Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke would be a great fit. I live right on the border west Springfield/Burke, and there are always lots of dads at the bus stop in the afternoon. Maybe they all flex, but there are definitely involved father's around. Our pool is welcoming and accepting new members, kids ride their bikes around the streets (no through traffic in our neighborhood, it's a closed loop), and a nice mix of families and retirees.

Houses are in the $5-600s though, so you may be underwhelmed.

OP here. Thank you (and many others) for your helpful contributions of information. My wife and I do like some of the $5-600K Split levels and other 70s era home models. We are especially attracted to smaller homes that are built with quality materials (brick, copper pipes, hardwood, etc.) in neighborhoods such as Kings Park. Part of our challenge in selecting a modest home/neighborhood significantly below our budget is that my wife went to straight ivy leagues through Medical School and Residency, and she doesn't want to be too embarassed when we invite her wealthier friends over for a visit. At the same time, she is a West Springfield Elementary graduate and I went to JMU. Is your pool Fox Hunt or Orange Hunt?

Adding the names of specific elementary schools and swim clubs to these posts is more useful than recommending all of Burke and West Springfield. From Great Schools' reviews, Bonnie Brae appears to be having conflicts between two different demographic groups, whereas Sangster might be too "competing with the Jones" and materialistic for our tastes. Being around a high percentage of other Moms and Dads, regardless of employment status, who commit lots of time towards thoughtfully raising their children is what's most important to us in selecting our final home.

How about something like this?

http://franklymls.com/FX8392858

That's great. My wife and I actually have that house on our list of houses that we would like to see in person, if they're still available when we next travel to the area. I love the location with the elementary school behind the backyard, and the swim club right across the street. The inside looks nicely updated with quality materials, and the outside has a brick foundation, at least. I think the reason, I didn't say that our full range of price possibilities is $400,000 to $1.1 million is because two days ago, we were considering narrowing our search to the Frost/Woodson pyramid and the houses near swim clubs we liked in that area tended to run $700K to $800K. Now, Burke and West Springfield are starting to sound more attractive again. Please keep the knowledge and experiences coming! Thanks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke would be a great fit. I live right on the border west Springfield/Burke, and there are always lots of dads at the bus stop in the afternoon. Maybe they all flex, but there are definitely involved father's around. Our pool is welcoming and accepting new members, kids ride their bikes around the streets (no through traffic in our neighborhood, it's a closed loop), and a nice mix of families and retirees.

Houses are in the $5-600s though, so you may be underwhelmed.

OP here. Thank you (and many others) for your helpful contributions of information. My wife and I do like some of the $5-600K Split levels and other 70s era home models. We are especially attracted to smaller homes that are built with quality materials (brick, copper pipes, hardwood, etc.) in neighborhoods such as Kings Park. Part of our challenge in selecting a modest home/neighborhood significantly below our budget is that my wife went to straight ivy leagues through Medical School and Residency, and she doesn't want to be too embarassed when we invite her wealthier friends over for a visit. At the same time, she is a West Springfield Elementary graduate and I went to JMU. Is your pool Fox Hunt or Orange Hunt?

Adding the names of specific elementary schools and swim clubs to these posts is more useful than recommending all of Burke and West Springfield. From Great Schools' reviews, Bonnie Brae appears to be having conflicts between two different demographic groups, whereas Sangster might be too "competing with the Jones" and materialistic for our tastes. Being around a high percentage of other Moms and Dads, regardless of employment status, who commit lots of time towards thoughtfully raising their children is what's most important to us in selecting our final home.

Why are you down on either of these? If her friends would become judgmental about your home than I don't see how they wouldn't be judgmental about her husband staying home while she works. Seems like something that judgmental people could really be snotty about.

OP here, again. I want to publicly apologize for sounding so critical of two of the schools we are actually seriously considering. As I have not ever visited these schools, I understand that my initial impressions could likely be completely wrong. Online review pages tend to attract people with the worst experiences, so I'm certain I've gotten somewhat skewed advice at Great Schools.com. That's why it's been informative to hear new perspectives, here. Thank you, and others.

As for the valid inquiry as to how our friends re-act to our career choices, so far I've been a part-time Ph.D. student while caring for our kids, so most of her friends tend to think of me as an equal, even though I spend a lot more time child-raising. For the most part, we can care less what other people think (our current starter home is in a low SES area with murders nearby), but we also don't want to feel that we worked super hard to get where we are financially and then settled for less than what might make us the most happy.

