Hollin Hills pros and cons
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
Can anyone talk to me about this neighborhood? Here are my concerns:
1) The commute to Dupont Circle must take forever-we live in North Old Town now and it takes us almost an hour now coming home door-to-door. 2) The schools don't seem to have great ratings-thoughts? 3) Does living with those highly wooded yards come with a lot of critters like snakes, mice, birds, etc. What about other yard costs like raking? Other yard maintenance? I've never lived with yard that wasn't almost all grass and it's scaring me a bit. 4) Do you get any weirdos coming through all those park trails? Let me know your pros and cons. The mid-century homes are beautiful! |
Anonymous
|
I live in 22306, very nearby, and take Rt. 1 into OT Alexandria and then get on GW Parkway. Commute to Dupont Circle one-way is 40-45 minutes when leaving at 7:15-7:20am. Same way home on GW Parkway is ~45 minutes as well.
No schools, so can't speak to those. Personally love the trail system, run our dog through HH often. Never encountered weirdos, lol. |
Anonymous
pp here, sorry, meant "no kids, so can't speak to those schools." |
Anonymous
| I think the commute to Dupont might be about the same--hop on GW Parkway and take that all the way in to the Memorial Bridge, to RCP, to Dupont. Elementary schools are good in the area, middle school/high school is not as highly rated, but I can say, as a teacher in the county and a former resident of this neighborhood, I'd send my child there (we moved b/c of needing more space in a house, couldn't find a big enough house in HH for the money we had). There's a great pre-school facility off of Ft Hunt if you need that. |
Anonymous
|
I don't live directly in HH, but do live in the general area surrounded by a ton of trees. We came from a newer, planned community, and I was a little bit surprised by all the wildlife. We have a pool so we fish out all kinds of critters--mice, baby snakes, large frogs, etc. I've come across a couple snakes sunning themselves on the trail. The other evening, we watched an owl chase a squirrel through our tree (squirrel got away). We've also seen a bald eagle and have seen a couple red tailed hawks fighting above our house. We also have a neighborhood fox (you'll wonder who is being killed the first time you hear a fox screaming at 2am while you're trying to get your dog to pee).
Only the pool critters bother me because they're the only ones I directly have to deal with, and I don't think I'd ever even know most of them were out there if we didn't have the pool. I commute to Farragut Square and it takes about 35 minutes door to door, but I commute in pretty early in the morning. On the leaves, you definitely spend several hours several weekends in a row dealing with leaves in the fall. Plenty of people hire it done (our neighbors with yard services have their leaf collection included in their yearly rate). If you don't hire it done, a blower (we have a battery-powered one) makes it much easier. If you have kids, convince (make) them to help. My boys love to help with the leaves. |
Anonymous
|
I live in HH.
1) DH commutes downtown. In the mornings it takes him about 45 minutes when he leaves at 7:00. He cuts through Westover to the Parkway and takes that in (he may take the side streets through OT if Washington St is bad). Don't try to make the left onto the Parkway at Morningside. Tulane and Belle Haven have medians, so you only have to take it two lanes at a time. Coming home can be dicey. Again, he takes the Parkway the whole way, save for some OT side streets. It usually takes him about an hour, leaving at 5:30. 2) My neighbors seem happy with HMES. I am going to try it out (DS is in preschool). I think a lot of school ratings depend on the demographics of the school. Waynewood is a much more homogenous population than HMES, which pulls from some low income areas on Rt 1. I think if you are an educated parent, you read to your children, and you seek out appropriate enrichment activities, your children will do fine in school. Hollin Hills residents tend to be pretty involved in their child's education. 3) Yes, there are critters. But it's kind of neat. Just make sure if you get woodpecker holes, you seal them up quickly and thoroughly, before a racoon decides to widen the hole and make a nest. Get a leaf service or a backpack blower--you will spend days raking. The county sends a leaf sucker truck three times during the fall, so you only have to get the leaves out to the curb and the county truck sucks them up. 4) I have never encountered a weirdo, and we are regularly on the trails. I love it here. The community is really tight-knit and there are some great events--Christmas caroling, Oktoberfest, 4th of July parades and BBQ, and I think the houses are gorgeous. If you are looking at one that doesn't have update windows, it could get drafty, and the large windows are expensive to replace. |
Anonymous
| Love love love the architecture. You are buying in to a community of like minded people who value architecture/mid century/nature insde your home aesthetics (walls of windows). I'm told some artsy types, friendly, cultured types. Some young families are moving in, a realtor told me, but it's still transitioning and my spouse said no to the schools. I go on their house tours every two years to admire the houses. |
Anonymous
|
I live close-by in Stratford Landing. The leaves are totally ridiculous in the fall--but we do enjoy the mature trees the rest of the year. I think we bagged 130 bags of leaves last fall.
