The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[.RJ]

I cant imagine that area getting more expensive than it already is.

Quoted for posterity

I'm just glad they didn't end up out in Oatlands near our farm like I heard they might. Y'all can keep that traffic up there

Ain't shit to do around Oatlands other than visit Oatlands, so I don't think there's much desirable about it to Amazon other than the large swaths of available land. They were looking for a pretty urban environment with good transit options. Closest "civilization" if you will is Ashburn/Leesburg but that's too suburb-y for them.

Ashburn is not civilization, but I'm just an ashburn hater.

[GTBrandon]

I cant imagine that area getting more expensive than it already is.

Quoted for posterity

I'm just glad they didn't end up out in Oatlands near our farm like I heard they might. Y'all can keep that traffic up there

Ain't shit to do around Oatlands other than visit Oatlands, so I don't think there's much desirable about it to Amazon other than the large swaths of available land. They were looking for a pretty urban environment with good transit options. Closest "civilization" if you will is Ashburn/Leesburg but that's too suburb-y for them.

Ashburn is not civilization, but I'm just an ashburn hater.

Why do you say that?

[Sijray21]

Ashburn is not civilization, but I'm just an ashburn hater.

Why do you say that?

It's that Reston Elitist mentality coming out.

[Jake]

I cant imagine that area getting more expensive than it already is.

Quoted for posterity

I'm just glad they didn't end up out in Oatlands near our farm like I heard they might. Y'all can keep that traffic up there

Ain't shit to do around Oatlands other than visit Oatlands, so I don't think there's much desirable about it to Amazon other than the large swaths of available land. They were looking for a pretty urban environment with good transit options. Closest "civilization" if you will is Ashburn/Leesburg but that's too suburb-y for them.

Ashburn is not civilization, but I'm just an ashburn hater.

It's great if you want to raise kids and/or go to a lot of church. Otherwise it's super-duper cookie cutter. Not much character at all. I'm so glad my parents are getting out.


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[.RJ]

There's zero cycling/walking infrastructure. Its a vast wasteland of tract homes. If you live there you are commuting 20-30 min minimum, plus tolls, to work anywhere. Its full of strip malls full of bland chain restaurants and industrial parks and data centers.

And, yes I'm paying 20% more to live in Reston for a smaller house.

[D_Eclipse9916]

There's zero cycling/walking infrastructure.  Its a vast wasteland of tract homes.  If you live there you are commuting 20-30 min minimum, plus tolls, to work anywhere.  Its full of strip malls full of bland chain restaurants and industrial parks and data centers.  

And, yes I'm paying 20% more to live in Reston for a smaller house.

I moved 7 hours south vs 20 minutes west.  I would totally skip over Ashburn and go straight to Leesburg.

[Apoc]

Me when people in Reston talk shit about Ashburn. 

[.RJ]

Me when people in Reston talk shit about Ashburn. 

ashburn is why you left nova

[Apoc]

ashburn is why you left nova

No, you are.

I actually liked Ashburn and the eight minute commute it afforded me.

[Beej]

Well, I’ve always wanted to build something, and now I’ve finally gotten that nonsense out of my system.  Hot damn, did I ever underestimate this bad boy.

The garage slowly filled up with more and more non-car stuff, which fuck that noise.  Since we’ve moved in, I’ve always wanted a shed, but didn’t want one of those pre-built 2x3 on 24”-center joints sitting in a Lowe’s parking lot. I considered looking at a few other builders and working with someone to make one match the house, but didn’t really feel like dealing with someone else.  Plus I'm a man and this is a goddamn right of passage.  Somebody let me know where to.

Then we got pregnant, and apparently my form of last-minute nesting is taking on a project way too large for my own good (first one was an irrigation system).  So I started digging a few holes, and off we went.

A lot of money, hardware store trips, lessons, time, one ER trip and some seemingly permanent numbness in my thumb (respect the nailgun) later, the garage is looking wayyyyyyy cleaner.


