Centreville commute to DC--is it worth it? (Oakton, Herndon: for rent, townhomes)

[saganista]

^^^ What Sally said. It's true that a lot of people do think the commute from Centreville is worth it, which is one reason why a lot of other people don't. Particularly if a potential second job is in the Oakton area, being able to start out in the environs of Vienna will be an unending blessing to you both.

[jpktch]

WOW! What wonderful feedback! All of your responses have been very valuable but I am with VRE332...3:50 A.M.???? Wow, I can't even function at that hour. LOL :-)

As far as the housing situation, it's not that we want something BIGGER per say. It's what things we need...gotta haves are:
**3 bedrooms
**a garage or some other space for storage (as in lawn mower kinds of things...so can't store inside)
**at least 2 full baths
**would prefer separate tub/shower as well as two sinks in the master.
**Also, my husband is an amazing cook and he needs a fairly updated kitchen.
**would like to live in a community of other families with high school kids, obviously :-)

Size is not the problem. And I don't thing our "gotta haves" are really asking too much. We are not big house snobs by any means. I am a country girl and became a small town girl. Have lived in some really small places :-)....

The reason my husband does the bus/metro thing instead of driving to the station is because he gets reimbursed for the bus/metro 100% but nothing for the parking and that parking can certainly add up.

As for my commute, I can work almost anywhere as i am a teacher and there are elementary schools on every corner it seems :-). I just can't bare the thought of my husband commuting for a total of 3 hours a day, which he is willing to do for our family. I can't let him do that!

So, now you guys have me thinking about my options. I am sure I will have more questions. Thanks for all the input! Keep it coming. ****Now I would like to know about Oakton High School. I had been more interested in Madison than Oakton for the simple reason of size. Oakton has A LOT of students, somewhere like maybe 700 more than Madison from the most recent demographics I could find. DOES ANYONE HAVE INFO/OPINIONS/EXPERIENCES with Oakton and/or Madison that might be helpful? Honestly, you hear and read so much on these greatschools.com type sites that you don't know what to believe. I am looking for a good academic environment but not a big snob school. BTW, my husband did say that he was able to find more affordable housing to suit our needs in Oakton vs. Vienna but didn't think I was all that thrilled about the size of Oakton High School. ALL thoughts are appreciated!

Again, thanks to everyone!

[Pequeño_Bonsai]

I once commuted from Centreville to Anacostia for a 2 month project and I can tell you that if your husband has flexible hours, it's not that bad. (For example, if you leave after ~9:30a the traffic is normally clear either using I66 or 29.) The commute down 29 to the Vienna or even Dunn Loring metro stops isn't horrific during rush hour although living in Vienna would reduce drive time dramatically.

I can say that I enjoy the Centreville area as the local traffic doesn't get congested, folks are generally pretty nice and laid back, the green traffic lights to turn are longer (which is a BIG bonus, trust me), the roads aren't falling apart, you're about 15 mins from Fair Lakes shopping, and there are a number of nice restaurants in the area.

[vermonter16]

Originally Posted by VRE332

3:50 AM ???? Are you insane

I am. I don't technically even start work until 6:30am...

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by jpktch

As far as the housing situation, it's not that we want something BIGGER per say. It's what things we need...gotta haves are:
**3 bedrooms
**a garage or some other space for storage (as in lawn mower kinds of things...so can't store inside)
**at least 2 full baths
**would prefer separate tub/shower as well as two sinks in the master.
**Also, my husband is an amazing cook and he needs a fairly updated kitchen.
**would like to live in a community of other families with high school kids, obviously :-)

Some of those are actually going to be tricky, depending on your price range and type of property you're looking at. A lot of the older houses don't have garages or master baths. (They often have sheds in the yard for storage though)

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by jpktch

WOW! What wonderful feedback! All of your responses have been very valuable but I am with VRE332...3:50 A.M.???? Wow, I can't even function at that hour. LOL :-)

As far as the housing situation, it's not that we want something BIGGER per say. It's what things we need...gotta haves are:

You might find a TH that meets your needs



1. **3 bedrooms


Routine, most THs here have 3 brs. Some have 4.

2*a garage or some other space for storage (as in lawn mower kinds of things...so can't store inside)

THs with garages come at a premium, but they are around. A few have some kind of storage shed. Some have a rough basement with walkout. I keep my (manual) lawn mower in a corner of our walkout finished basement - that might not work, depending on what stuff you have.

