Garage Space around Crystal City

I feel your pain.
I currently live in DC (Cleavland Park) but bought my Ferrari from a guy who lived in the Waldorf area, South-Southeast of DC. He had a nice 2 car garage on about 1/3 an acre. He could of fit 3 in the garage if one was angled to the side. I would never ask how much his house cost but it seemed to be in the 300-400k range. I don't think downtown Waldorf was all that great but the subdivisions surrounding it are converted from farm land so you got a good mix of rural roads mixed with clustered home areas. I drove the car back to DC downtown in about 30 minutes or less. I never did that commute during rush hour though. Since it's closer to the Chesapeake Bay it seemed to be an unusal mix of Boating/Farming/Commuting crowd. Also, you could avoid the dreaded Virginia car tax.
I have a small garage downtown here but it was built in the 1920's, very long, very narrow, very tall, essentially the opposite of the Fcar's now. After I get it in there I can barely open the door to get out of the car. I will probably end up selling the car because it is at the point where it needs the 'love' that I am unable to do in this small of a garage. And I refuse to penalise the car because of it. Better to pass it on.
Happy Hunting.

 

New poster here. I live in Alexandria, take the Metro into DC and am also looking for a house in the $300k range with a garage. It's next to impossible. Last weekend I came across the Gates at Fair Lakes in Fairfax, which are reasonably priced and come with a garage. But the one-car garage is so small, you could barely open your car doors, much less fit a floor jack under one side. I DIY everything and so a garage is the most important thing about finding my next house. I won't live in DC or the People's Rep. of MD, so I'm probably in for a move to the outer burbs and a long commute. Ugly townhouses with garages in my area are starting at $500k. It's nuts here. I lived in Crystal City and liked it a lot. Not single family homes there for under $500k. Condo there might be ok if garage situation were good. At this point, I'm leaning toward a condo in Vienna with garage parking and hoping I can get a storage unit next to my parking spot for keeping my tools. Luckily, I have three friends in this area with full-sized hydraulic lifts in their garages, so I use them for anything more than very minor work.

 

Rick, welcome to the Forum. We look fwd to meeting you.

Although MD is Commie central (I live there), VA isn't so hot either...the car tax and Nazi State Troopers are enough to spoil your taste.

In VA, you can carry a handgun in public legally, but get a reckless driving misdemeanor for 20 over the speed limit??

In short, the whole DC area is very political. Sometimes, I wish I was south or west where everyone minds their own business, including the local govt.

LS

 

Thanks. I've been offered a move to Austin by my company. There I can buy a nice house with a garage and pool and almost do it all on a credit card. But I don't think I want to make that big move and not know anyone down there AND work from home for a while. Maybe we should have a jobs board here. Fairfax County makes my blood boil, but for the moment, the good still outweighs the bad. For some reason, I've gotten out of trouble several times with the local cops. They really have been good to me. Though I still loathe the Orwellian county gubmint.

BTW, I don't have a Ferrari (yet). I'm a Porsche guy (measley 993), but I have a Porsche buddy who also has a fleet of Ferraris and has asked me to keep an eye out for a Dino and a fiberglass 308, so I came here and jumped in.

 

Ferrari Market letter usually has a couple of glass 308s in their listing

 

Hi Rick,

Wow, this has turned into quite a forum. Since the last time I posted here I have looked at a few homes as well...in both VA and MD. I'm amazed at what you don't get for the money, unless you're out in the boonies. I currnetly live in DC...I guess at this point I'm just the "property value" game. I've got too many cars (projects) and not enough space... I have parking for 2 cars inside, (one shop area, one seperate parking area) then a concrete pad where I can park another three vechicles. Problem is, there are some cars that you just can't park outside...in the city! Then there are the three other cars parked in the garages of close friends!

My big problem, other than too many cars, is that I actually have the space to build a larger garage but have been going back and forth with the DC Gov as to what's ok to build and what's not. I've also been looking for the right contractor who is capable of doing the drawings, pulling the permits and building the thing at a cost within reason. Its been quite a party! Anyway, that's what promted me to look at the posibility of moving....so of course I look at what has a garage and of course how expandable that might be...its a tough call in this tough market!

Oh by the way... I'm a Porsche guy as well...BMW and Ferrari too.. Too many toys, not enough time (or money!)
Don't forget about the PCA club race at the Point this weekend!

Good Luck!

