In Shaw (an historically gentrified blog)

Closet Space, possibly the secret to a happy marriage

Yeah, who am I to say as a single person. But that is the lesson I come away with after seeing the Madison condo across the street from Shaw in Eckington on the corner of Florida and Quincy, NW.

It was a 1 bedroom going for about $265K. Tiny bedroom, small apartment, almost no closet space. The hall closet was just enough for a couple of winter coats. The bedroom closet, small, suitable for one person. The agent told me a couple did live there but annulled their marriage soon after moving in.

Makes sense as this place was small. You gotta really LOVE, the person you're with. However I see the closet thing as an argument waiting to happen. I just can't see how married people do it. Share closet space. My parents had a lovely system, my mom's clothes went into the closet, everything my dad wore, could be folded and put into a drawer. You couldn't even do that in this place.

Oh, can we also talk condo fee? $365 a month. It includes everything but electricity. Did I mention that the whole condo is run on electricity, no gas. Now there is no parking lot. No pool. No grounds, except that little strip of dirt between the sidewalk and the building. It includes snow removal. $50 will get you 2 winos in the park kitty corner to the Madison to clean the sidewalk around the whole building. Also for those of you not familiar with DC weather, it snows so little that the city near bout closes when we get anything over 2 inches. A fact that stuns folks from hardier regions where 2 feet of snow wouldn't close jack.

I'd like to compare that to the Mercury in Shaw on 5th Street. Condo fee of about $230. About 20 feet of sidewalk, 2 parking spaces (gone), and fewer bums. The only unit available going for $450K, seemed less of a realtor on crack deal. I could believe this 3 bedroom 2 bath condo was possibly worth $450K. So I'll just say, "Realtors on Coke" or "Reefer Realtors", 'cause we're still talking Eastern Shaw. $350K, would be a good deal. The two back bedrooms were suburban sized. It was like wow, you could fit a king sized bed and some other furniture back here and still have room to walk around. The master bath was also big. If it weren't for the stairs, I'd say the size of the condo almost made it wheelchair friendly. The front bedroom, slightly bigger than a walk in closet, with glass doors and set up to be an office. It was a really cool condo.

posted by Mari @ 16.8.04