NEWER, BIGGER, BETTER

The new house that we moved into in the summer of 1962 was at 6308 Columbia Pike in the Lake Barcroft area of Fairfax county, Virginia.  Lake Barcroft was a large man-made lake surrounded by homes.  The people with a lot of money had lakefront homes.  The further away your house was from the lake put you a little further down the scale of exclusiveness.  Columbia Pike was a main, multi-lane road that bordered the area.  Our house was on the Columbia Pike frontage road and still considered in the Lake Barcroft...but just barely.  The dam that formed the lake was also on Columbia Pike.  My father used to joke that we lived on the Dam road.

The new house... 48 years later.

My parents purchased the house while it was still under construction.  My mother must have had a great time picking out paint, carpet and other finishes.  The only input I had was the color of my bedroom.  I picked pink...a very bright pink.  When the paint was put on the walls, it was so bright that when viewed from the hallway, the room had a neon like glow.  The problem was solved by painting the wall that faced the hall white.  The other walls reflected on that wall and made it appear to be a pale pink.

The house was a rambler constructed from used brick.  That meant that there were several different colors of brick on the house - shades of red, brown, black, white, and off white. The driveway curved in front of the house, with two entrances from the street.  This house was probably close to my mother's dream house.  She finally had a house with an entrance hall and master bedroom bath. I know that she loved the kitchen with all its bells and whistles that included a dishwasher.  The house even had the latest technology.  A Nutone Hi-Fi Radio/Intercom system made it possible to have music through out the house.  The main unit was in the kitchen, with speakers in the bedrooms and at the front door.  However, I don't remember the system being used for anything other than a radio.

 When entering the home, you could walk straight ahead and, slightly to the right, to the living room, which was on the back of the house.  The entrance to the kitchen was on the right of the entry with the kitchen facing the street.  The formal dining room was next to the kitchen, also facing the street.  The dining room was also an "L" extension of the living room. The open stairs to the basement were directly opposite the front door.  A decorative railing provided the necessary barrier between the living room and stairs.

The hallway to the bedrooms was on the left at the end of the entry.  The main bathroom was on the left side, with my parents room at the end of the hall on the left.  The glowing pink bedroom was at the end on the right.  My brother's room opened to the hall on right.  The bedrooms and bath were bigger than in the previous house.  All the bedrooms had large closets as well. Both of the kids rooms had large windows that faced the backyard.

In the living room, there were sliding glass doors that opened to a deck that ran the entire length of the back of the house.  I don't think we spent much time out there and I don't remember if there was ever any outdoor furniture on the deck.

Downstairs there were two large finished rooms and a bathroom.  The room on the right at the bottom of the stairs was the recreation room.  There was an area in that room that was designated as a wet bar in the original design of the house.  But since, there would be no need for a wet bar in our family, my parents made changes to the plans by putting bookshelves at either end of the area and a built in bench against the wall between the bookcases. The room on the left side of the stairs was quite big and was more or less the guest room. The laundry room was also downstairs.

The lot that the house was on sloped from the front yard down to the back yard.  The basement was thus a walk-out through sliding glass doors from the recreation room.  There was a patio outside the sliding glass doors.  But  I don't think it was used for much.

It was a lovely home. Especially after my mother put all her finishing touches on it.  She made all the window coverings for the home.  There were floor length drapes in the living room, dining room, and the downstairs recreation room.  She made cafe curtains for the kitchen, my bedroom and my brother's bedroom.  Fabric Roman shades were made for the bathroom windows and the master bedroom windows.  There were no venetian blinds or roller shades on any of the windows.  They were considered old fashioned at the time.

My parents lived in that house until the summer of 1968.  Even though my younger brother was still in high school, they  uprooted him.  But this time, it wasn't a move to a new house a few miles away. My father had retired from his long career with the Bureau of Public Roads and even though they hadn't lived in Utah for more than 40 years, they moved back.  Once a Utahn, always a Utahn, I guess.  Well, I understand that. Because if I'm asked where I'm from, I always say, "Northern Virginia" or "suburban Washington DC".  I haven't lived there for more than 40 years.

Note:  I found the above picture online in Google images when I was looking for pictures of Lake Barcroft.  The house is for sale.  There were a few interior pictures. The kitchen had been remodeled with an archway above the kitchen sink area into the living room.  It looked weird. There were hardwood floors as well.  The upstairs deck had been expanded off the living room. For $650,000, we could buy a former family home.