One of our most favorite parts of our time was definitely the house that we rented. Dumbarton Oaks provides housing as part of the fellowship, but you can only stay in the DO residence building if you have two or fewer children. Since we had three, we were given a monthly stipend to help subsidize housing elsewhere. Brad found (via VRBO) an incredible, historic row house in Dupont Circle and worked out a deal with the owners to allow us to rent it for a longer time period.
It was just magnificent.
It was beautiful, 3-stories with plenty of bedrooms (3) and bathrooms (2.5), two large living areas, a full kitchen, dining room, was ONE BLOCK from the Dupont metro stop, AND had a parking space included. Dreamy. We could not have had a better location or setup for our family. Brad bought an electric scooter (like a Razor scooter- not like a Vespa) off of Craigslist before we moved, and he would use that for his commute to Dumbarton (it folds up, so he could even store it in his cubicle), leaving me with the van, if I needed it, or I could easily use the metro.
We didn't know before we moved in just how swanky a neighborhood we were joining. We literally lived at an intersection with Embassy Row (four houses down on the same row of houses from the Embassy of Morocco), across the street from the Phillips Collection, and one block away from the Cosmos Club. Oh, and we were about a mile away from the White House. It was CRAZY to discover all of these cool connections.
I did my best to take pictures of the rooms, halls, and nooks and crannies of the house so that we could always remember the fun and happy times we had there (although I'm sure I missed something). Enjoy the tour!
The front entrance. We usually used the back door, since our parking spot was down an alley around the back. Also, the door under these front stairs is a separate apartment. Our downstairs neighbor, we learned, was a Press Secretary for Jimmy Carter. Yeah. That's the kind of neighborhood we lived in.
Wider view (and after the trees lost all of their leaves)
Views down our street
Watching the scenes outside from our front door. To get into the house, there were three doors with about 5 locks.
FIRST FLOOR
The first floor (which is very large- especially in a house in the middle of a city) is comprised of a formal living room, a large "ante-room," a *tiny* half bath, a dining room, and the kitchen. At the far end of the kitchen is the door to the back deck and alley/parking spot.
The living room. We spent lots of time in here, playing and reading and chatting. I loved sitting on that love seat in the window alcove and watching the street out front.
There were gobs of fireplaces in the house. None of which are actively usable.
This picture is taken with my back to the half bath, the living room to the right. The best word we had for this area was the "ante-room." It's a large room (rather than a hallway) between the living room and dining room. I imagine that it would be a great area if you host a lot of parties. There's a pocket sliding door that can be closed between this room and the dining room (which is to the left of this picture).
This is taken from the opposite end of the ante-room.
Taken from the same position, just shifted slightly to show the door to the bathroom.
This half bath was tiny but also a great use of space. The toilet is a height that is a cross between a regular-sized toilet and a preschool-sized toilet. The sink is about the size of an airplane sink.
Hand for scale.
The next room is the dining room. We ate all our meals in here, as well as did our daily school work in here. That door on the far side leads to the galley-sized kitchen.
We brought our little kid table for the girls. All of the furniture in this room is VERY nice (note the plastic table cloth we bought to protect the table), and we thought we'd minimize the chances of irreparably damaging something by giving the children a "safer" space.
View of the room from the kitchen side.
I spent a huge amount of my time in the kitchen, yet I have the fewest number of pictures of this space! I pulled together a few shots that kind of give a view of it. You should know that it is galley style, very narrow, and very long. It got really cold in the kitchen once the weather changed, as two sides of the kitchen are exterior walls. Given that it is the narrowest part of the whole house, it was a little funny that it was also the only pathway from the back door into the rest of the house (which we used ALL THE TIME). Very difficult to maneuver through the kitchen in any format other than single file.
Here's a view of the kitchen (taken at Thanksgiving of my mil and sil). It's taken from the doorway between the dining and the kitchen. Rachael is standing right in front of the dishwasher.
