If you bought in Pimmit Hills, when and why did you do it? What made you choose PH?

[Anonymous]

Go.

[Anonymous]

For the great walkability to highway 123.

[Anonymous]

I wrote a post on PH a couple of years ago, nothing changed except more new construction.

I live in PH. Here's a post I wrote a year or so ago, nothing changed:

We moved to Pimmit Hills in January 2011. We’ve been looking for a place in close VA suburbs with a budget of approximately 500K, and couldn’t afford North Arlington, didn’t like South Arlington, and refused to move further than West Falls Church because we both work in DC and don’t want to spend three hours in a car every day. We have a one-year old.

Once we discovered Pimmit Hills, we didn’t want to look anywhere else, and it took us six months to buy there. It took me a while to warm up to it, I admit. We bid on several renovated houses and were outbid every time, with all of them selling above list. We finally bought a 3 br, 2 bath, 2200 sf house on a 0.3 acres that needed some work for 450K. We are working on it little by little. Note that I was a devoted city girl before moving. Here is my take on PH:

Pros:

Location, location, location. We can get downtown in 20 minutes by Rt 66. The Beltway and GW Parkway are right there. Once Tysons Metro is online, it will only get better. Some parts of PH are closer to West Falls Church.

Price. Housing stock in PH is modest – the original PH saltbox house is 880 sq ft. It is frankly one of the few remaining neighborhoods inside the Beltway with good schools and no safety concerns where SFH can be had for under 500K (admittedly unrenovated).

Lots. Most PH houses are on substantial lots of 0.3 – 0.25 acres, which offers opportunities for expansion. Lots of young families have been buying into the neighborhood, tearing down or adding to their houses and still have enough land to enjoy some outside time.

Amenities. PH has lots of parks (Olney Park is fab), great trees, is wonderful for walking with strollers, close to Trader Joe, Whole Foods on Rt 7, Safeway on Anderson Rd and McLean business district in 5 minute drive or less. There are several restaurants in WFC and McLean centers, and Falls Church City is 15 minutes away if you want more. Latin, Russian, Persian, Lebanese food stores are 5 minutes away. I am a devoted cook so that matters.

Diversity. The neighborhood has lots of everyone and no one particular group dominates. Our neighbor to the left is from India. Our neighbor to the right is a government attorney. We are a mixed family of two adult immigrants from different countries.

Schools. Westgate ES is a block away from us, and Kilmer/Marshall have a good reputation. Those who want AP can also attend McLean High.

Cons:

Well, diversity. PH does not have a look of uniform affluence you see in some Vienna or Dunn Loring neighborhoods we looked at. You have to have some tolerance for blue-collar element, chain link fences, and the fact that all houses look different. The upside of that is people are very down-to-earth.

Eccentric. PH does not have rules for what you can and cannot build, so some expanded/added houses look great, and some do not.

Aesthetics: Some PH houses are good-looking. Some are not. The former prevail for now. If you look for uniform, manicured look, you won't find it here. Yes, there's chainlink.

Traffic. We don’t commute that way, but if you have to go on Rt 7, it can get unpleasant. There are alternatives, though.

Overall, it has been a great move for us. PH is a family-based neighborhood, lots of young families with small children in similar stages of life. I love the trees, the greenery and space in a location so close to DC. I choose to believe that things will get only better as people run out of affordable neighborhoods close to DC and continue to move in and expand/rebuild their houses. Once Tysons East metro opens, we will be able to walk to metro. My DH and DS will be able to walk to a park to shoot hoops or play soccer as much as they want. They can also walk one block to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the great walkability to highway 123.

[Anonymous]

We bought in 2009. We had been looking for a few months, primarily in Falls Church between Lee Highway and Route 50. The house we bought was one of the nicer houses we looked at, and easily accessible to/from Tysons Corner (where I worked at the time). I love(d) the idea of having a single family home. Also, our mortgage payment is easily within our reach.

The houses in the neighborhood do vary, but it seems that 50% of the houses sold are torn down and rebuilt as gigantic expensive homes. It makes for a funny looking neighborhood, but I'm thrilled to see the price of my home/lot increase significantly in value.