 

Lashss,

You are correct in that the area is sooooooo political! It would be nice to have some of the others "mind their own business", especially the local gov't.
My attempt to build additional garage space here in DC has gone on for over a year now without any ground being broken. Haven't had all the time needed to put in with the District gov't....although I guess if I had a few Million to blow it would be easier to put in a new condo building downtown!

Oh, and that VA "carry" law is pretty scary...what happens when one of these guys has too much to drink and somebody pisses him off?!

Also, just FIY, I was coming out of Herndon/Tyson's etc.. the other day and noticed a minor fender bender near the 495/66 exit off the toll road. Looked like a brown Honda and a silver Camaro, then I noticed the gray Toyota on the flatbed, the Silver Camaro Z28 style was actually the VA State Trooper!
This thing had the lights in the rear window and in the grill, no roof lights, no shield, just State Police lettered below the window at the top of each door!

So beware!

 

Yes, the cops have Camaros here. I learned the hard way. One of them was shadowing me on the Ffx. Co. Pkwy. late at night last Dec. He was side by side with me for about 5 miles. Every time I sped up or slowed down (keeping it below 60mph), he did the same. At a red light, I redlined away (no one else anywhere on the road) and his blue lights went on. First words out of his mouth were, "So you're gonna let some kid in a Camaro bait you into street racing". My response: "If I were racing you, I would have left you behind a few miles back and you'd need a radio to catch me. Just because she's loud doesn't mean I was racing or even speeding". I didn't even go above 59mph. Then he asked me all about my car and was pretty cool. Ended up giving me a field sobriety test and gave me a ticket for no front license plate.

As for concealed carry, I have a CCW and do not drink when I carry - it's illegal to do so, but then only law-abiding folks care about that anyway. If you think DC is safer than VA, you're nuts. No guns allowed at all in DC and they have one of the highest gun death rates in the country. I'll take VA's gun culture any day - more guns there and lots less crime. How is that?

 

Hey Rick...

No, I'm not nuts at all never even implied that DC was safer! Although a lot of it has to do with where in DC you are! And you're absolutley right, the gun deat rate is one of the highest around. DC also has THE highest number of law enforcement personnel per capita of anywhere else in the nation. I have no problem with VA's gun culture, as I was trained to shoot at an early age and maintian an appreciation for firearms, and I still practice from time to time.

Also, if I'm not mistaken...in DC law, abiding citizens can still own a rifle or shot gun. But absolutely no handguns.

 

Just FYI, I have a static IP address and I have Comcast Cable in MD. It is Business service in my home.

 

Where's your office going to be? If it's in DC, living in Pr. Wm. Co. and commuting will be hell on Earth, unless you work odd hours. The commute is bad from my place near Springfield. Pr. Wm. will add 40 min. to that on a good day. When there's an accident, you can just give up, call in sick, get a hotel room. I'd live in Pr. Wm. if I worked from home, but you'd need a helicopter to commute to DC in a bearable amount of time. PG County is a toilet. ALL restaurants there suck, traffic is horrible too, county sucks overall. I wouldn't live there if it were free.

 

Drive a little bit further past Andrews on Route 4. Northern Calvert has DSL, the Maryland Small Arms indoor range is right off Route 4 by Andrews at Dowerhouse Road and the house prices are the most reasonable in the whole MD/DC/VA area.

 

DGS:

I just finished reading this most interesting thread -- what started out as a discussion about affordable housing with garage space has transformed into a political discussion about governments, guns, cops, and politics....gotta love it. For my two cents' worth -- as someone who was born in D.C., lived the first 9 years of my life in Prince George's County, the next 13 years of my life in Potomac (Montgomery County, MD), followed by several years in Alexandria, VA, followed by home ownership in Reston (Fairfax County), VA (owned two successive homes there, including one on the water, followed by my 2001 move back to the Potomac, MD area -- here are my random thoughts. First, the VA car tax sucks, although I had thought that the new governor (Mark Warner) would be phasing it out over a period of about 5 years. Northern VA real estate seems to be appreciating at a good clip, especially in the Reston area. We bought our waterfront home on Lake Audobon in Reston in August 1999, and sold it a year and half later for $160,000.00 more than we paid. The main problem I found with Northern Virginia homes was the inevitability of homeowner's associations with restrictive covenants severely limiting additional construction (garages, etc.), and/or, e.g. the Reston Association's own strict covenants. You need to make SURE to pointedly ask your realtor about covenants/restrictions, regardless of whether there is a formal association. Believe me, as an attorney, I have litigated some pretty nasty disputes of exactly this nature.

