As Labor Day approaches the dates for Northern Virginia Fall Arts and Crafits Fair start to fill the calendar.  Now more than ever it is important to consider supporting these local fairs and the artistians who spend a good part of the year preparing for them.

With the economy slowing many local artisians are feeling the pinch.  The cost of the supplies they need to produce their work hasn't decreased but the number of people shopping has.   The fairs are a great opportunity for you to shop "local" to find original gifts for family and friends.

Check out a list of Northern Virginia Crafts Fairs and Festivals and then mark your calendars for the ones you plan to attend this fall.

A great reminder for millitary families who have suffered the loss of a loved on on active duty.

As a surviving spouse I have had the good fortune in the past to use VA to purchase two different homes.  It is a benefit that many widows and widowers may overlook when they start a new home search.

As I was driving through the Newington Forest neighborhood in Springfield this week I encountered this guy just off the side of the road.  It was a nice reminder that when Newington Forest was being built 50% of the 734 acres of the development was set-aside as community common areas.  This resulted in a community with large mature trees and five miles of hiking and biking trails.

Owners in Newington Forest have a choice of townhomes or detached homes spread out among the remaining 300 plus acres of the community.  Looking for a starter place?  Then the smallest Pepperwood model townhouse may be just for you.  Need room to expand?  Then check out the largest Shenandoah model detached home.  There are plenty of options for you to choose from.

Since Newington Forest covers a large area in Springfield children may attend either schools in the South County HS Pyramid or the Hayfield HS Pyramid.  With it’s proximity to Fort Belvoir and easy access to multiple commuter lots, slug lines and the Franconia Springfield Metro the neighborhood has always been popular with military families.  With the new NGA facility opening in Fall 2011 the neighborhood will also be popular with employees looking to live close by.

Interested in checking out Newington Forest in Springfield VA?  Give me a call at 703-346-2213 let me help you find the home that is just the right fit for you.

Current homes for sale in Newington Forest.

Ask the residents of Northern Virginia who drive through the Springfield interchange everyday and they may tell you that an airport would be preferable to the 50 ramps and 20 lanes they deal with everyday.  Ask a tourist driving through the Springfield interchange and you can bet they would rather be flying over than trying to navigate their way through the maze.  In 1945 this same area was the location of a 3,000 foot long unpaved runway as part of the Springfield Airport. 

The tiny airport offered fuel and maintenance facilities for small aircraft.  One of the mechanics at the airport in the late 1940's was Charlie Kulp who is best known in our area for his acrobatic flying in the Bealton Flying Circus which still operates today and is a great place to go and watch the amazing flying acrobatics.

According to the book Abondoned and Little Known Airfields the Springfield Airport was short lived.  In fact it appears that it was only around for 7 years.  Our family moved to Springfield in 1955 and by then there were no traces of the airport visible in the area.  it was easy to see that the location of the airport is where the neighborhood of Springfield Estates was built. 

Unlike the nearby community of Burke VA which was the original proposed site for Dulles International Airport, Springfield Airport was never designed to be more than a small airfield.

Today pilots who fly small aircraft have a choice of airfields scattered throughout Northern Virginia including four local public airports and another 64 throughout the state.   

Manassas Airfield
Whitman Strip 
Stafford Regional Airport
Leesburg Executive Airport

If you are looking for a home in Springfield VA or the surrounding Northern Virginia area give me a call at 703-346-2213.  Let my knowledge of both old and new Springfield work for you.  No hassle, no pressure just straight talk to help you decide if now is the right time for you to buy a new home.

Photo by Caleb's Photography from Flickr Creative Commons License

If you are looking for a "forest" to live in and you still want to be able to commute to work at Fort Belvoir, NGA, the Pentagon, the Dulles Technology Corridor or anywhere in Washington DC then you might want to check out the "forests" in Springfield Virginia.

Okay that might have been a bit cheesy but the developers who built the numerous neighborhoods with "Forest" in their name did leave plenty of trees. Over the years they have continued to grow and provide each neighborhood a leafy canopy and beautiful displays of colors in our changing seasons.

Is it Cardinal Forest, Newington Forest or Rolling Forest that catches your attention? Or perhaps you would prefer Danbury Forest, Leewood Forest or Monticello Forest? I'm sure you can see where this is going. In fact you can find at least 16 communities with "forest" in their name and there is a chance that I've missed one or two. What I haven't missed is watching most of these neighborhoods mature over the years and having owned a home in every zip code in Springfield, I've lived in my share of them too.

