Northwood News ♦ December 2006

Built-In Memories Bring Back to Northwood Park Homebuyers Who Lived Here As Children

By Karen Jackler

Homebuyers look for a lot of different things when they shop for a home.  Some want to live close to work or near public transportation.  Some look for three bedrooms, an updated kitchen, or a fenced-in backyard.  Others want lots of built-in storage.  But, for some in our neighborhood, like Jacquie and Marty Bokow, the built-in memories were the major draw for buying a Northwood home.

Jacquie and Marty of Cavalier Drive both lived in Northwood as children.  In fact, Marty’s parents still reside on Malta Drive and Jacquie’s mother on Belton Road.  Marty attended Forest Knolls Elementary, where their son is now in first grade, and both attended Sligo Junior High and Northwood High School.

They started looking for a house when Jacquie became pregnant.  “When I saw the ad for this place,” says Jacquie, “I could picture it in my mind.”  She even knew the original owners, the Ostrinskys:  both were teachers in Montgomery County Schools and the Ostrinskys’ younger daughter was in Marty and Jacquie’s class.

Jacquie’s sister, Pat Cochran, and her family live with Jacquie’s mother.  So, with family as neighbors, Jacquie and Marty felt right at home the moment they moved back to Northwood.  And, as an active volunteer with the civic association and her son’s school, she has truly planted a second generation of roots in the community.

Like Jacquie and Marty, Kim Demaline-Fichtel decided to move back to Northwood when her family expanded.  With the birth of their second child seven years ago, Kim and her husband, Norbert, wanted a larger home.  Fortunately for Kim, as they were looking to upsize, her mother was looking to downsize.  So, they bought the house on Edgewood Avenue from her mother and proved you can go home again.

Kim now raises her children within walls containing her childhood memories.  Her kids eat in the kitchen she ate in and play in the same yard she played in.  It did take a while for the family to make the home feel like theirs, though.  Kim found it hard at first to make changes to the house.  Moving things like a lamp didn’t seem right after seeing them in the same place for so many years.  Explains Kim, “You’re really ingrained with how things were.”

There are many advantages to moving into house you grew up in.  You are familiar with all the tics and flaws of the house.  You know whether or not the basement has ever flooded.  Those curious “home improvements” many of us wonder about in our homes aren’t such mystery.  However, remember all that stuff you left in your parent’s attic when you moved out?  Kim found out it’s still there when you move back.  Since Kim first lived in the house from the time she was eight years old until she was married at 23, there was a lot to sort through when she moved back into the house.

As with any neighborhood, living in Northwood has a few less notable points, “But, on the whole, it’s a great place to live,” says Jacquie, pointing out such close-by gems as the Rachel Carson Trail.  Marty loves that it’s so quiet.  Both Kim and Jacquie note that Northwood’s central location is very convenient to many of the places they want to go.  And, as they raise the next generation of Northwood­ians, they all know from first-hand experience that it’s a great place to grow up.   ■