THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 11, 1995 TAG: 9502090313
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAIGE FLEMING, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
It's a pleasant Sunday kind of neighborhood. On warm afternoons, neighbors and children fill the street. Youngsters roller blade and grown-ups visit. Babies are strollered and dogs bark.
And on cold winter days, icy winds push ripples across the lake as sea gulls and ducks huddle around the grassy edge.
But whatever the weather, life in Christopher Farms is warm and inviting say residents.
Christopher Farms can be found between Holland and Princess Anne roads in deep, rural Virginia Beach but only 10 minutes from Lynnhaven Mall if the traffic signals are cooperative. The neighborhood sits on a parcel of land that was once a large farm.
The entrance off Holland Road still boasts a few large trees but most of the neighborhood is adorned with smaller younger trees. And many of the three, four and five bedrooms homes encircle Retention Lake, one of the nicer amenities of the subdivision.
Hank and Eleanor Born have lived on Hen House Drive for more than five years and were one of the first to move into Christopher Farms.
``The builders had three models to choose from but they also had blueprints of other floor plans,'' explains Eleanor Born. ``We picked one of the models. but otherwise we left it as it was.''
The Borns' 2,200 square-foot, one-story, three-bedroom, two bath home is in the oldest and most heavily treed part of the neighborhood. The homes are arranged at angles to each other.
``The placement of the homes works out great,'' says Eleanor Born. ``It takes the regimentation away. This way the homes sit at angles and they don't look like soldiers lined along the road. And everyone has a nice view.''
Born says she and her husband were lured to this subdivision because of its country feel. ``We really love it in here, she says. ``It's quiet, nice community. No problems.''
Sandra Salopeck, a neighbor, agrees. ``Our back deck is quiet and private,'' she says, ``enough for us to enjoy our hot tub; yet, people are close by.''
The Salopecks say they have lived all over the world and this is one of the nicest places of all. ``My husband's retired military,'' Sandra Salopeck says. ``We've lived many places but we absolutely adore this neighborhood.''
Applauding the builder, the Salopecks say they enjoy all the ``little extras'' in their one-story, three-bedroom, two-bath colonial home.
``We're minutes from the city of Virginia Beach's Municipal Center. Ten minutes from Lynnhaven Mall and the beach area. It's so convenient but it's country living, too, without the traffic problems,'' says Salopeck.
Both couples agree that the cross-section of people is one of the community's best assets. ``There are retired military and young married couples and growing families. We all get along with each other,'' says Sandra Salopeck.
``The only trouble is we sometimes lose our neighbors when they move,'' adds Eleanor Born.
Christopher Farms is a neat well-groomed place and that's not by accident, says Hank Born, head of the committee that enforces the architectural covenant for the homeowners association.
``We want people to keep up their property. We have strict codes about fences, exteriors and yards. Most people are happy to comply because they know it keeps up property values as well.''
Perhaps the best recommendation anyone can give a neighborhood is to encourage family members to move in.
``My daughter likes this community so much, she and her husband moved here about 2 1/2 years ago,'' says Sandra Salopeck. `` Now I'm right down the street from my 8-year-old granddaughter, Maggie. A neighbor of ours had some of their family move here from New York. This way everyone's together,'' says Sandra Salopeck. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Richard L. Dunston
Hank and Eleanor Born...
Christopher Farms...
Graphic with map
At a Glance
by CNB