With respect to Ft. Washington and Oxon Hill, Maryland, I don't think you can just backhandedly dismiss the entire area, as those areas do have some of the most exclusive, private, waterfront properties in the area. But you are talking big big big bucks.

When we looked to move back across the river into Maryland, we looked ALL around, with a focus on acreage, privacy, the ability to build additional garage(s), the lack of any restrictive covenants. As fortune would have it, we happened to buy in an area where the propery values have skyrocketed beyond belief. We are in a little town called Darnestown, MD, about 1/10 mile over the Potomac border. According to a fairly recent appraisal, our property value has increased almost 100% in about three years, which is mind-boggling.

Were I you, I would come down here, and just go driving, limiting yourself to about a 25 mile radius outside of D.C. You might be amazed at what you find, as well as the area where you end up buying. Best of luck.

 

Old Georgetown Road from Great Falls all the way out to Reston... there's a bunch of fun roads back in that area. Gotta be careful though since it's a residential area. Best not to speed or anything, but they are good curvy roads nonetheless. To really let loose you need to head west to the mountains. Plenty of fun stuff off of Rt 7 between Sterling and WV as well, and Rt 15... Harper's Ferry area is beautiful as well, especially in the fall. Canal Rd and Rock Creek Parkway in DC are also pretty fun. One of my favorites though is the exit ramp from 110 south onto 395 south.. nice flat out S curve that takes you right past the Pentagon. There's really no shortage of great driving roads in the DC area.. just gotta get off the beaten path a bit. If you want *really* boring roads, come down to Florida

-R

 

Robin, you got that right! That is one of my final twisty-bits on my early-sunday-morning Ferrari run. Downshift to 3rd at the exit, hit the drain coincidentally marking the apex on the left at that the first turn, let it wail up to 5,500 past the second apex, 4th then 5th up the hill to 395 - and you've hit 100 by the time you're at the Arlington Ridge Road exit! Have never seen radar in that 110-27-395 stretch in 24 years. (In prime-time, a state trooper will sit there to nail the people trying to get on the 395 HOV).

DGS, you are correct that prime-time traffic absolutely sucks around here - but you become a conoisseur of the exit ramps and, as Robin said, learn to head west on the weekends (early).

 

What a coincidence, as I was about to start this reply I get a call from my homeowner's assoc., telling me I need to fill out this and that form to document the repairs going on at my house right now.

There are PLENTY of great roads around here for you to stretch your ride's legs. Some well-kept secrets, some well-known. Try Chapel Rd. between Rt. 123/Ox Rd. and old town Clifton. I've been airborne on that road and it's a real hoot. Lots of great roads out in Loudoun County too. Robin, I think you mean Georgetown Pike, not Old Gtwn. Road, which is Bethesda. G. Pike sure is pretty, but if you get stuck behind someone, you might as well walk.

I'm getting close to buying a condo with a garage in the low $300k range somewhere between Centreville and Vienna. Depending on what my house goes for, I may buy an extra garage too. They're $20k at one condo complex I've checked out. I was really excited when I thought my townhouse would bring $285k. Now it's looking more like $340k and so I'm getting the itching to shop for a 308 to keep my 993 company. Real estate is just insane here. It's so bad that sellers and realtors are getitng an attitude about being nice to prospective buyers. BTW, the Springfield Mixing Bowl is a HUGE improvement now over what it was 2 yrs. ago. Even unfinished, it makes things a lot better than they recently were.

 

Oops! You're right on that one.. definitely a nice drive, but I usually end up behind a minivan and just end up looking at the huge houses. I completely forgot about the Fairfax Station/Clifton area.. which is odd because that's where I grew up. Whenever the weather was nice on a weekend, I'd usually take a drive from 123 through Clifton and pop out on 28 just north of Manassas. Lots of fun twisty roads, but very narrow and you have to watch out for the motorcycle guys who fly through there at 90mph....

I still don't understand the tiny garages in Springfield/Alexandria though. I lived with a gf for a while in a townhouse in Alexandria.. one of the 3 level, 4br places with a "2 car" garage. We could barely fit two small cars in there. I find it strange that as vehicles get bigger and bigger, garages seem to get smaller and smaller. Good luck finding something.. I'll probably be in your shoes next year since I'm going to be asked to move back to the DC area pretty soon. Not looking forward to it....

-R