My friend Terri's Aunt, Mary Jo, is someone who has always, in my opinion, had a perfect house. When I first moved to D.C. she and her husband had a row house on Park Road in Mt. Pleasant. It was off the main drag, no bums hung around in her front yard. It had been renovated and was decorated in a deliberate way. She had two girls and they were charming and played the piano nicely. Their bedroom shared a playroom and there was a built in dollhouse. The bathrooms were new. I never spent the night there but I am certain that unlike where I lived, no mice jumped out of the stove or toaster when you got up and started breakfast!
As the years have gone by Mary Jo and her husband sold that house in Mount Pleasant D.C., at the top of the market, and moved to Philadelphia. They still come to D.C. for business, and acquired an apartment to stay in when they visit. It's not a new apartment, but it's off of Connecticut Avenue - on an upper floor. The elevator is old but the brass grill gleams. It's 1930s D.C. - the front door has a grilled gate so you can get a cross-draft for ventilation in the summer without throwing the whole place open to whoever might walk in, the bathrooms have black and white tile and the floors are hardwood. It's winter now and the trees out the dining room window have lost their leaves and you can sit and soak up a little sun in the afternoon.
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| Left to right: Kate, Ginny, Terri, Paige, Gail and Wendy |