Fascinating how different it was to doing car stuff, it's a whole different world.  There's soooo much measuring and making sure things are square and/or level and even though a millimeter doesn't matter as much as it does with cars, it's a different kind of precision.

The time pressures from squeezing it in between family, work, and jesus this 5:00 sunset nonsense aside, it was a lot of fun and is super rewarding to look at over a beer or coffee...it'll just be awhile before I do another.

[G.Irish]

Damn, that looks nice. You should just put your stuff and storage and rent that shit out to make some extra money.

I'm thinking of building a much less ambitious shed of some sort but probably not until next year when it gets warm again.

[Senor_Taylor]

ashburn is why you left nova

No, you are.

I actually liked Ashburn and the eight minute commute it afforded me.

Did you already work for Amazon and transfer to the PNW office?

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[Apoc]

ashburn is why you left nova

No, you are.

I actually liked Ashburn and the eight minute commute it afforded me.

Did you already work for Amazon and transfer to the PNW office?

No. I worked at AOL (Ashburn) for 5.5 years and then NeuStar (Sterling) for 1.5 before getting the job and moving. When I left, the only Amazon jobs were data center jobs.

My first house purchase way back when was in Leesburg and I worked in Fairfax at the time. That solidified my desire to not commute more than 20 minutes ever again.

[.RJ]

I'm thinking of building a much less ambitious shed of some sort but probably not until next year when it gets warm again.

In for shenanigans.  I'll help.

[JPolen01]

I cant imagine that area getting more expensive than it already is.

Listened to NPR on my way home today. Basically from what I understand is that Amazon plans to hire 25k people but the hiring will be spread out over a decade. The first year is only going to amount to 400 jobs. This will increase over time but they also noted that the DC/Nova area brought in 50k jobs last year alone and that Nick is Amazon's hiring will be from within the existing market.

I don't see this causing home/rent prices to jump at an alarming rate because of this.

Also VA is giving them $530 million to make this happen with Arlington county kicking in another $23 million. It amounts to something like $22k per employee hired (salary must be at least $100k to qualify).

[WRXtranceformed]

I had some doozies of commutes up there, but one of the most interesting was Purcellville to Edinburg.

This WFH thing rules them all, daddy don't have to get on the roads with them sheeple. We'll see how many more years this will happen

[HAULN-SS]

Btw while the left hand was busy, the right hand of Microsoft just bought 300+ access in leesburg https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/n...ounty.html

Also JBGS owns like 40 percent of the buildings in crystal city.. do with that what you will

[ScottyB]

hell yeah now we're talking. looks great. yer gonna shoot yer eye out doing this stuff one way or the other, so if you made it out with all your digits on your hands, call it a good game and crack a beer because you earned it.

Fascinating how different it was to doing car stuff, it's a whole different world.  There's soooo much measuring and making sure things are square and/or level and even though a millimeter doesn't matter as much as it does with cars, it's a different kind of precision.

so true, i found out all the same with the camper. getting stuff precise at the joints and junctions felt more important than just having a perfectly straight board. also getting stuff square is like the chasing boost leaks of the car world.

[WRXtranceformed]

More power to y'all on those builds. A few of our neighbors went in together as a group to have a few good ole boys build them sheds with hardiplank color matched to their houses. I want to say it was $2k or less installed in their backyards. That or a quick trip to Amish country to order one of their prebuilt sheds and have it delivered to your house is an easy button.

[Evan]

Yeah had some nice Amish guys straight out of PA show up at my house at 5am and built me a shed in about 7 hours. I think I posted here about it about 3 years ago.
I would have loved to have done it myself and I get the DIY pride aspect of it but at the end of the day I just needed a shed and doing it myself would have taken many weekends and too much time.

btw, Id highly recomend getting some of the cheap garage epoxy floor coat from homedepot and coating the wood floor with it. Its really improved the durability of my shed floor and it looks great too. No need for the expensive epoxy since its wood and will gladly bind to the cheap stuff.