Need to know where to live (Reston, McLean: rentals, new home, transferring to)

[meskyclad]

My husband may be transferring to Reston Va. I need to be near Falls Church to be close to a Montessori School there. Can you tell me places to look at and places to avoid in order to be close to both and to be in a safe, affordable neighborhood. We will probably rent for a year or so but I want a single family home. I prefer to stay under 2400 for rent, less is always better. I am also interested to know if there are day spas in the area since I am a licensed massage therapist and will need to work.
Thanks for you help, this is my first time posting so please bear with me.

[Azmordean]

I can't comment on the day spa thing. I'm an avid weight lifter, yet somehow I've never had a massage! Crazy, methinks .

As for where to live.... well, I'd say, as long as its somewhere with easy access to the Dulles Toll Road, you should be good. Some parts of Falls Church itself even meet that criteria. As long as you have easy access to the Toll Road, your husband's commute to Reston shouldn't be bad at all. I'd consider falls church, esp areas near the West Falls Church metro. McLean may also be worth looking at. I'm not up on specific neighborhoods though, so maybe someone else can chime in here.

[normie]

Plenty of day spas in the area, but I don't know that this is the best time to be looking for work. Seems to me lots of places are cutting back on staff right now.

All of the neighborhoods between Falls Church and Reston are pretty nice. Not sure exactly what you're looking for, but you really can't go wrong in that little corridor. Personally, I prefer Reston.

[ScranBarre]

If you choose to live on one end or the other (Reston or Falls Church) just try to live in relatively close proximity to Route 267, which is the Dulles Toll Road. After doing the "Route 7 Bumper Car Cha-Cha Line" for my first week down here to access all points east of my new home in Reston I can safely say it gets very congested very quickly! Another word of advice would be to avoid Reston Parkway southbound through town headed towards Fairfax around 4 PM-6 PM. I was stuck in a NASTY back-log here the other day while going to scope out the campus of GMU in Fairfax. It took me an hour to get there! Slowly yet surely I'm learning some short-cuts though. I feel very comfortable here because I can walk to either Reston Town Center or Lake Anne from my home along North Shore Drive. There are some very comfortable-looking single-family homes in the neighborhood in and around Fairway Drive and Hook Road that are probably reasonably-priced (by NoVA's standards of course). Falls Church seems nice too, but being forced to drive 20-25 miles per hour all through town all the time would get especially tiresome (for me, anyways), as the police there are VERY aggressive with speeding.

Best of luck to you!

[JfromReston]

Here are a few Reston rentals to consider:
View Property Details- 2225 HALTER LN, Reston, VA 20191
View Property Details- 2514 PEGASUS LN, Reston, VA 20191

Also here is a Montessori School in Reston:
Sunset Hills Montessori School

[meskyclad]

Thank you all, these are all helpful, I really love the rental link, wish I were ready to move now!

[meskyclad]

Forgot to ask, how long of a commute is it from Falls Church to Reston and vice versa during the week?