Towards that end, thanks for helping us find our bliss!

Orange Hunt Pool is great pool with a fun, laid back personality. They have both a swim and dive team. It is clean, well kept and has a lot of scheduled family activities each week. It also has tennis courts and lessons. The wait list is non existent or nominal. Parking is ample. Many people walk. The primary schools feeding into it are Orange Hunt, followed by Hunt Valley with a handful of Sangster. The MS and HS kids are mostly Irving and WSHS.

Rolling Valley is all Hunt Valley and majority of people are in walking distance.

Hunt Valley feeds from all over, mostly Hunt Valley, Orange Hunt and Sangster kids, in that order, with older kids from Irving, WSHS and LakeBraddock.

Cottontail is primarily Sangster and Cherry Run, mostly LB for MS and HS with several Irving kids.

I think there is a Stay a home dads group in that serves the DC metro area (VA, MD, DC). Find it, then you can post there and ask where you can find most of the SAHDs. They would know. I have seen very few SAHDs in Oakton, Vienna, Oak Hill, and Herndon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke would be a great fit. I live right on the border west Springfield/Burke, and there are always lots of dads at the bus stop in the afternoon. Maybe they all flex, but there are definitely involved father's around. Our pool is welcoming and accepting new members, kids ride their bikes around the streets (no through traffic in our neighborhood, it's a closed loop), and a nice mix of families and retirees.

Houses are in the $5-600s though, so you may be underwhelmed.

OP here. Thank you (and many others) for your helpful contributions of information. My wife and I do like some of the $5-600K Split levels and other 70s era home models. We are especially attracted to smaller homes that are built with quality materials (brick, copper pipes, hardwood, etc.) in neighborhoods such as Kings Park. Part of our challenge in selecting a modest home/neighborhood significantly below our budget is that my wife went to straight ivy leagues through Medical School and Residency, and she doesn't want to be too embarassed when we invite her wealthier friends over for a visit. At the same time, she is a West Springfield Elementary graduate and I went to JMU. Is your pool Fox Hunt or Orange Hunt?

Adding the names of specific elementary schools and swim clubs to these posts is more useful than recommending all of Burke and West Springfield. From Great Schools' reviews, Bonnie Brae appears to be having conflicts between two different demographic groups, whereas Sangster might be too "competing with the Jones" and materialistic for our tastes. Being around a high percentage of other Moms and Dads, regardless of employment status, who commit lots of time towards thoughtfully raising their children is what's most important to us in selecting our final home.

How about something like this?

http://franklymls.com/FX8392858

Sangster is actually very laid back. What you mentioned is not an accurate assessment of the schools or the families. It is a really cool school with a great personality. The families are just involved enough: very few parents causing drama or living through their kids, and there is never a shortage of volunteers, tons of activities, and lots of kind and fun families who look out for each other. They have a very active military spouses groups that supports the PTA, sponsors events like the veterans day ceremony, and does outreach by briniging in wounded warriors to school events like field day and providing meals and support for deployed families.

The families are great...typical of most of the neighborhokds in the area.

I live in the Middleridge neighborhood and have a child at Bonnie Brae (which feeds into Robinson). We have been very happy with the neighborhood - I'd say it's a mix of dual full time working parents, one fulltime working parent/one SAHP, one fulltime working parent/one parttime working parent, and retired individuals/couples. The community has a Halloween Parade, Summer Movie night (co-sponsored w/ neighboring Fairfax Club Estates), Easter Egg Hunt, Home and Garden Tour (homeowners volunteer to be part of one-day tour to show changes they've made to their homes), and National Night Out event. As my neighbor likes to jokes, "You may not be fond of my house [1970s], but if you don't like the neighborhood, there is something wrong with YOU." I think he makes a great point, though I'd say people do a great job with maintaining curb appeal. There is no HOA, which was a plus for us in choosing the neighborhood.

We have been pleased with Bonnie Brae. Parents are involved, but also laidback. I am aware of a number of fathers volunteering at the school.

