Harris moving into Naval Observatory residence after renovations delay

Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will move in to the Naval Observatory residence Tuesday night after their move was delayed for more than two months because of “repairs to the home,” a White House official told CNN.

Harris and Emhoff have been temporarily living at Blair House, the President’s guest quarters on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House, since Harris took office. The vice president’s official residence is located on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory a couple of miles from the White House.

Harris’ chief spokeswoman Symone Sanders had said last week that the repairs included maintenance on the HVAC system, replacing the liners in the chimneys and refurbishing of some of the hardwood floors. The repairs were more easily conducted with the home unoccupied, Sanders had said.

Harris returned to Washington on Tuesday from an Easter weekend in California, and a two-day trip promoting vaccines and the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan. According to the pool, Harris took Marine 2 from Joint Base Andrews upon her return.

The delay in the move had left Harris increasingly bothered, according to several people who spoke to CNN. “She is getting frustrated,” an administration official previously told CNN.

The 19th-century home in northwest Washington, DC, has been the official residence of the vice president since Walter Mondale held the office, according to the White House.

Biden said at a February CNN town hall that living at the White House is “very different” from the vice president’s residence, where he lived for eight years under the Obama administration.

“You can walk off a porch in the summer and jump in a pool and, you know, go into the work,” Biden said of the Naval Observatory residence. “You can ride a bicycle around and never leave the property and work out.”