[Anonymous]

This is typical of new construction in Pimmit Hills: http://franklymls.com/FX8336245

I think the interior is nice, but the exterior is bland. How much more expensive would it have been to replace the vinyl with hardiplank?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is typical of new construction in Pimmit Hills: http://franklymls.com/FX8336245

I think the interior is nice, but the exterior is bland. How much more expensive would it have been to replace the vinyl with hardiplank?

That looks like Hardie Plank to me and it says it is in the listing.

[Anonymous]

These lists of pros and cons are helpful and illuminating to me, and helps me understand why people do buy there. For example, I do not care about SFH (and in fact, prefer TH over SFH for the yard/maintenance factor) so that wouldn't be a check in the plus column for me, to counterbalance the minuses. But I can see if people do want this, and that is fine, that this is a reason why they opt for PH.

I myself do continually drive down there periodically to check it out for myself after reading these posts, thinking, "Is there something I'm missing? Is it better yet?" Since I don't care about the SFH>TH issues, and a few other things, I myself feel more "bogged down" by the cons, such as the overall aesthetics. I found myself yesterday thinking, "What IS it with chain link and this neighborhood? What IS it? Was there a massive sale and everyone in the neighborhood all got it at the same time? This neighborhood needs an HOA to standardize these things." But then again, I realize some people don't like the militarism and homogeneity of HOAs, so I realize they may think my HOA TH devt is < than their PH home!

To each his/her own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These lists of pros and cons are helpful and illuminating to me, and helps me understand why people do buy there. For example, I do not care about SFH (and in fact, prefer TH over SFH for the yard/maintenance factor) so that wouldn't be a check in the plus column for me, to counterbalance the minuses. But I can see if people do want this, and that is fine, that this is a reason why they opt for PH.

I myself do continually drive down there periodically to check it out for myself after reading these posts, thinking, "Is there something I'm missing? Is it better yet?" Since I don't care about the SFH>TH issues, and a few other things, I myself feel more "bogged down" by the cons, such as the overall aesthetics. I found myself yesterday thinking, "What IS it with chain link and this neighborhood? What IS it? Was there a massive sale and everyone in the neighborhood all got it at the same time? This neighborhood needs an HOA to standardize these things." But then again, I realize some people don't like the militarism and homogeneity of HOAs, so I realize they may think my HOA TH devt is < than their PH home!

To each his/her own.

I think chain link was more or less standard when PH was built in the fifties, and since the original owners were all of modest means, chainilnk was default and never changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These lists of pros and cons are helpful and illuminating to me, and helps me understand why people do buy there. For example, I do not care about SFH (and in fact, prefer TH over SFH for the yard/maintenance factor) so that wouldn't be a check in the plus column for me, to counterbalance the minuses. But I can see if people do want this, and that is fine, that this is a reason why they opt for PH.

I myself do continually drive down there periodically to check it out for myself after reading these posts, thinking, "Is there something I'm missing? Is it better yet?" Since I don't care about the SFH>TH issues, and a few other things, I myself feel more "bogged down" by the cons, such as the overall aesthetics. I found myself yesterday thinking, "What IS it with chain link and this neighborhood? What IS it? Was there a massive sale and everyone in the neighborhood all got it at the same time? This neighborhood needs an HOA to standardize these things." But then again, I realize some people don't like the militarism and homogeneity of HOAs, so I realize they may think my HOA TH devt is < than their PH home!

To each his/her own.

I think chain link was more or less standard when PH was built in the fifties, and since the original owners were all of modest means, chainilnk was default and never changed.

Ahh, that could explain it. Too bad everyone can't get together and be like, "All together now! Let's GET RID of the chain-link! We can do it!!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is typical of new construction in Pimmit Hills: http://franklymls.com/FX8336245

I think the interior is nice, but the exterior is bland. How much more expensive would it have been to replace the vinyl with hardiplank?

That looks like Hardie Plank to me and it says it is in the listing.