Middleridge does not have its own pool, so most folks join either Sideburns Run Pool or Fairfax Club Estates Pool. I don't believe there are waitlists for either. I believe Sideburn Run is pretty competitive for swim and dive. It's walkable/bikeable right down Zion Drive depending on where you live in the neighborhood. A lot of people also bike/walk along the bike path on 123 towards Burke Lake Park.

Good luck in your search. I think you have a lot of great neighborhoods from which to find your new home!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke would be a great fit. I live right on the border west Springfield/Burke, and there are always lots of dads at the bus stop in the afternoon. Maybe they all flex, but there are definitely involved father's around. Our pool is welcoming and accepting new members, kids ride their bikes around the streets (no through traffic in our neighborhood, it's a closed loop), and a nice mix of families and retirees.

Houses are in the $5-600s though, so you may be underwhelmed.

OP here. Thank you (and many others) for your helpful contributions of information. My wife and I do like some of the $5-600K Split levels and other 70s era home models. We are especially attracted to smaller homes that are built with quality materials (brick, copper pipes, hardwood, etc.) in neighborhoods such as Kings Park. Part of our challenge in selecting a modest home/neighborhood significantly below our budget is that my wife went to straight ivy leagues through Medical School and Residency, and she doesn't want to be too embarassed when we invite her wealthier friends over for a visit. At the same time, she is a West Springfield Elementary graduate and I went to JMU. Is your pool Fox Hunt or Orange Hunt?

Adding the names of specific elementary schools and swim clubs to these posts is more useful than recommending all of Burke and West Springfield. From Great Schools' reviews, Bonnie Brae appears to be having conflicts between two different demographic groups, whereas Sangster might be too "competing with the Jones" and materialistic for our tastes. Being around a high percentage of other Moms and Dads, regardless of employment status, who commit lots of time towards thoughtfully raising their children is what's most important to us in selecting our final home.

I'm another PP who also recommended Burke who said we don't know many stay at home dads. DH also is an ivy league educated/trained surgeon. Everyone has a different style of living and no one looks down at others' choices. We know doctors who live all over Fairfax County. It doesn't sound like you need recommendations from others since your wife is a native of the area.

Many of doctors we know also happen to be surgeons but many other medicine doctors don't make as much and live in very modest homes. Several of the doctors we know have stay at home wives so they probably have a similar home budget as you guys.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke is very family friendly but not walkable. Vienna is more walkable and the commute to work in Burke would be easy. however, there are long waiting lists to join the pools in Vienna.

Define: "easy commute." I can't imagine getting from Vienna to Burke in less than twenty minutes, but perhaps you know of a transportation method or driving route that I haven't discovered yet.

20 minute commute in the DC area would be considered an easy commute.

Pickett or Prosperity would get you from Vienna to Burke probably in 30-45 minutes in rush hour.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke would be a great fit. I live right on the border west Springfield/Burke, and there are always lots of dads at the bus stop in the afternoon. Maybe they all flex, but there are definitely involved father's around. Our pool is welcoming and accepting new members, kids ride their bikes around the streets (no through traffic in our neighborhood, it's a closed loop), and a nice mix of families and retirees.

Houses are in the $5-600s though, so you may be underwhelmed.

OP here. Thank you (and many others) for your helpful contributions of information. My wife and I do like some of the $5-600K Split levels and other 70s era home models. We are especially attracted to smaller homes that are built with quality materials (brick, copper pipes, hardwood, etc.) in neighborhoods such as Kings Park. Part of our challenge in selecting a modest home/neighborhood significantly below our budget is that my wife went to straight ivy leagues through Medical School and Residency, and she doesn't want to be too embarassed when we invite her wealthier friends over for a visit. At the same time, she is a West Springfield Elementary graduate and I went to JMU. Is your pool Fox Hunt or Orange Hunt?

Adding the names of specific elementary schools and swim clubs to these posts is more useful than recommending all of Burke and West Springfield. From Great Schools' reviews, Bonnie Brae appears to be having conflicts between two different demographic groups, whereas Sangster might be too "competing with the Jones" and materialistic for our tastes. Being around a high percentage of other Moms and Dads, regardless of employment status, who commit lots of time towards thoughtfully raising their children is what's most important to us in selecting our final home.

