Moving this spring...advice/recs/help needed!
(I used to be a regular on this board but rarely post anymore. I appreciate you helping me out!) 
We have lived in our home in Falls Church (FFX County) for 6 years, and while we LOVE our neighborhood, our house is just too small for our growing family. We've decided to put it on the market in the spring, and just the thought of moving while pregnant, with two toddlers, and a dog, stresses me out. We want to continue to live inside the beltway, but are also considering Great Falls.
If you had to choose between Great Falls, McLean, Arlington, and Falls Church City, which would you choose, and why? I'd love to find a neighborhood like ours, with a lot of young families. We always have something to do, plan monthly moms' nights out, etc. I will miss it so much, but we want a better school district and a bigger house. Falls Church City would be ideal, but it's such a small area that the chance of a perfect house in our budget becoming available doesn't seem realistic. But who knows. Also, driving around McLean and Great Falls and seeing the large yards and slightly bigger homes is pretty appealing.
Budget is $950k. Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks! :-)
ETA: My almost 3 year old attends The Falls Church Day School two mornings a week, and we love it. I would hate to give that up if we moved farther away, and am worried about the wait lists for preschools in these other areas. Advice on preschool needed too!
On our way to 3 under 4!
DD1 1/22/09
DD2 7/16/10
Baby Boy Due This Summer!
Re: Moving this spring...advice/recs/help needed!
You should page Dawn on thenest, she's a realtor.
For me, it'd be a choice b/w Great Falls & McLean b/c I love those 2 areas and consider them to be safe, beautiful, upper-class but definitely suburban. I don't know much about FCC but if you want to be close to the metro and DC, I'd go with Arlington.
what about your commutes? are you SAH still?
GF and McL are both Farifax Co and so the schools are great. Now, I've never shopped around in that price range myself but I think in this market, you should be able to find a McMansion
in any of those areas. Personally, I'd go with a newer house b/c we are not the type of people who would do repairs, so no fixer-uppers for us, plus with 3 young children, you want something you can move into and start living right away.
I would also consider how many kids you plan to have in deciding how many BRs you must have (+a guest bedroom/offices/etc.)
Good luck with your decision, you really can't go wrong w/ any of your choices!
I have no advice, but I read "growing family" and went
... then I saw your ticker. Congrats!!!! 
I assume mums the word on FB?
Thanks everyone. My mom is in real estate and we will be working with her. I was more interested in getting opinions from fellow young moms in the area.
Sofka, DH will be working in Reston in the spring, and I SAH, so he'll be doing a reverse commute from any of these areas. One of the things we've thought about is that no matter where he works in the future (Reston, Tyson's, DC), we will be fairly close, so no horrible commutes. I will most likely go back to work as a teacher at some point, and can teach anywhere.
I'm just getting stressed thinking about selling our house (hopefully quickly!), and then having a limited amount of time to find our "forever home" and outbid anyone else going for it. I just want to fast forward 6 months and be done with it. :-)
Arlington and Falls Church have a lot of older homes, which tend to be limited in space but, in your budget, will likely be remodeled. You're right, to get a newer built home in Arlington and Falls Church is up there, but do-able...you just have to be patient and one will pop up. Sellers generally don't list their home from Thanksgiving - New Year's because the pool of buyers is smaller. It's a great time to get a deal on something that is already on the market, though!
You'll get more space for your money in Great Falls, but the tradeoff is that isn't as connected to transportation or interstates. As far as schools, they are some of the best in the country.
McLean may be the happy medium between Falls Church and Great Falls.
Move to my neighborhood in Arlington! I'm completely biased, but I think Arlington is the best :-)
There are actually a couple brand new, gorgeous houses in your price range and they are going to be building a few more :-) (here's one https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5642-8th-St-N-Arlington-VA-22205/12073552_zpid/) We are within walking distance of 3 fun playgrounds and 2 big parks (Bluemont and Bon Air) and the W&OD trail goes right by us.
It's about a 15-20 minute walk to Ballston, but it's still easy to get to Falls Church...just about all the moms I know in our neighborhood go to Nova Peds like we do. My mom friends who have school age kids, LOVE Ashlawn, the elementary school that our neighborhood goes to.
We have tons of young families in the neighborhood and have an awesome neighborhood block party each summer. When DH and I bought our house, we thought that we'd live here for 4-5 years and then move somewhere else, but we just love the neighborhood so much, I can't imagine moving anytime soon.