From the smallest community of Park Forest with only 13 townhouses to Cardinal Forest over 1000 condominims or Newington Forest with 1800 homes you can find communities of just about any size that you like. If you are looking for amenities you will find most neighborhoods have pools and tennis courts available.

As a Fairfax County resident you can also enjoy South Run Recreation Center, Burke Lake Park, Lake Accotink, Hidden Pond and dozens of community parks scatterd throughout the area. Springfield commuting options abound with the metro, VRE, commuter lots, bus lines and slug routes scattered throughout the area.




If you are thinking you might be interested in living in a "forest" this year give me a call at 703-346-2213. We can meet to talk over your options and see if this year is the right time for you to buy a new home. And if living in a "forest" isn't for you, don't worry Springfield has plenty of "woods" and other great neighborhoods as well.

Long before Homer Simpson made the TV town of Springfield famous, before the Springfield Interchange was created or Slug lines came to town their was a small ‘country” highway stop fifteen miles outside of DC that would come to be known as Springfield Virginia.

In 1946 the developer Edwin Carr realized that their was a huge piece of undeveloped land, close enough to DC to be appealing to government workers who worked in town and that would provide space for larger homes than were currently available in Arlington or Alexandria. My parents were one of those families who decided that Springfield provided a chance for them to buy their first home. In 1955 they bought a brand new split level home in the Yates Village neighborhood of Springfield.

When we moved in to our new home there wasn’t much around us. The only grocery store in the neighborhood was a small store called Bon Foods, there was a drug store with a soda fountain and Fischers Hardware had been open a couple of years.

My parents thought about a bigger house in one of the new West Springfield neighborhoods but in the end they stayed in their original home for 45 years. When I bougt my first house in Kings Park my mother said “who would want to live all they way out there?”  Of course "out there" was less than 5 miles away.  Over the years my family moved around Springfield and lived in  Greentree Village, Springfield Oaks, and Charlestown to name a few. My kids laugh about the fact that we have lived in every zip code in Springfield and multiple generations of our family attended Fairfax County Schools.

Today Springfield is a bustling area with a wide selection of neighborhoods, dining choices and commuting options.   It's central location makes it a great choice for military familes with orders to Fort Belvoir, Pentagon, or the Military District of Washington. The new NGA facilty is bringing numerous defense contractors and government agencies to Springfield as well.

If a move to Springfield VA is in your future let's meet to talk about your options and whether buying a home is the right choice for you in today's market. If you are thinking about selling your home in Springfield VA give me a call at 703-346-2213.  With my personal knowledge of the neighborhoods and successful marketing strategies together we can put the SOLD sign in your yard.

For anyone looking to buy a home in Springfield Virginia you will hear the term "school pyramid" used to describe the schools that feed into the four local high schools.

West Springfield, Robert E. Lee, South County Secondary School and Lake Braddock Secondary School are the four high schools at the top of the pyramid for children living in Springfield neighborhoods. There are multiple elementary schools that feed each of these schools. There are also elementary schools in the Burke Centre community that also feed to Lake Braddock and South County as well.

The following chart shows you the current schools assigned to each the top schools in the pyramid.

Lake Braddock and South County both have middle schools as part of their "campus" and do not have a separate feeder middle school.  Detailed information about each school serving t Springfield VA neighborhoods can be found on the Fairfax County Schools site.

New to the Springfield or Fairfax County area?   Make sure you check out the Fairfax County Public School Website for information for the 2010-2011 school year.

Need to know which school your children will attend?  Enter your address in the Fairfax County School Boundary link to find out.

If you are still looking for a home in the Springfield VA area or anywhere in Fairfax County give me a call at 703-346-2213.  Not only did I attend Fairfax County Schools from kindergarten through high school graduation so did my children.  Let me show you the neighborhoods that meet the needs for your family. 

You can search for your new home by school with my automated home search tool.  For example Homes in West Springfield HS boundary*

If residents of the Landsdowne Community in Alexandria (VA) wanted to walk to Fort Belvoir they could. It is less than ½ mile to the Telegraph Road gate to the base and once inside Telegraph gate you are close to the golf course, PX and Commissary.

