We arrived in Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon, drove into New Jersey and immediately started checking out different towns and neighborhoods. After our last visit up there in March, I seem to recall telling people that there was no such thing as a “bad part of town” around Princeton. Well, let me go on public record and eat my words: we definitely came across some unsavory areas. Don’t get me wrong – the worst parts of the area (besides Trenton, which is horrible) are better than the worst parts of Houston, but they are still places we would not want to live. After driving for a couple hours, we scratched 5 of the 6 houses off our “to-see” list based solely on location.
We woke up on Friday and walked to the Witherspoon Bread Company in downtown Princeton for breakfast. Let the drooling commence:
After breakfast, we set out for a busy day of house-hunting. Our realtor was incredibly patient with us – we asked her to change our entire list of places to see after she had already made all the appointments, and she did it with a smile. We spent nearly the entire day with her on Friday (after she made a ton of calls to get us into the properties on our new list), seeing disappointing townhouse after disappointing townhouse. The last place we went to see was actually someplace that she had mentioned to us via email a couple weeks earlier, but we said no to because it was too expensive. We added it to our list sort of last minute, and are we ever glad we did! It is spectacular, and we loved it immediately. There were a lot of things that had to fall in place for it to work out, but it did! We are really excited to get our stuff in there and make it home. And now for the long-awaited pictures! Don’t mind the fact that Brad and the realtor are in lots of them…I was just trying to get some shots so we could remember what the place looks like.
Even though we found our place on Friday, we still ended up spending a good bit of time on Saturday and Sunday filling out (and re-filling out) paperwork at the office. In between all the business, we did have some time for fun! We drove to the Shore:
We roamed semi-aimlessly around the Princeton campus:
We also explored our new town, Pennington. We ate at a roadside stand called Cream King. It may have to become a place we go regularly in the summertime! I had banana ice cream (yum), and Brad had a "chipwich," which was ice cream in between homemade chocolate chip cookies (double yum). Our realtor told us that there is a Trader Joe's scheduled to open about 10-15 minutes from our house. That made me giddy! If you don't know what Trader Joe's is, Google it. And be very jealous.
We spent our last day in Philadelphia:
We also did some other wandering around Philadelphia and saw Independence Hall, the Tomb of the Unnamed Soldier of the American Revolution, and Benjamin Franklin's gravesite, among other things.
Most of all, we spent our time missing Natalie! She stayed in Houston going back and forth between her sets of grandparents. She had a blast, but missed her like crazy (although the trip would have been really difficult with her). We will miss our families so much when we move, but we know we have a great place to live when we arrive! I will be sure to post pictures of the house with our stuff in it once we’re all settled in.
7 comments:
I am gonna miss you guys SOOOOOOOOO much! But, sadness aside--this house is AMAZING. Wow, seriously. I'm so thankful you all will have such a great place to be!! Much love!
Bets
Shore? That sign said BEACH!
The house looks amazing. I'm so happy for you guys and the next adventure in your lives. Your parents will be sad, but what a great place to visit! Chad and Ashlie have enabled us to see things we never would have seen! We'll have to come see y'all, too!!!
I love your new house.Do yall need a live-in
nanny? I do hot meals, healthy snacks and light
housekeeping! No windows or snow removal.
I will also work in your beautiful yard.
I can sllep in the basement on a futon.
So happy for yall and that Lily can go too!!
Congratulations!!!!
Wow Katy, just wow! I love the house. It's just so perfect and quaint! I can't wait to visit you up there once we're back in the USA. Congrats on finding such a GREAT place. I'm officially jealous!
Beautiful! I can SO see you guys there on a cold winter day! Can't wait to come visit! It is amazing...so happy for you guys!
Oh Katydid...
I am so happy for the 3 Smiths (plus the Smith cat).
The stone bungalow looks like a fairy tale dream house.
The chocolate croissants and Philly cheesesteaks look like a dieter's nightmare!
Enjoy it ALL!
Wow! What a beautiful house. Hope you guys enjoy your new home.
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