Stair master

Why do people walk up and down escalators? When I get off the metro and I'm not in a rush, I like to enjoy my escalator experience. And it's not as if most people are running down; they just casually walk. So why not just stand there and take a look around you? Take a breath and don't focus so much on where you're going (most probably to work). You'll spend enough time thinking about it while you're there for most of your day.

But that was just a thought I had this morning. Now on to the real stuff.

A & I are trying to sell his 1br apartment and buy a 2br. As is quite obvious, living in a 2br apartment gives us more flexibility in regards to our long-term plans in DC and provides a bit more comfort. We'd like to move once and stay there for as long as possible, so the long-term plan includes the next few years when A will be focusing on writing his dissertation, and X number of years after that, when kids slowly come into the picture. So the total number of years can be five or seven or more, who knows at this point? (Since when did 5 years constitute "long term planning"?)

In short, we're looking for an apartment that will accomodate us and at least one kid, perhaps two, before we have to start thinking about finding a bigger place. But that's the ideal-- it seems like most people in our community are looking for that these days.

We've seen a few apartments so far. Some of our criteria include the following:

- 2 bedrooms;
- more than 1 bathroom;
- within the areas of Foggy Bottom, Dupont (south of the circle), and Georgetown, to faciliate a >-1 mile walk to synagogue every week;
- access to the metro, preferably the orange/blue lines;
- a balcony;
- a decent size kitchen ("decent" = something bigger then the kitchen I have now. I don't think that's asking for too much);
- if in a building, location on a low floor.

There are others, but these are what's important.

So far, we haven't seen anything that's perfect, but that's to be expected. The one apartment that is really intriguing is a 2br apartment. This apartment has two MASTER bedrooms and it comes with a parking spot. Everything else should just fall by the wayside considering it's difficult to find a 2br apartment with a decent size 2nd bedroom. Here you have two master-size bedrooms! Which means that there's no doubt there would be space for an office/study now, and one or two kids down the road. That should be perfect, right?

Well, perhaps. Except the apartment is on the 8th floor. Why does that matter? Walking up and down 8 flights of steps, at least 4 or 5 times every week in the span of 25 hours (ie, Shabbat), is tough. And I think I would be willing to suck it up, except for the fact that if we're planning on having kids at some point while living in this apartment, it would require using the steps and carrying a baby, stroller, and baby bag all at the same time. I dont plan on being that mother who stays cooped up in the house every weekend unless the baby is sleeping. I'd like to go to synagogue, go out for meals, and see my friends as much as possible-- and I know it's possible, because every week I see parents coming to synagogue with their newborns, so why can't I?

It's a tough call. This apartment is the only one we've seen so far that provides the stability that a large second bedroom provides to a couple wanting at some point to have a family and is within our price range.

Perhaps there are arrangements we could work out with the building, where we would be able to store the stroller downstairs from Friday night-Saturday night. Climbing those stairs every week would certainly get me into shape as well. But would living on such a high floor deter our friends (with or without kids) from accepting dinner invitations? Would it deter lazy ol' me from going to synagogue as often as I do now? Would it become more of a hassle or would we really appreciate having the space and knowing that we don't have to move for perhaps even more years than we first anticipated? What would you do?