boston new england Archives - I am a Honey Bee

So that’s it, the cats out of the bag!

I had my yearly review yesterday and offically put in my request for a transfer in the Tampa office for next spring. Price put his request in a few weeks ago during his review so things will get in motion for both of us sooner or later. While Spring 2016 is a ways off, but it will be here before we know it!

Yep, we are looking to move to Tampa, Florida. Both my Mom and Dad live in Florida and it would be nice to live close enough to some family to regularly see them. And for the family that is still in CT, NH, & NH, they are just a 3 hour plane ride away. It will be nice to come back up for visits and I don’t think they will mind having a built in escape from the cold Northeast winters. (Shoot, I won’t miss these harsh winters at all!)

Price and I moved to Boston at roughly the same time in August of 2003. We met the following fall, made it official in January, and have been together since. We certainly have done a lot together in Boston and beyond. We love to travel but now that we are focusing on a big move in the next year or so, we have been talking about all the things we have, haven’t done in Boston, or things we want to do again.

It’s amazing to think of all the fun and memories we have created in and around Boston these past 10 years together by going out to great dinners, walking walks, going to museums, seeing sporting events, and attending concerts but there is a long list of things we still haven’t done.

So we have recently been discussing creating a “Boston Bucket List” to stay on track of getting it all done. Hhere is what we whipped up!!

Places/Events/Things

Attend the Head of the Charles

Visit Provincetown

Duck Boat Tour (I did one, but we want to take Autumn on one)

Visit Martha’s Vineyard

Visit Nantucket

Go to the top of the Custom House

Visit Cape Cod… maybe even the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory Tour!

Plymouth Plantation

Walk the Freedom Trail (again!)

Boston Harbor Cruise

Go on a Whale Watch

Shop at SoWa Market & eat at the food trucks

Visit Boston Harbor Islands

Candle Pin Bowling

Foodie Things

Top of the Hub (again)

Cutty’s Sandwich Shop – Brookline

Bamboo Thai Restaurant (one of our favorites)

Durgin Park

Moody’s Deli- Waltham

Rino’s Place- East Boston

Blackbird Doughnuts- South End

Kane’s Donuts- Saugus

Speed Dogs

Cheers Bar

Parish Cafe for Zuni Rolls (can’t have enough of these)

Gruyere Cheese Croissants from Clear Flour Bakery

Autumn’s Firsts

Attends a Red Sox game and runs the bases at Fenway

Take Autumn to Make Way for Ducklings Statues (We just did it!)

Take Autumn to Salem around Halloween

~~Mother’s Day Make Way for Ducklings Parade~~ (We just did it!!)

Skiing with Autumn

Go on thec Carousel on the Greenway

And Beyond

Smorgasburg- Brooklyn

See the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center- NYC

Walk the locations of You’ve Got Mail around NYC

Visit Gma’s House at Maine

Visit Cooper and Tara in Maine

Get a Cronut at Dominique Ansel Bakery- NYC

Dinosaur BBQ (Syracuse/Stamford)

Becky’s Diner- Portland Maine

Camping Weekend- New Hampshire

Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Sandwiches from the Firehouse Deli- Greenwich, CT

Garden Catering – Greenwich, CT

Chocolate Brioche Rolls from The Kneaded Bread- Port Chester, NY

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So the list is really ambitious but we wanted to set our sights high and aim to get a lot of things done in the next year. We love being active and this will certainly keep us busy. This will be so much fun!

Do you have any suggestions for us to see in and around Boston?

photo unrelated to blog. I took it yesterday and just love it.

As much as Price and I would love to get the hell out of Dodge (Boston/New England) we have been coming around to the idea of sticking around for a bit longer than we originally planned. So we calculated what we would be spending on rent over the next few years and what we realized is that is would basically suck to continue to rent. Sure there are benefits when it comes to maintenance, such as the woman upstairs from us flooded her apartment and the building management is dealing with the damage to our apartment. But at what cost does that come to?

We decided to do some online searching for what and where we could afford in the Boston area and have begun to look at places. We saw 3 places this past weekend in East Boston.

First Listing: This was actually a single family house. It is located behind another house that has 3 units in it. This is 2 story, 3 bedroom + 2 bath house. I like this most because of the face that there is so much room in it, including a full basement and pull down attic. The kitchen layout is horrible which I really dislike but still trying to envision how we would make it work. This was the most expensive one we looked at but again, it was the largest.

Second Listing: This one looked like it could be viable option because of it’s price, it is a 2 bedroom + office, the kitchen is old but the layout would make for an easy update, and there are washer dryer hook ups in the unit. However, after further discussing it, we decided that it had a weird layout, no view (balcony looked onto a parking lot), and a 3rd story walk up. Yes, we would hire movers to haul all those boxes and furniture up there but I am more concerned with the day to day stuff requiring trips up the flights of stairs… like my heavy purse, groceries, and baby carrier.

Third Listing: Right away we dismissed this last one because of the uneven floors. It had new flooring, kitchen, bath but the bones were not good.

So it was an interesting start to our search process.

Besides looking in East Boston, we are going to drive to other areas that we are unfamiliar with this weekend so we can see if we would want to look at any houses/condos in that area. I have to admit that I am being a bit stubborn about looking in different areas. Not because of any good reason, only because of commute times. Our current commute is 35 minutes on the train so I would like to reduce that (by a lot) if possible. The train ride from Maverick (in East Boston ) is 6 minutes, but could be a longer walk. Places like Malden only have an 11 minute train ride so we are going to look there as well as Chelsea, which would only have about a 20 minute. Oh the possibilities.

These are the things I have been considering for each of the places we look at…

we are looking for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath places in the 850+ sf range

within a mile of a train station or bus stop

house > 2nd floor > 1st floor > 3rd floor

laundry in unit > laundry in building’s basement

deeded parking > resident permit parking (long shot)

old kitchen + low price > new kitchen + high price

With all that said…

What things did you consider when buying your place? What were your must haves and wants? What suggestions do you have? What did you learn from the process? Did anything scare you that you were not expecting?

I’d love to have some input.

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