But after seeing an indication in 1998 asserting the development of the Wildwood Estates improvement, they determined to take an opportunity on Maryland, shifting in 1999 to their customized-constructed dream house: 5 bedrooms and 5½ bogs over 4 ranges, a contemporary flooring plan and plenty of mild.
As it seems, Sheryl mentioned, the compromise was good.
“It’s a perfect location, because you’re close to downtown Bethesda,” she mentioned. “You’re at the Beltway, so you can jump on and get on over to Tysons [Corner] quickly, if you want to do that. We’ve got a Metro stop close by. … It’s very convenient.”
Satisfaction runs deep in Wildwood, the place a lot of the neighborhood’s 44 properties nonetheless belong to the unique house owners. Despite its location inside three main arteries — Interstate 270 to the north, Old Georgetown Road to the west, I-495 to the south — the neighborhood has a tucked-away really feel, its loop of roads tree-lined and quiet.
The properties of Wildwood Estates, spacious contemporaries and Colonials with a lot of brick and stonework, are conspicuously taller and newer than the capes and bungalows simply outdoors the event. But though the homes are stately, they stand shut sufficient collectively to create a real group feeling.
Sandy MacCracken, one other founding resident who moved from Chevy Chase along with her husband, Michael, mentioned she and her neighbors forgo yard fences in favor of an open, communal inexperienced house that that they had co-designed by the identical landscaper.
“It looks like our own little park,” she mentioned, “and we just walk back and forth in between backyards all the time.”
As the owners have aged in place, the neighborhood has modified, too. When lots of MacCracken’s neighbors had younger kids, they used to fulfill up within the yard for wine and cheese within the afternoon and watch the kids play. Now, these youngsters have began households of their very own, however the neighbors nonetheless discover alternatives to collect. MacCracken mentioned that she loves giving out home made cookies on Halloween and that she has heat reminiscences of snowstorms that grew to become advert hoc road events.
“It’s the best time, because everybody’s out shoveling, so we all chat and have hot chocolate, and I bake cookies,” she mentioned.
One well-liked neighborhood occasion is the picnic thrown by the Wildwood Estates Homeowners Association. The occasion was featured one yr in an NBC4 Washington native TV news section that is still some extent of delight for the group.
Michael Villa, president of the affiliation, mentioned annual charges are $1,200. Tree administration tends to be the most important problem, he mentioned; final yr, a storm blew down a number of, and the HOA needed to exchange them. MacCracken additionally talked about a hailstorm that hit the neighborhood about three years in the past, leading to substantial roof injury. The HOA helped residents to coordinate a palette of colours for alternative roofs as insurance coverage corporations performed repairs.
“You’re doing it because you want to help the community, and so it’s been a pleasure,” Villa mentioned. “I don’t know if I know more people here than anybody else, but I might.”
Another favourite facet of the neighborhood for Villa is its proximity to 2 buying facilities that even have eating choices. The Shops at Wildwood contains a Balducci’s grocery retailer, a gourmand ice cream store and a excessive-depth exercise gymnasium; throughout Old Georgetown Road is the Georgetown Square buying heart with a DSW shoe retailer and Not Your Average Joe’s restaurant.
“It’s really, really high on convenience,” he mentioned.
Linda Lizzio, an actual property agent with Long & Foster who has additionally lived in Wildwood Estates because the improvement started, mentioned the neighborhood sees little or no turnover.
“They say the average time you live in a home is about seven years,” she mentioned. “That’s not the case here. People don’t want to give up that walkability, I think.”
Two properties within the neighborhood have offered because the begin of 2021, she mentioned: A 5-bed room, 5-toilet Colonial with three ranges went for $1.6 million, and a 4-bed room, 3½-toilet Georgetown mannequin offered for $1.325 million. Both acquired a number of presents and offered inside 5 days, she mentioned. There are not any properties available on the market.
Lizzio mentioned a favourite function of hers is the younger blooming timber that develop in abundance.
“You see a lot of neighborhoods focused on cherry-blossom time. But our neighborhood is lined with Kwanzan cherry trees, a really beautiful show of pink blossoms,” she mentioned. “And so we don’t even have to drive over to Kenwood or downtown to see it, because we have it here.”
For Sheryl Wilbon, what started as a marital compromise has become a eternally house.
“As long as we are able to go up and down stairs,” she mentioned, she plans to remain at Wildwood Estates. “I think we are a really great neighborhood.”
Boundaries: Wildwood Estates’ 44 properties are enclosed by Aubinoe Farm Drive to the north, Farnham Drive to the east, Yorkshire Terrace to the south and Berkshire Drive to the west.
Schools: Ashburton Elementary School, North Bethesda Middle School and Walter Johnson High School.
Transit: The 6, 26 and 96 Ride On buses cease simply outdoors the neighborhood, at Rock Spring Drive and Old Georgetown Road; the Red Line’s Grosvenor-Strathmore cease is about two miles east of neighborhood boundaries.