Max 30-min commute to DFW airport - charming, family (McMansion-free) neighborhood? (Dallas: appointed, apartment)

[TX75007]

I am not so sure the DFW constraint is an issue unless international flights are the majority of the traveling.

The Wright Amendment ends next year and Love Field will add routes. I fly a lot and stick to Southwest where possible due to their much better on time and low-cancellation rates on the cities I go to.

It seems like there are newer neighborhoods in many suburbs around the country where the land is scraped, trees are leveled and new gargantuan homes are put in their place.

There were no trees in the DFW area prior to the late 1800s except along the bottoms. The huge prairie fires that occurred every 5-10 years killed anything outside of the bottoms. The only old growth hardwood left in the area is in McKinney. And that is in the flood plain.

The oldest trees outside the bottoms are on the 18xx farmsteads north of town. There are some oaks that are 180 years old.

As for your OP, you will really have to visit first. DFW was a backwater prior to the 1960s. Most of the older homes are extremely small and many are falling down due to foundation issues due to the clay soil. These older homes are very energy inefficient and have many hidden issues that may cost you some $$$ to resolve. I own a 3000 sf older home and just spent $60K to get it back up.

That being said, Preston Hollow and Park Cities may fit your bill. Another option is Flower Mound - there are some older areas with large lots and older homes.

Lakewood will be too far from DFW to meet the commute times and the schools are not Tier 1.

[TX75007]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Actually, some people did complain about Whole Foods coming in and Minyard's leaving. Minyard's attracted all income levels. The Minyard family grew up in the neighborhood, went to Woodrow and their first store in the chain was on Lindsley in Mount Auburn.

The first Wyatt's Cafeteria was in Lakewood and grew to be a large chain all over the southwest. The Lakewood El Chico was the oldest in the company and a couple of employees had been there for over 40 years -- there were many howls when they 'rebranded' to Cantina Laredo and doubled the prices saying Lakewood was too upscale for El Chico. We see how that worked out...

I will bet people complained about Minyards when it first came in back in the day...

The problem with mom and pop is that mom and pop get tired of running the biz and want to retire. A chain is able to keep going when someone retires or goes on vacation. They can also reinvest.

Pros and cons.

[Lakewooder]

Originally Posted by TX75007

DFW was a backwater prior to the 1960s. Most of the older homes are extremely small and many are falling down due to foundation issues due to the clay soil.

Homes built prior to 1960 were on pier and beam foundations. They are solid and not falling down. They have stood the test of time. Newer homes were built on hastily-prepared cheap concrete slabs, often by unskilled labor by corporations in a mass-production. Those don't look so well after 50 years...or even less time...

[TX75007]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Homes built prior to 1960 were on pier and beam foundations. They are solid and not falling down. They have stood the test of time. Newer homes were built on hastily-prepared cheap concrete slabs, often by unskilled labor by corporations in a mass-production. Those don't look so well after 50 years...or even less time...

Sure. Whatever you say. You have no idea what pier and beam means. Or know that some homes are sitting on the Austin Chalk and have little soil under them.

My older home is on pier and beam and it required 25K of foundation work. Another 10K went into the other repairs due to the movement. A friend has a 100 year old P/B home in Plano and they just spent that amount as well.

My wife's family has an intact home built in on P/B 1899 that is all cockeyed. On the other hand, the new ranch HQ nearby is on a hill made from rock and sand trucked in in 1950. It is simple slab. It has not moved.

I built a home in the 90s that had a modern pier and beam system with a post-tension slab. I had the builder drill 1 foot wide columns 20' deep into the soil with 100 under the house and 80 under the garage. We soaked the soil to a soupy mess and then poured the slab on top of the columns, then did the post-tensioning. That house has not moved.

The older homes I spoke of above were not the modern P/B. The piers did not go into the soil deep enough for the buoyancy of the piers in the soil to support the house.

Even with the modern p/b system - a water leak under the house in the slab could lift it up and ruin it. Unlikely, but it could occur. Or tree roots could imbalance the water table. It can happen.

[TurtleCreek80]

I have never, ever heard of older homes in Dallas "falling down" unless there was significant lack of proper care & attention to te foundation over the years. Never, ever.

[TurtleCreek80]

PS- I think we have officially scared another relo away from Dallas!

[Lakewooder]

Originally Posted by TX75007

Sure. Whatever you say. You have no idea what pier and beam means..

Still insulting I see - there's really no reason for that. And you have no idea of what I know or don't know!