3.**at least 2 full baths

Routine, most 3BR THs will have this.

4.**would prefer separate tub/shower as well as two sinks in the master.

Two sinks in the master will be hard to find in a TH.

5. **Also, my husband is an amazing cook and he needs a fairly updated kitchen.

Updated kitchens will be found in new or updated THs. They will rarely be very big though, except in some relatively new, pricey, THs.

6.**would like to live in a community of other families with high school kids, obviously :-)

That varies. Most middle/upper middle class TH communities tend to have lots of young kids but relatively few teens (if only TJ didnt give so much homework, DD could have cleaned up on baby sitting). Not sure if thats true up near Vienna.

[michgc]

What kind of budget are you looking at - either for rent or buy? Depending on your budget, you may find a garage or carport in a SFH in Vienna, unless you are looking on the very low end. In which case you will most likely find a shed in the backyard. You will easily find 3 bedrooms. You should be able to find 2 baths unless, again, you are looking at the very low end of the range.

The bathroom will probably be tough to find - two sinks and/or tub and separate shower. I'm sure they exist in the nicer/higher-priced homes in Vienna but not so much in the plethora of ranch and split levels built in the 50s/60s. I'm guessing even the 70s/80's colonials won't have this. Of course, if you are in Vienna, you will have shaved off at least 20 minutes of commute time as compared to Centreville, so you should have time to wait for someone to finish in the bathroom. ;-) Many people have redone their kitchens; many have not. You're probably hit or miss on this one in Vienna - again, it will depend on your budget.

There are high school kids around, but I don't see them playing in the street or hanging out like I see the millions of elementary school kids around here. My high school neighbor and his friends used to play street hockey or basketball on our cul-de-sac, but they've moved on to college now.

[jpktch]

Originally Posted by michgc

What kind of budget are you looking at - either for rent or buy? Depending on your budget, you may find a garage or carport in a SFH in Vienna, unless you are looking on the very low end. In which case you will most likely find a shed in the backyard. You will easily find 3 bedrooms. You should be able to find 2 baths unless, again, you are looking at the very low end of the range.

The bathroom will probably be tough to find - two sinks and/or tub and separate shower. I'm sure they exist in the nicer/higher-priced homes in Vienna but not so much in the plethora of ranch and split levels built in the 50s/60s. I'm guessing even the 70s/80's colonials won't have this. Of course, if you are in Vienna, you will have shaved off at least 20 minutes of commute time as compared to Centreville, so you should have time to wait for someone to finish in the bathroom. ;-) Many people have redone their kitchens; many have not. You're probably hit or miss on this one in Vienna - again, it will depend on your budget.

There are high school kids around, but I don't see them playing in the street or hanging out like I see the millions of elementary school kids around here. My high school neighbor and his friends used to play street hockey or basketball on our cul-de-sac, but they've moved on to college now.

I had to chuckle at the comment about the shorter commute/more time to wait for the bathroom! But you know, if the commute is only 20 minutes shorter, then we may as well stay in Centreville! He already does about an hour commute now (he lives in McLean and does the bus/metro commute--as I said earlier--because he is fully reimbursed for it and every cut corner helps!).

We had found a very nice townhouse in Centreville, in our price range (rental, max $2,000/month) that had the bathroom we wanted, can't remember about the garage but the bedrooms were like little sardine boxes. It's like you have to sacrifice one thing to get the other.

What about rental houses? Is this something that is hard to find in either of these areas? We find plenty of TH's for rent but no houses, at least not in our price range. Just curious.

As for teenagers, well, you know, they have such busy social lives, they don't have time to do the fun stuff we did when we were kids!

Thanks to everyone for your helpful comments! Keep them coming! :-)

[saganista]

A pretty good place to find rentals is MilitaryByOwner. You don't have to be military to use it, but it has a lot of listings by military owners being assigned out of the area for a tour who want to rent while they're gone rather than sell. You do have to select a miltary base to look near. Ft Myer will kind of give you coverage of the eastern parts of NoVa, while NRO Chantilly will show you more stuff out toward the west. Make sure to click the For Rent button before clicking to search. If you also type in a rent limit, include the comma but not a dollar sign...as in 2,000. Might want to do 2,500 in order to see what's just above your budget...

[Teebyrd86]

I pass a house on the way to work that went for $1700 a month but rented quickly in a middle class neighborhood it was 3 bed 2 bath in Chantilly off pleasent valley road, no garage and nothing fancy.. try looking over that area, there are older neighborhoods.