Fredericksburg. Close to I-95, lots of horse shows. Close to hunt country.
The farm next to me is for sale. It was the old kennels for ODH (until the 1950s.) It is big (40 acres) but I’m itching to do a boundary adjustment and get some more land for myself so I’m looking at various options. It is overpriced and needs work (house, fencing) but is liveable and lovely and lots of potential.
Google Old Kennels, Flint Hill, Virginia, real estate and take a look.
I’d vote for Warrenton for the commute, Culpeper for the prices. For hunts, I think Thornton Hill would be right up your alley, including the bear!!
Warrenton to me is the perfect town - a bit of the small town feel, but still not too “countrified” for my taste. Warrenton is more a bedroom community for the NO/Va, Washington DC area, but more friendly, and personable. Culpeper is more of truly a country feel, and I tend to feel out of place there, having grown up within a mile of Tyson’s Corner.
When I lived in Orange, I felt like I had gone back in time about 30-40 years. The feel of the place is so different. In Orange/Gordonsville, about 90% of the people smoked, like 40 years ago, and the education level was way down. Just past Orange, you begin to get into the Charlottesville area, and more of a Middleburg feel. Just north of Warrenton, here in Haymarket, it is probably less than 10% smoking, and almost all have 4 year degrees, often with much more. That is just one basic feel of the difference in places that are fairly close.
Just chiming in to say that before you do anything I’d consider the commute issue thoroughly. It really makes or breaks living here and people are obsessed with it for a reason (I didn’t quite understand it until I’d lived it a few years and realized how it really wears one down).
I live 50 miles from my office (in VA and work in MD) and depending on the time of day its either a 50 minute or 3 hr each way commute. It all depends on timing and whether you’ll have to be at an office at a certain time or whether you have flexibility and can tolerate the leaving very early in the am (before 6 am) and returning before the high occupancy vehicle lanes start back up (before 3:30).
Also my office says its flexible but in reality, I can’t do my job within the “core hours” because people always schedule meetings outside the core hours so there’s many days when my 50 minute commute gets blown to hell and my workday length ends up extending way past what I planned.
I’ll second whomever said Route 66 is a parking lot. I would never live on that road if I had to commute into town. (By town I mean going towards Fairfax from points further out). Forget going into DC-you have to have 2 people in the car to go into DC (inside the beltway) on 66 during rush hour.
It sounds like you’re in sales. If you’ll be gone a lot, factor in the cost of a “barnsitter”, at least $20.00 per visit.
JMHO!
Culpeper County has the cheapest land/farm/boarding prices. Fauquier is very expensive and forget Loudoun county entirely. Bull Run Hunt is terrific and has the most territory of all the NoVa. hunts. Look for places along feeder roads to I95. Like route 3 to Fredericksburg. All the big name hunts in this area are running out of land to hunt because of development.
WG is right about current prices in Culpeper. However, we avoided Culper County because basically the county has been rezoned for growth. While there is not much happening now, when real estate kicks back in, taxes will skyrocket in Culpeper.
Bull Run is a terrific hunt. I think Greg Schwartz is an excellent huntsman. However, territory is not defined by size alone. I’d rather hunt ODH’s, Rappahannock’s, Thornton Hill’s or Keswick’s territory. ODH (fixtures in Rapp County) as well as Rappahannock and Thornton Hill have pretty well protected territory because of the local zoning ordinances.
So Gypsie its been a week or so whats the word??
I am in Western Loudoun County and it is an ideal location if you have to go to MD/ Baltimore frequently. I am 3 miles from the MD border and just under an hour to Baltimore. I personally would not want to be based in Warrenton if you have to go to Baltimore frequently, but I guess it depends how often you will need to go.
If you go just beyond what most would consider an easy commute to DC (i.e. more than an hour by car), you will get better values, generally.