I commute to Navy yard and leaving at 700, it takes 45-50 mins..haven't tried getting to DuPont though. The wildlife is fantastic! We've seen bald eagles, large turtles, deer, fox, owls, geese, ducks and too many birds to name. It's really awesome. Waynewood and Stratford Landing ES are good. Fort Hunt is ok. You'd have to ask your neighbors about Hollin Meadows..you can look at recent test scores on Schooldigger. The middle school and high school are not the greatest, but people down here do send their kids there. We love our house, the big yard and being close to Old Town and the river. There's a real community feel in this area too and a lot of the neighborhoods have pools, which is a bonus. |
Anonymous
| A good friend of mine lives there. Beautiful neighborhood. Lots of wildlife - just today she sent me a pic of a fox hanging out in her yard. Schools not the best - I'm sure they are fine but not the most highly ranked in Ffx cty. My friend said most people either go private or don't have kids. The architecture is cool and there are lots of neighborhood events. |
Anonymous
| I almost bought in Hollin Hills. I liked the windows looking out but asked the agent if we could come back at night. Looking out dark windows at night is an entirely different feeling than during the day. It was cold, dark and reflected back. So if you do settle on a house, be sure to go back and visit it with the type of lighting you would normally be using in your house at night (not party lighting) and see if you feel the coldness that I did plus the feeling you and your pajamas are on display for all the world to see. |
Anonymous
Another HH resident here. 1) My DH and I commute downtown (near the White House) using the Westover to GW Parkway route. On a bad day it can take us about an hour, but on a good, traffic free day it takes about 25 minutes. We take the Parkway to Memorial Bridge, then cut over to 15th Street from Independence to avoid the 14th Street bridge traffic. On average, it takes us about 35-40 minutes. On the return, we actually take the 9th street tunnel to 395 South and hit the Beltway and exit Mt. Vernon - distance-wise it's longer, but traffic moves and we can get home in about 30 minutes. If there's no traffic, we take 14th Street to the GW Parkway. Just last night I took this route just after 7pm and was pulling into our driveway by 730pm. 2) We have a toddler and another baby on the way, so we aren't settled on schools at the moment. With that said, if we stay here, we will likely end up using private schools. We have heard mixed reviews re: HM. A lot of young families with children have moved into the neighborhood - and continue to do so it seems - so I suspect there will be more HH families at HM in the coming years. 3)/4) We wait for all of our leaves to fall (around December) and hire someone to blow and bag them at that point. It costs about $400 or so. We don't waste time trying to do it ourselves. As for critters, we've seen the occasional garden snake etc but the nature and animals are a huge part of why we love it here. We see deer, foxes, etc in our yard all of the time. Our toddler goes nuts for all of the wildlife and loves loves loves the outdoors. I think the same can be said for most kids who live in HH. We love the access to the trails and, no, we've never encountered any weirdos. The neighborhood is extremely safe and close-knit. As Pp mentioned, there's the neighborhood pool, potlucks, trick or treating for the kids, 4th of July parade and picnic, etc. 5) When looking at homes here, my advice would be to focus on the following and forget about critters: have the windows been double-paned (we had this work done throughout our house and it cost upwards of $25,000), what insulation, if any, has been blown into the house, is the roof in good condition (we were lucky and bought our house just after the roof - tar and gravel with a slight peak - had just been completely redone, what condition is the electrical in (again, we spent about $25,000 having our electrical rewired and grounded and installing lighting throughout the house), plumbing and drainage - these houses have old copper pipes etc so you just want to make sure everything is functioning and there haven't been any recent issues with water etc. If you can find a home that has a good renovation, you'll love it. Happy to try to answer any other questions you might have. |
Anonymous
|
The commute is easily an hour on any given day. The 30 -45 minute commute is rare. Do the commute yourself at the time you are going to commute before school ends to find out for yourself. If you do any drop offs, pick ups do those as well on your trial run. I gave a friend who commutes from NW @ 18th St and leaves at 5:30 - does one pickup on her way home and isn't home until almost 7:30.
The middle school and high school are the problems. Same issue as Alexandria City schools, Lots more SAHMs down the parkway Factor into your monthly costs a lawn service/ landscape service. Covers leaf removal and lawn mowing. Move to N Arl. Better commute, better schools long term, less yard work |
Anonymous
| Well of course, N Arlington (or McLean) would be ideal, but that's not an option for everyone. It's at least still relatively "affordable" to live off of the Parkway in a beautiful home with a large lot. The trade off is the schools--and that is what you are paying for with N. ARl. prices. |
Anonymous
|
I live in Waynewood and used to live in Arlington. It actually takes me about the same amount of time to get to work downtown in the morning. I leave at 715 and arrive between 8 and 815. I came in 395 over the 14th st. Bridge (total nightmare) before. Even though Waynewood is farther distance-wise, the GW pkwy doesn't back up until you get to Old Town. The other part of the pkwy is only local traffic and not a major thru way.
Hollin Hills is a great neighborhood! |
Anonymous
Yeah but at least in Arlington you get good schools from elementary on up to High school. |