Oakwood Apartments

Since I should be organizing taxes instead of indulging my whims to blog, I'll make this short.  I've been asked lots of questions about what life at Oakwood is like.  Was it worth it to stay here?  Did we finally get a three-bedroom apartment?  Are the pictures on the walls as hideous as reputed? 

Oakwood living room/dining room/kitchen

So here's the deal.  Staying at Oakwood is awesome.  Really.  Sure, we don't have a house, don't really have our own yard, and the art on the walls leaves much to be desired, but it's completely worth it.  When we moved in, we were able to dump our suitcases in the living room, run to the convenience store about 50 feet away, and buy all the essentials for dinner and breakfast to tide us over until our real shopping trip the next day.  Fifteen minutes later, I was in the kitchen cooking pasta and brownies (paleo friends, don't judge . . . first nights in new places after flying across the country do not have any food rules or standards in this house!).  By bedtime a couple hours later, we were mostly unpacked and settled in.  Sure the kitchen accessories are dull and somewhat lacking, and all the bedding and towels are a sterile white, but talk about easy!


kids' room

And easy doesn't stop there.  There are shuttles to the metro stop, shuttles to FSI, shuttles to shopping (on Saturday afternoons), a shuttle that will take you anywhere within 5 miles every weeknight (6 to 10pm), a gym (replete with sauna and locker room), a business center with free computer use and printing, a latte/hot chocolate machine in the lobby, rooms to reserve for group get-togethers, kids activities most days of the week, a free Sunday brunch, and more, not to mention plenty of ready-made friends for your kids and a bus-stop for each of the Falls Church public schools (which seem to be fantastic).  There's also a pool (currently closed for winter), two tennis courts, and basketball hoops.  Oakwood Falls Church is also within easy walking distance of the Eden Center (home to the best, and reputedly most authentic, Vietnamese cuisine in the area), BJ's (similar to Costco), and even a Barnes & Noble and Ross Dress for Less.  Oh, and did I mention the weekly maid service?  And about the wall art--we were lucky enough to get different pictures on each wall--a friend of ours has three of the same picture throughout their apartment!  Still, Oakwood could definitely do better and purchase their art here in future!

Ry is stoked to have the studio room to himself.  Kind of.  We agreed it will
also be the game/play room.  The bed folds up to make a large open room.

So, while the apartment complex doesn't have the charm of many of the colonial neighborhoods around here, we are very happy with our choice to stay here, especially since we don't know how long we'll be here.  And now that we've moved into a three-bedroom apartment, we have plenty of room for visitors if you want to come see the many sights here in our country's capital!