We are in a similar situation. We live in a smaller house in N. Arlington with a three yr old and a ten month old. My DH and I are constantly debating whether to move or remodel our current house- so I am constantly stalking redfin. We are reluctant to move because we LOVE N. Arlington. It is close to everything in DC. The schools are excellent. We are close to the metro and within walking distance to parks, restaurants, bike trails, schools,libraries, pools, etc. DH also travels to different work sites in VA, MD, and DC everyday and he does not feel like the commute is that bad. My daughter went to a preschool program in Falls Church City last year, and I felt like it did not take too long to go get her and pick her up. I would do it again. If you want to move into N. Arlinngton, I think you could concentrate your search on the neighborhoods along Lee Highway and Washington Blvd (Westover, Lacey Forest, Berkshire Oakwood, etc) I think that would give you access to the amenities of N. Arlington, easy commute options, and a quick route to Falls Church.
Realistically, for N. Arlington I don't think $950K would give you a new construction house with everything you might be looking for- new construction, largish yard, quiet street, close to parks, etc. But, I think it would get you a really nicely remodeled house- with updated kitchen and bathrooms and nice size bedrooms.
If you are going to sell your house first, I would aim to have it on the market mid March. The largest housing inventory seems to be in April. Hopefully you could sell your house first and then be ready to find your forever house in April. Good luck and congrats on your pregnancy.
P.S. As I said, we are contemplating a move similar to yours and I am a tad obsessed as you can tell by the rambling response.
So, we've pretty much removed Great Falls from our list since we really do like the walkability of a lot of the other areas, and it would be a huge change for us to suddenly be in the middle of the woods. We've added Vienna to our list (Madison pyramid only) at the urging of my mom, who went to high school there and convinced us it really is a great school. Being close to Maple Ave would be great for us, if we could find something we really liked in that area.
While we LOVE Lake Barcroft, we really aren't interested in Falls Church in Fairfax County, especially that close to Alexandria. It's just too far of a commute and outside of the circle/area in which we really want to live. I also do love the Del Ray area, but again, not even on our radar due to distance.
bh--I think we actually looked at the house you are referring to, and while the house itself looked awesome, that particular street was way too cramped and crowded. Obviously we won't get a huge yard in N Arlington, but those were just beyond what we'd be comfortable with as far as being squished next to other people. Your neighborhood itself sounds just like our current one, and I told DH we really should consider it. I like having first hand info from people we know! So maybe we'll be stalking your neighborhood in the coming months. ;-)
After discussing everything with my mom last night, looking at comps, etc, we've decided to have our kitchen remodeled, 1/2 bath turned into a full bath, sump pump installed in the basement, and entire house painted. We're also going to get a storage unit in January and start emptying our house to stage it. We hope to have all of this completed and the house on the market by March (she also said waiting until April would be a mistake). Hopefully it sells quickly and we can get into a new house in April or May. I am super stressed just thinking about everything we have to do, but we are ready to be out of here, so I guess we just have to start moving.
Also, DH is finishing up his CPA (already passed first two exams, is taking the third in two weeks, and planning the last for April), so I'm a little worried about his stress level. He insists he'll be fine and we just need to get out of our tiny house. "The five of us cannot sleep in that tiny upstairs together. We will never sleep!" is his favorite statement. ;-) Wish us luck, and keep the suggestions coming!
That would be a really tough decision. We absolutely love our current neighborhood, but the school system isn't great, so that made the decision easy for us. If we were in a better school district, we would probably build onto our current home and stay here forever. :-) Good luck with your decision!
I'm an old Nestie with a new name... not sure if you remember me, but I have a little dog named Raven.
I was going to say that Great Falls is a great neighborhood, but very suburban, not within walking distance of anything, and I don't think you'll get the same neighborly vibe there (not because people there aren't nice, but because everything is so spread out). But it looks like you've already ruled that out!
McLean is a nice area and has good schools. We looked at some houses there a few years ago when we were house hunting. Houses there tended to sit on much larger lots when compared to Arlington, so if you want a decent backyard, you may have an easier time finding something there. I don't know how easily you could walk to places, but it probably depends on the specific neighborhood. In general, I think it's less walkable than Arlington.
First of all--congratulations and good moving vibes! I have been through the moving process WAY too many times and it really is such a stressor (especially being preggo--I moved with a newborn once and another time when I was 7 months along), but it's all for the better, it sounds like, so hang in there:)
I would vote for Falls Church City...I would have loved to have moved there, but didn't quite have the budget to make that happen for what we wanted (we're in Fairfax). I think you'll be fine with the budget you have. There are a lot of older homes, but there are also some renovated options that are very nice I think the access to shopping, the metro and the W&OD trail makes the area very attractive. I would also recommend St. Joseph's Preschool--we sent DD#1 there for 3 years and loved it--it's all day and year round.
Regardless of what you choose, all of your options are good ones--good luck!
Wines, good to see you! I miss seeing your little furry guy in your sig. :-)