

Currently - August '22

Without an official 'currently' link up this month, I looked back into the archives in search of some prompts to reuse. I randomly picked August 2015, which was right before Keizo moved to the US. A very different time in our lives to say the least! 

Fast forward seven years, and here's what I've been up to in August 2022:

creating - I've started a second attempt at a haramaki (tummy warmer) for Keizo, but it's a little slow going. It's basically a large, ribbed tube, so kind of boring to work on and maybe August just isn't really the time to have a bunch of wool in your hands / on your lap, but I would like to finish it before it actually gets cold. I'm also very tempted by the new yarn and patterns I bought to make stuff for myself!

wishlisting - more vacations / travel! The photo above is from our recent getaway to Ohiopyle, PA where we rode bikes and visited Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob. Really the only thing in the way is planning them; both Keizo and I are lucky to have a bunch of vacation time stored up, but finding a time to use it can be hard.

hoping - next week at work is a little calmer than this past week. There are new projects starting without any of my other ones wrapping up, and it's really hard to keep track of everything and stay focused on any particular task long enough to make much meaningful progress. 

eating - After eating out and consuming fewer fruits and vegetables while we were on vacation at the beginning of the month, we've had a lot of salad the past few days. We got a bunch of tomatoes in this week's CSA box and the slow cooker is currently full of beets that have been piling up for weeks (dang, those things keep a long time!). I'm planning to make beet hummus and I saw a recipe for beet cupcakes. Maybe I'll have to start posting about recipes again to document how they turn out. 😉

watching - We've been pretty hooked on the dubbed episodes of the late 90's Iron Chef cooking competition on Peacock. There's some manufactured drama of course, but overall, it's very civilized and the number of dishes they're able to prepare in an hour is pretty amazing.

Best of July

• Closet clean out & finding a nice pair of earrings that I thought I had lost a long time ago. I gathered 5-6 bags of stuff we're not using anymore for a donation pick-up, which looked like a lot more stuff stacked in the living room than it did on out on the curb!
• Jack Johnson in concert - we had great weather and a fun time people watching from our seats on the lawn. 

Currently - July '22

I'm not sure which is harder to believe - that we're half way through 2022, or that this is the 7th Currently post this year! And while we've already passed by the first Wednesday of the month, I'm glad that it's not too late to link up with Anne in Residence and the other Currently devotees.

enjoying - I've really been enjoying the Ologies podcast lately as an escape from current events and a way to learn about the many interesting things way outside of my professional field.

having - We had my parents stay with us at the end of June, and it was really nice to see them and take some time off work. We got pretty lucky with the weather (80's and a bit sticky, but went up to the 90's the day they left), so we spent plenty of time outdoors, taking them to some of our favorite parks and to a crab house by the water, a summer 'tradition' we haven't done the past two years. 

hoping - for some light at the end of the tunnel at work. Things have been super busy, we're hiring a bunch of new people, and while I'm glad people are taking vacations, they seem poorly coordinated with the set schedules for certain projects. 

picking - some concerts, performances, baseball games etc. to go to, hoping that it makes it feel more like summer around here! 

We also are in the position to pick out a new (at least to us) car, which we sort of knew was coming, but is causing a fair amount of sticker shock nonetheless. Hopefully we will make a decision soon and can do a late summer road trip, perhaps?

using - this July 4 to read some chick-lit, start this post, and do a few others things around the house. Probably won't brave the crowds on the National Mall to see the fireworks later, but would like to check out the local concert and street fair right nearby.

Best of June

• New kitchen light - it felt like something of an ordeal at the time (as in 3 weeks for the landlord's handy person to get it fixed), but now that it's done, the kitchen is nice and bright!
• HH in Downtown DC - I met up with a friend after work and we grabbed some gelato, were serenaded with surprise music and bubbles at City Center, and strolled over to the newly renovated Franklin Square Park to check out the new design. 
• Friday night brews - On most Friday evenings recently Keizo and I can be found at one of the handful of local breweries within walking and biking distance. We happened onto a free concert at Streetcar 82 a few weeks ago and really enjoy the proximity and very low key vibe at 3 Stars.

Currently - June '22

Greetings from the patio on a lovely, 72-degree Sunday morning. My current view isn't quite as sweeping as the one below, but it's not too bad either. And while it's not the first Wednesday of the month, I'm not too late to link up with Anne in Residence and the other Currently devotees!

View from Bear Chase Brewing

celebrating - There's about a month to go, but I've started to think about how we can celebrate Keizo's birthday on 7/7. So far ideas include camping, getting together with friends of his we haven't seen in-person since before the pandemic, and/or a weekend in New York City. Plus birthday cake of course!

giving - Baby gifts! I gained 5 new cousins (including two sets of twins) last month, and went to a friend's baby shower last weekend. All the new arrivals are receiving a few of the tie-dyed onesies that were featured in the photo of last month's post. 

taking - Some time off towards the end of the month when my parents will be visiting! We haven't had house guests in ages, and it will be nice to do some 'touristy' things with them, or at least shake up the normal routine and have dinner together.

trying - To be more active during the long daylight hours and eat fresh foods while they're in season. My extra pandemic pounds haven't gotten the message that the world has moved on, and I'd like to fit into my shorts again.

wearing - Right now, and probably at least once a week this summer: a soft, stretchy, black and white romper. It's been hard to resist the urge to buy another one, but with returning to the office some days and my current collection of summer dresses that are just as comfy, I really don't need another romper.

Best of May

• Summer weather - Not everyone was excited for temperatures in the 90's, but I preferred it to the cool, grey, and cloudy week we had right after.
• Outdoor yoga classes - The location is well-situated between work and home, and it's been so nice to go to a class in-person, with plenty of space, the sounds of birds, and views of lush green trees. Well, except for yesterday's when the grass was being cut nearby.
• Two 3-day weekends - We didn't end up going camping in May, but did get to spend 3 days off together versus the usual 1 per week. Keizo had to work Memorial Day weekend, but I took full advantage of Monday off to get some extra reading and relaxing in.

From the Archives

What my June was like in:

• 2021 - emerging from our bubble to go to a wedding and get on a plane, 
• 2020 - the days after George Floyd was murdered,
• 2019 - getting ready for RABRAI, 
• 2018 - sharing our new favorite camp breakfast, 
• 2017 - work travel, and 
• 2016 - back when there were multiple posts per month!