House Archive
These posts are all in this one category.
The recent storms caused a tree a block from my place to fall. It took the powers line with it, breaking the telephone pole and knocking out power in the neighborhood for at least 12 hours - it's still out now. It's increadably hot and humid today, and after only a few hours was getting that way in the house, so I'm enjoying power and air conditioning at my parents' place. Sweet wonderful A/C.
Verizon is has wired parts of Falls Church with fiber for their new Fios service. The idea that is, instead of using your ancient telephone wires or mediocre cable lines for internet, Verizon has been laying fiber optic cables in neighborhoods around the US.
Fiber was once reserved for corporations with huge bandwidth needs, it's amazing for a geek like me to see this come all the way to our house. The best part is that they are charging about the same as cable modem and dsl for a far faster connection.
DSL: $49.95/month -- 1.5 Mbs download, 256 Kbs up
Cable: $55/month -- 5 Mbs download, 128 Kbs up
Fios: $49.95 month -- 15 Mbs download, 2 Mbs up
Which one would you choose?
But there are two problems...
1) You have to go through Verizon... ugh... I hate dealing with them. It took them almost a year to cancel a phone line that never existed (two entires on my bill with the same phone number).
2) You have to have a Verizon phone number.*see note
*Note: You don't need the phone number to use the service, but you need it to find out if you can get the service. You see, they look up your phone number to see if your neighborhood has been wired. I have Voip, so without a Verizon number, they weren't able to tell me if I could get the service. Telling them my address, zip code, or latitude and longitudinal coordinates were no help. Typical Verizon!
If you want to find out if you can get fiber to your house and you have a normal phone line, try this site:
Good luck, and if you have made the switch, please let me know how it has worked out for you.
I took off work all this week just to move from the place I was renting to my new place about 10 miles away. It's going well, I already have all the big stuff moved except my TV, computer desk, and computer.
One nasty side effect of moving is that I'm without an Internet connection in either house right now, so I'm catching up in email and writing this blog entry at a Panera that happens to be right between the two houses. Free WiFi!
Meanwhile it's incredibly hot outside, so I better hurry up before the clothing and other junk in my car spontaneously combusts.
I 
bought my first house today!
- It's in Falls Church, off 66 and 7, just south of Tyson's Corner.
- It's about 15 minutes from DC on 66, and just off the beltway, first exit on 66 East.
- Here's a map and satellite photo (the thumbtack is on the wrong side of the road).
- It's a one story rambler with a finished basement.
- It was built in 1953, and has been renovated here and there and has been kept in great shape.
- I bought the house with Chris Donovan, co-worker and friend since the days of Doom and Warcraft at Maryland. He'll be taking over the basement.
- We'll be moving in over the course of the month. We have BrickFest this weekend and I'm going to Seattle for a work trip next week. Just got to get out of my place before September because that's when my lease is up.
- I don't have a house phone yet.
- Here's photos!
Yes, there will be a housewarming party, on Saturday, October 30th, which happens to also be our annual Halloween party and my birthday. Clear your calendar now, and start thinking about your costume!
I want to by a house. I'm sick of throwing my money away into the rent machine. Can you recommend a good realtor for the Fairfax/Arlington county area?