Our Boston Home

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From May 12-18 Carol and I traveled to Boston to try to find a new home. Let me tell you, trying to find a buy a house in 6 days is a very weird experience.

Carol and I have very similar tastes and we're also decisive. So we knew if we saw what we liked we'd be ready to commit. That helps.

Way back in November when we started contemplating the move we had identified West Roxbury as our target neighborhood. It has a couple of good public elementary schools, is a pleasant area and is a great commute for me. And on day 1 of our trip we found several potential houses there and one obvious winner. In Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood it would be sort of a dream house for us. The second day we made a low offer on it.

As the negotiations proceeded we also checked more carefully into schools. The Boston school district won't tell you anything about getting into schools until you have an address to work with. Well, it turned out schools just weren't going to work. Kindergarten (Audrey will go in September) is the key time at which you have a shot to get into a school you want, and we would be last to register. There was almost zero chance Audrey was going to get into one of the nearby decent schools, and the other public school options were farther away and very, very poor schools. We briefly considered a nearby Catholic school, but we'd be committing to that expense for 6 years most likely, and maybe for Charlotte as well.

Hmm, back to square one.

Our agent lives in Melrose, which is slightly farther from work in the opposite direction: north of Boston. The house prices were very similar. Melrose is a small town - only 4 square miles - and it has five elementary schools all of which are decent. So we looked at several houses in Melrose and decided on 35 Dyer Ave., a 4 bedroom, 1.5 bath "colonial" built in 1900. It's not perfect, but it's a very sweet house and we can envision being happy there.

We came to agreement on a price and I stayed an extra day to accompany the inspector. No major problems, so we close on it on July 7 which is the day after I start work in Boston.

Meanwhile the sale of our Seattle house closed on May 26 so that's all done. The buyers are a young couple and this is their first house. They're excited.

Now we're just trying to prepare for our cross-country road trip and waiting for the move. The movers will be packing our stuff on June 16-17 and loading the truck on the 18th. We will depart on the 19th in the camper van. More on that plan in another post.

We have plenty of room for visitors in the Melrose house! Come and see us!