Thanks for pointing that out. The tax records say it has a vinyl exterior and I haven't visited the property in person. The exterior still looks too bland/boxy for my tastes, but sometimes more restraint is better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is typical of new construction in Pimmit Hills: http://franklymls.com/FX8336245

I think the interior is nice, but the exterior is bland. How much more expensive would it have been to replace the vinyl with hardiplank?

That looks like Hardie Plank to me and it says it is in the listing.

Thanks for pointing that out. The tax records say it has a vinyl exterior and I haven't visited the property in person. The exterior still looks too bland/boxy for my tastes, but sometimes more restraint is better.

Actually that is typical of taking an old home and building around it rather than tearing down and pouring a new foundation.

The typical full on tear downs and rebuilds look more like this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These lists of pros and cons are helpful and illuminating to me, and helps me understand why people do buy there. For example, I do not care about SFH (and in fact, prefer TH over SFH for the yard/maintenance factor) so that wouldn't be a check in the plus column for me, to counterbalance the minuses. But I can see if people do want this, and that is fine, that this is a reason why they opt for PH.

I myself do continually drive down there periodically to check it out for myself after reading these posts, thinking, "Is there something I'm missing? Is it better yet?" Since I don't care about the SFH>TH issues, and a few other things, I myself feel more "bogged down" by the cons, such as the overall aesthetics. I found myself yesterday thinking, "What IS it with chain link and this neighborhood? What IS it? Was there a massive sale and everyone in the neighborhood all got it at the same time? This neighborhood needs an HOA to standardize these things." But then again, I realize some people don't like the militarism and homogeneity of HOAs, so I realize they may think my HOA TH devt is < than their PH home!

To each his/her own.

I think chain link was more or less standard when PH was built in the fifties, and since the original owners were all of modest means, chainilnk was default and never changed.

I would say that there are not very many chain link fences up anymore. There are some older original owners that have them but it is now the minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Overall, it has been a great move for us. PH is a family-based neighborhood, lots of young families with small children in similar stages of life. I love the trees, the greenery and space in a location so close to DC. I choose to believe that things will get only better as people run out of affordable neighborhoods close to DC and continue to move in and expand/rebuild their houses. Once Tysons East metro opens, we will be able to walk to metro. My DH and DS will be able to walk to a park to shoot hoops or play soccer as much as they want. They can also walk one block to school.

I live in Pimmit Hills and am not a huge fan (I got the house/neighborhood with the husband and we haven't been able to agree on where we'd like to be). We have a toddler and I'm just having trouble finding the folks in a similar stage in life. Our immediate neighbors are nice enough, and we're friendly with a couple of them, but none of them have kids... we just don't have the setup where DS will be able to run across the street to hang out with his buddies. I often wonder if it's us... maybe it's the "con" of diversity that PP mentioned... I went to Olney Park a couple weeks ago around 5 pm and there were few kids DS's age and no one for me to talk to... so I'm still seeking.

The pros that PP listed are absolutely true though. the location can't be beat, it's a reasonable commute most anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Overall, it has been a great move for us. PH is a family-based neighborhood, lots of young families with small children in similar stages of life. I love the trees, the greenery and space in a location so close to DC. I choose to believe that things will get only better as people run out of affordable neighborhoods close to DC and continue to move in and expand/rebuild their houses. Once Tysons East metro opens, we will be able to walk to metro. My DH and DS will be able to walk to a park to shoot hoops or play soccer as much as they want. They can also walk one block to school.

I live in Pimmit Hills and am not a huge fan (I got the house/neighborhood with the husband and we haven't been able to agree on where we'd like to be). We have a toddler and I'm just having trouble finding the folks in a similar stage in life. Our immediate neighbors are nice enough, and we're friendly with a couple of them, but none of them have kids... we just don't have the setup where DS will be able to run across the street to hang out with his buddies. I often wonder if it's us... maybe it's the "con" of diversity that PP mentioned... I went to Olney Park a couple weeks ago around 5 pm and there were few kids DS's age and no one for me to talk to... so I'm still seeking.

The pros that PP listed are absolutely true though. the location can't be beat, it's a reasonable commute most anywhere.

Did you contact the message board? There are a lot of parents with kids your age.