The Pursuit: What to Expect When You're Expecting

• May 18th 2012

by Shilpi Paul

When Maureen Miesmer and her husband Josh learned they were having a child, the then-DC residents decided to do what a lot of young families do: move out to the suburbs into what they hoped would be their family home. They found a little house in Del Ray that seemed to fit the bill.

However, while the neighborhood seemed perfect for families, after their son Matthew arrived, the house wasn’t quite what they expected.

“We had hoped that it would grow with us a little more than it did,” Miesmer told UrbanTurf. “Plastic things that we didn’t even know existed quickly took over the house.” The 900 square feet soon felt too small, and Miesmer realized that the layout of a suburban home mattered for a little one as much as the surrounding environment. The row house was only 12 feet wide, making every space feel tight. Matthew was growing at a fast pace. Add their dog, Stanley, and they were running out of room.

“We needed a house with open spaces, where I could be in the kitchen and see Matthew playing in the family room, or we could be hanging out and working on the computer and he would be visible in a different area,” realized Miesmer.

After only two and a half years, Miesmer and her husband decided to put their house on the market and try again for a suitable suburban option. This time, they knew they needed ample square footage and an open floor plan.

They went on an intense search, walking through at least 60 homes. When their Del Ray home went under contract (they managed to break even on the sale) they visited 30 homes in one weekend. “We were hoping that the next place we found would be a ten to fifteen-year home,” Meismer said. They were willing to search as far as Gaithersburg to get the space they needed.

One night, Miesmer was sifting through listings for a house with her dream amenity (a pool), and a home in Kensington, Md. popped up. It was out of their price range so it hadn’t come up on their searches, but it had been on the market for 120 days and they suspected that they would have some negotiating room.

They didn’t know much about Kensington, a small town between Bethesda, Wheaton and Silver Spring, but the house checked every box on their list: four bedrooms, plenty of closets and nice outdoor space. Their daily work commutes to the District would take about 40 minutes.

Miesmer convinced Josh to take a look, and it was love at first sight. “It ended up being perfect,” she said. They put in a lower offer and managed to buy the house at a price that was comfortable for them.

Now, said Miesmer, the layout works for everyone. “The back of the house is open, the kitchen opens to the family room,” said Miesmer. “From a day-to-day living point of view, it’s perfect.”

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_pursuit_what_to_expect_when_youre_expecting/5556.