I moved from South Arlington to Vienna and my door to door commute to Capitol Hill is 75 minutes (includes getting to/from metro on both sides). It's horrible. I can't imagine moving out further.

The other thing I don't like about Ashburn and Leesburg is that you are trying yourself to two routes to go east. Either traffic-choked Route 7, or super expensive Dulles Greenway and the toll road -- both of which has tolls continually going up each year. Even on the weekends, Route 7 is a zoo with 5 million lights. We all deal with traffic and long commutes during the week days, but on the weekends, do you really want to deal with that?

We have friends who do it. They say it is a killer. 2 hours, some mornings. I agree with the suggestion to rent, first -- you can try it out for yourself, and if you really love it, maybe explore going to creative work hours if possible (7 to 3?), etc.