I own over a dozen homes in the Lakewood area, all built before the early 1950s. My parents have owned others. I have also sold real estate for many years in this area. I know the homes and the realtors. I have a degree in real estate. I have studied architecture, construction and design/drafting. I was vice president of the Lakewood Country Club Estates Conservation District (the second district in Texas) and have worked on the Junius Heights Historic District and the Cochran Heights Neighborhood Stabilization Ordinance (NSO).

I will edit my prior statement to say some if not most newer homes are built on cheap(er) slabs.

[aztodfw]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

PS- I think we have officially scared another relo away from Dallas!

Scared? Yeah, that about sums it up.

There's a ton of good information here. I truly appreciate so many detailed replies. When it comes time to visit and start looking at homes and schools, I have a lot of good landmarks to use in my search.

And though DFW doesn't sounds like a good fit, unfortunately, I don't really have the option of living anywhere else. Another person on this forum (can't remember who - there have been so many replies! ) suggested Portland or Seattle. If only I had the luxury of choice. My husband's job will have him working at or near the airport daily and traveling weekly. Even a 30-min commute is significantly longer than we would like, but it sounds like he will have to drive at least that long if we want to live in an area that feels comfortable for us.

Thanks so much to everyone who gave their time and two cents to help me out!

[mikeh19468]

Not to sound harsh, but why don't you have the luxury of choice? Unless your husband is in a career field that is limited only to Texas, and in particular the DFW area (note I said career field, not job), and life style choices are so important to your family, then he'd be better off looking for a position in a place like Portland or Seattle (or any of a dozen other cities that might fit your criteria better). Unless he's a petroleum engineer, or other job field specific to Texas/DFW, or he's a Resident and has limited choices on good Hospitals at this point, then find another job in a city that's more to your liking. Will that mean a cut in salary? Probably. Is that a problem? Will that mean having to start a career with a new firm because his present one doesn't have facilities there or won't let him pick a position there? Maybe, maybe not. If you can afford a $1.5M house here, then a $500K house in Portland or Seattle will more than meet your needs, and still live a much more comfortable lifestyle than the vast majority of people out there, while meeting all your other criteria.

Why are people moving to Texas and the DFW area in particular? Economic opportunities (across the salary spectrum, not just the 1%'ers), lots of housing choices, better schools (yes, there is a wide range of school quality within DFW, but overall, the average schools here are still better than many of the other schools in other major metro areas, especially in terms of futures), and better long term quality of life aspects (assuming we're not on stage 4 water alerts for most summers in the future). They're not moving here for the mom and pop shops or the low traffic levels, or for left of center political viewpoints (Austin, not withstanding).

I live in what could be qualified as a McMansion (only 4K + square feet, so small McMansion). With a Toyota and Ford in my garage, and the 3rd garage used for storage. I shop at Kroger, Target, and go to Stonebriar Mall with my girls. Could I have purchased a smaller, older house in a more "mom and pop" part of town? Sure, but then I wouldn't have my home office (which I work out of full time), my girls wouldn't have their own bedrooms and baths and decent sized closets, my wife wouldn't have her own office to retreat into for doing her artwork or computer work to relax to, and I wouldn't have a Media room to watch my movies in after a 12 hour day of work, and playing with my girls. How many house parties have I held in my 3 years of living here, to show off my high ceilings? One, if you count a family reunion of some cousins coming over to visit when my parents were in town. Do I feel bad about all of this? Not in the slightest.

Sorry for the rant, but it's all about sacrifice. If you want to make certain lifestyle choices that are important to you, then you need to have some more flexibility. If you can afford a $1.5M house, you have a lot more flexibility than others do (and if there is an unstated reason that absolutely limits your choices, like your husbands a reserve point guard who just got traded to the Mavericks or something, then I apologize up front, and take my post as a generalization). If there's no alternative to DFW, then you'll have to suck it up and live with shopping at Tom Thumb in Grapevine, Colleyville, or Southlake, in a house with ceilings that might require a tall ladder to reach them, while knowing you may have closet conservatives living around you (that probably will never ask you how you voted in the last election), that will be as friendly and nice to you and your family as you are to them...

[mSooner]

If you really need to be that close to DFW, consider Flower Mound. It seems you don't have a lot of options, so check it out and see if you can bear it. You'll get a good commute, a beautiful home, and excellent schools. There isn't much you can do about the other criteria.

Grapevine would be similar.