The Landsdowne community is a mix of townhouses and detached homes originally built by Pulte and Richmond America in the late 1980's. With just over 600 homes the community pales in comparison to its neighbor Kingstowne's 5800 hundred homes but residents aren't complaining about their small size. With their own community pool, tennis courts and tot lots residents of Landsdowne don't feel deprived.

Besides the close proximity to Fort Belvoir, owners in Landsdowne can also walk to the Landsdowne shopping center and the Kingstowne library. Only a few miles from the Franconia-Springfield or Van Dorn Metro Stations and with easy access to I-95 & I-495 owners who commute to the city or the Pentagon have multiple commuting options, including a Fairfax County Connector bus within walking distance.

When you need more activities you can head to the Lee District Recreation Center or the Greendale Golf Course both run by the Fairfax County Park Authority. The restaurants and movie theaters at Kingstowne are close by as well as historic Mount Vernon and Woodlawn Plantation.

Current Homes for Sale Landsdowne

If living in a smaller community with easy access to Fort Belvoir is on your to do list then give the Cindy Jones a call at 703-346-2213. Let me show you the through the Landsdowne neighborhood and close by shopping and commuting options. No hassle no pressure, just straight talk about whether buying a home is right for you.

The Sydenstricker School in Springfield VA was the last one room school house in operation in Fairfax County. It closed in 1939 but the building is still used today as a community meeting hall. The belfry contains the original school bell purchased in 1920's from the Sears Roebuck store in Alexandria.  The school was named after the first minister of the original Sydenstricker Church next door built in 1909. Rev. Syndenstricker was also the uncle of Nobel Prize Winner Pearl Buck the author of The Good Earth.

The school house is located on Sydenstricker Road and the Fairfax County Parkway just at the edge of the Orange Hunt Estates neighborhood.

Schools in Springfield VA and Fairfax County have come a long way since the Syndenstricker school closed.  Today you will find over 175,000 students enrolled in Fairfax County Schools.  Per the Fairfax County School website the country schools are comprised of "139 elementary schools (grades K-6), 19 middle schools (grades 7 and 8), 3 middle schools (grades 6-8), 4 secondary schools (grades 7-12), 21 high schools (grades 9-12), 8 special education centers, 2 alternative high schools, and 46 alternative programs.  Three of these schools are magnet schools: Bailey’s Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences, Hunters Woods Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences, and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology."

Not a one room school house in the entire system today.

New to the Springfield or Fairfax County area?   Make sure you check out the Fairfax County Public School Website for information for the 2010-2011 school year.

Need to know which school your children will attend?  Enter your address in the Fairfax County School Boundary link to find out.

If you are still looking for a home in the Springfield VA area or anywhere in Fairfax County give me a call at 703-346-2213.  Not only did I attend Fairfax County Schools from kindergarten through high school graduation so did my children.  Let me show you the neighborhoods that meet the needs for your family. 

You can search for your new home by school on our automated search tool.  For example Homes in West Springfield HS boundary*


Not all listings may appear as some agents may not have identified the appropriate school.  Always check the information with the official Fairfax County School Boundary information.

Tucked just off the intersection of two major roads is the West Springfield neighborhood of Charlestown.  With tree lined streets, community parks and all brick towhnouses this neighborhood is worth checking out.

You don't find many communities with the pride of ownership you see in Charlestown. With an HOA that does all of the outside maintenance including a three year paint schedule, roofing, sidewalks, brick courtyard walls and front landscaping it keep your job as a homeowner to a minimum.

While the neighborhood is primarily made up of three level townhouses there are a scattering of two level homes mixed in to the 500 plus homes that make up the community.  For anyone who wants to be close to shopping, public transportation and recreation activities Charlestown has all three covered. 

Express service to the Pentagon (Metro Bus 18G)  runs through the neighborhood, the Fairfax Connector offers service to the Franconia-Springfield Metro and there are slug lines close by.   Shopping at multiple grocery stores is within walking distance and the back entrance to Lake Accotink Park is within a mile.

If you are thinking that now is the time to take advantage of low interest rates and lower house prices in the Springfield neighborhood of Charlestown then give me a call at 703-346-2213.  Find out why I called Charlestown home for a number of years and consider it one of Springfield VA best kept secrets.  No hassle, no pressure, just straight honest talk about our market and what is right for you.

Charlestown In West Springfield Homes for Sale

Floor plan illustrative of the Hermitage Floor Plan.
3 bedroom and den with aproximately 2600 square feet with three finished levels.