Walkable was one of the main qualities we were looking for with our house, because you can't renovate for location. Having been paralyzed in a military parachute accident and having had the ability to walk restored, I am a walking & biking advocate.  As the song says, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

Dan was in Kabul while I was looking for a house. When he returned from AFG, his company headquarters was in DC. His priority for where to live was a place that didn’t require driving to work.

I concentrated my search around Metro stations. I first looked around Takoma Park in southern Maryland. Then, a friend, Kathy, invited me to view her condo in Crystal City.  It was spacious with a wonderful view of the Potomac, but I wasn’t sure about condo living or the ongoing maintenance fees. On Zillow http://www.zillow.com/ , I found a house listed that was within walking distance of Kathy’s place. I walked down 15^th Street, past Costco, Nordstrom’s, and Pentagon City Mall where the entrance to the Metro is.  I cut across Virginia Highlands Park with the Aurora Hills library and senior center.  I knew that I had found a walkable location, even without putting the address into Walkscore. At  http://www.walkscore.com/, addresses are given a score from 0-100, based on how easy it is to walk to the places where you regularly go—stores, restaurants, entertainment, etc.  Our address is rated 71—very walkable.  When we lived at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, our address was considered to be car-dependent. Even getting to the St Louis airport took 2.5 hours, in good weather and with no delays. There was no way we wanted to be dependent on driving to get places. You don’t have to live in metro DC to know how bad traffic is here.  Being #1 in traffic congestion is not a selling point.  

But even after a few years of decline, housing prices around DC are scary.  It’s been said that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The same principle applies to buying a house.  So with visions of green ($$$ & environmentally) dancing before our eyes, we made an offer.

Thanks to Scott for the bumper sticker.