Here's a view of the dishwasher from the other side. Not a lot of wiggle room.
The girls and Domeneque are standing directly across from the dishwasher here. And they're standing right underneath...
...this cabinet of fanciness! So much stemware.
Here's the "mud room" at the far end of the kitchen. That's the door to the back deck. Along the right side of the picture is a wall of cabinets that we used as a pantry.
SECOND FLOOR
At the top of the stairs on the second floor, at the right end of the hallway is the master bedroom. At the far left is a den/office area (which might have been our favorite part of the house). Halfway between the two rooms is a full bathroom
View up the stairwell from the ante-room
Stairs leading up
Little bend on the way. Brynn learned to climb stairs here, by the way.
Wide view of the master bedroom. It was so beautiful!
The two doors on either end are the closets.
This walk-in closet became Brad's closet. He had more events and different kinds of conferences...so he took a lot more clothing and shoes than I did.
My closet was much smaller but had plenty of storage and space.
From the master bedroom door toward the den. To the left are the stairs to the third floor.
Second floor bathroom. It is kind of palatial and felt like a spa.
The shower is enormous. I actually found it easiest to just put all three girls in the shower with me and get everyone clean at the same time. Which meant that Brad always had bath toys hanging out on the floor when he showered, too...
Can you spot Buzz Lightyear keeping watch over you as you use the toilet?
At the end of the hall was this great den space. We spent a lot of time here, playing, watching movies, and there was even a desk for Brad to work at.
The other side of the room. There was enough room in here to comfortably blow up our queen-sized air mattress for extra guests.
Brad's work station.
View of the back alley and neighboring houses. The den had some really lovely views of this scene.
THIRD FLOOR
At the top of the stairs on the third floor, to the far right end of the hallway is a large bedroom (which we used at our guest room/Claire's rest time room). At the far left end is a small, sparsely decorated room, which we used at the girls' bedroom. Right outside their room is a great walk-in closet. Next to that is a laundry room, and between the laundry room and the large guest room is another full bath.
This is the view from the top of the stairs at the third floor, down into the "ante-room." Isn't it crazy?
A slightly different angle.
Guest room
View down the hall to the girls' room.
Skylight at the top of the house.
I actually snapped this picture, not for a view of the third floor hallway but more to show just how much sunlight the skylight lets in during the day (with no lights turned on). I would regularly try to turn off lights when I would tuck the girls in for rest time because it was so bright!
There was also a sky light in the third floor bathroom. This is how much light would stream in during the day (with no lights turned on).
Such a fabulous laundry room. I loved doing laundry in here.
The girls' closet. I loved that it was located just outside of their bedroom door, which meant that I could get things out or put things away even when someone was asleep.
The girls' room. This was before we actually moved in- we FOR SURE removed that oval mirror and tucked it safely away. We're not crazy, y'all.
We brought Brynna's crib from home.
You can also see where we brought our baby gates.
I'm sure I'll run across more house pictures as I continue to blog about our time, but this is a pretty decent walk through. Here's the back deck, which the mud room opens on to:
From the deck, we would walk down into this little courtyard and through the gate on the left to get to our van.
I thought it was funny that this is a "supercan." It barely held all of our garbage...I would definitely have labeled it an "average can."
To the right of our parking spot.
That's our van on the left, parked right behind our house.
A fun little quirk about the house we rented is that it was decorated with a lot of quail. Yes, quail. The family that owns the house has, as a part of their family lineage, "Quayle" as a recurring name. In tribute to that, you find little quail all over the house:
Front garden
Back courtyard
Also back courtyard
Half bath
On display in the ante-room. We lovingly referred to them as Stuffy and Duffy. Stay tuned for more quail shots as I post more...
We thoroughly enjoyed living in this house, hosting local friends, and having lots of out-of-town friends and family come to see us. So many good memories. (And the fact that it is super large with plenty of room for our children to roam and get out their energy hurt NOT ONE BIT!)
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