Good weather for visiting open houses. Only managed to drive by the units in Oakton, Fairfax, and a couple of the ones in Reston before 4PM hits and the houses stopped being so open. At first I had the silly idea that I should knock on each house before entering(as though I were a vampire and needed to be invited in or something). But since the weather was nice, many of the realtors just left the doors open to let the air in, and thus I started barging right on in, and apologizing profusely for the intrusion to the realtor that was present(thus making Miss Manners proud).
Oakton:
3 br 2 full 2 partial ba 2,160 sqft Townhome – drove around and around, and couldn’t find this actual unit, despite seeing open house signs from the road. Since I’d theoretically like to invite people over at some point, this is a huge negative in my book. Plus my initial web photo perceptions were accurate – I don’t care for that color of brick.
Fairfax:
2 br 3 ½ ba Townhome – Didn’t have to spend much time here, as this is basically a carbon copy of the townhome that Devin and Beth lived in prior to their current home. Being a Penderbrook unit, the rear faces one of the holes on the golf course. The kitchen towards the front of the house seemed ackward being almost shut off as its own room. In addition there was a breakfest nook which just seems like a poor use of space. Contrasting this to the previous unit, I think I prefer the idea of a master bedroom and 2 smaller bedrooms as opposed to the 2 master bedroom plan of this unit. Just seems to be a better use of space for me to have an office and a guest room rather than just another larger room.
3 br 2 ½ ba Townhome – This definately seemed to be a “nicer” part of the Penderbrook neighborhood. These houses didn’t seem to have the golf course views. But they were practically right on the intersection of 66 and 50(living very close to major highways seems to appeal to me for some reason). The agent who was hosting was adamantly trying to talk(in broken english) about how this house is an excellent choice because it’s not only cheaper than the other houses of similar size in the same area(that have garages when this one doesn’t), but cheaper than units that have more space. Being in Penderbrook, this unit seemed to have the same kind of vaulted ceiling and the nook for assorted stuff above the bedrooms. This unit seemed to not be well cared for, and combined with an irritating agent, I decided to hightail it out of there(and luckily being right by the onramps made it easy).
4 br 4 ba Townhome – I’ll have to say that I was rather surprised by this unit. The exterior seemed earthly like a hobbit hole(which goes somewhat counter to my preferance for shiny newness). But on the other hand this unit was humonguous. I didn’t really look at the stats carefully before walking in, but 4 bedrooms and a garage in addition to everything makes for a sick amount of space. This unit’s in Bentana Woods, and seems to be fairly out of the way(and thus necessitating driving everywhere). Met an easy going agent who was nice enough to tell me a bit about the Reston area(and really seemed to harbor a distaste for Herndon). She gave me some various maps of the area, and a pamphlet of the Taste of the Town event, which is kind of a nice way to help sell the Reston area. This place is definately too large for me(and too out of the way), but it was good to get a good feel for that.
2 br 2 ba Townhome – Was a bit on the small side. Pretty turned off from really spending time in the unit by a really pushy agent to basically told me that I had selected a shitty agent because he wasn’t taking me around all over to check out all open houses when I’m clearly in the browsing for requirements phase. With the lack of a walkout basement got me thinking about what I wanted on that front and deckwise. This particular unit pretty much as a semi-elevated deck just above the ground, which I seem to remember breeds all kinds of weird shit underneath and can be a maintence problem. The pushy agent made me want to get out of there, and time was ticking down anyways for open houses, so I rushed out of there.
3 br 2 ½ ba Townhome – Like the Penderbrook, the back of this unit also faces a golf course. I really liked the airy floorplan of this unit, and it seemed to be about the right size. Gigantic rectangular rec room downstairs is begging for a pimp home theatre setup. I don’t think I’m a fan of the isle kitchen, because with hosting it’s a very poor use of space(as people naturally head towards there). The general wide open nature of the living/dining room combo area probably makes up for this though. This unit’s also within walking distance(~.5 mile) of where they are putting in one of the new metro stations. Also it’s really close to the Washington and Old Dominion trail, which in principle could be a good thing as it’d be a good excuse to go out and get exercise for me.
Didn’t get any further than this, but hitting 6 units scattered all over was a pretty good pace. Luckily the last unit wasn’t too far from the Dulles Toll Road, making for a speedy trip home. So I’ve got to think about a couple of factors on the coming week – number of bedrooms, walkout vs underground basement, whether i want a garage, and just plain space considerations etc. What I need to think about next week is what I want to do inside of the house, and what I want to do nearby said house.