Why are you down on either of these? If her friends would become judgmental about your home than I don't see how they wouldn't be judgmental about her husband staying home while she works. Seems like something that judgmental people could really be snotty about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke would be a great fit. I live right on the border west Springfield/Burke, and there are always lots of dads at the bus stop in the afternoon. Maybe they all flex, but there are definitely involved father's around. Our pool is welcoming and accepting new members, kids ride their bikes around the streets (no through traffic in our neighborhood, it's a closed loop), and a nice mix of families and retirees.

Houses are in the $5-600s though, so you may be underwhelmed.

OP here. Thank you (and many others) for your helpful contributions of information. My wife and I do like some of the $5-600K Split levels and other 70s era home models. We are especially attracted to smaller homes that are built with quality materials (brick, copper pipes, hardwood, etc.) in neighborhoods such as Kings Park. Part of our challenge in selecting a modest home/neighborhood significantly below our budget is that my wife went to straight ivy leagues through Medical School and Residency, and she doesn't want to be too embarassed when we invite her wealthier friends over for a visit. At the same time, she is a West Springfield Elementary graduate and I went to JMU. Is your pool Fox Hunt or Orange Hunt?

Adding the names of specific elementary schools and swim clubs to these posts is more useful than recommending all of Burke and West Springfield. From Great Schools' reviews, Bonnie Brae appears to be having conflicts between two different demographic groups, whereas Sangster might be too "competing with the Jones" and materialistic for our tastes. Being around a high percentage of other Moms and Dads, regardless of employment status, who commit lots of time towards thoughtfully raising their children is what's most important to us in selecting our final home.

It sounds like she has some great "friends".

My dh is a SAHD, and we used to live in Falls Church. He found Falls Church and Arlington much more friendly to SAHD's. We moved out to Herndon for my job, and it is terrible for SAHD's. Very isolating. If we could move, I think Arlington or DC is the best because there are more SAHD's there than further out in the burbs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke is very family friendly but not walkable. Vienna is more walkable and the commute to work in Burke would be easy. however, there are long waiting lists to join the pools in Vienna.

Define: "easy commute." I can't imagine getting from Vienna to Burke in less than twenty minutes, but perhaps you know of a transportation method or driving route that I haven't discovered yet.

20 minute commute in the DC area would be considered an easy commute.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke would be a great fit. I live right on the border west Springfield/Burke, and there are always lots of dads at the bus stop in the afternoon. Maybe they all flex, but there are definitely involved father's around. Our pool is welcoming and accepting new members, kids ride their bikes around the streets (no through traffic in our neighborhood, it's a closed loop), and a nice mix of families and retirees.

Houses are in the $5-600s though, so you may be underwhelmed.

OP here. Thank you (and many others) for your helpful contributions of information. My wife and I do like some of the $5-600K Split levels and other 70s era home models. We are especially attracted to smaller homes that are built with quality materials (brick, copper pipes, hardwood, etc.) in neighborhoods such as Kings Park. Part of our challenge in selecting a modest home/neighborhood significantly below our budget is that my wife went to straight ivy leagues through Medical School and Residency, and she doesn't want to be too embarassed when we invite her wealthier friends over for a visit. At the same time, she is a West Springfield Elementary graduate and I went to JMU. Is your pool Fox Hunt or Orange Hunt?

Adding the names of specific elementary schools and swim clubs to these posts is more useful than recommending all of Burke and West Springfield. From Great Schools' reviews, Bonnie Brae appears to be having conflicts between two different demographic groups, whereas Sangster might be too "competing with the Jones" and materialistic for our tastes. Being around a high percentage of other Moms and Dads, regardless of employment status, who commit lots of time towards thoughtfully raising their children is what's most important to us in selecting our final home.

Check out Fox Hunt, Orange Hunt and Rolling Valley Pools. They are all situated in that area of Huntsman Blvd, Sydenstricker Road area between the Parkway and Keene Mill. Rolling Valley Pool, although you wouldn't guess it from its name, is within easy walking distance of Hunt Valley ES.

OP, to answer your question from further down the thread re: school playgrounds: Yes, the FCPS elementary playgrounds are open during the summers (all-year, actually) for neighbors to use. We used to live in a townhouse right behind an elementary school and before my kids were school-age, I'd take them there during the summers to go on the slide, and run around the fields. So yet another plus to choosing a home that's a short walk to the local elementary school: free playground equipment.