After the Revolutionary War, John Adams became U.S. commissioner in Paris in 1777 and the first U.S. minister to Great Britain in 1785. Abigail spent five years in Europe with her husband and some of her children. She continued writing letters home, telling all about life in the European capitals. When the Adamses returned to the United States, John was elected vice-president in 1789, then president in 1796. During the last three months of John’ term, the Adamses moved to the new presidential home in Washington, D.C. In her letters, Abigail noted that "not one room or chamber is finished. . . . It is habitable by fires in every part, thirteen of which we are obliged to keep daily, or sleep in wet and damp places." She hung the laundry in what is now the East Room of the White House. Their living quarters were .