6528 Heather Brook Ct, McLean, VA 22101

Spring is in the air at 6528 Heather Brook Ct. in Fairfax

2010-04-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

My name is Patrick Colliton and my home is in Fairfax at 6528 Heather Brook Ct., McLean, VA 22101. I am back to brag about my wife’s incredible green thumb and show off our house with some spring pictures.

Now that we are already in Daylight Savings Time and the sun is beginning to feel warmer and warmer each day, my wife cannot get outside to her gardens fast enough. As these five photos show, even for April, my wife’s handy-work is already paying dividends with some early spring blooms. It never seems to get old to watch all of the flowers burst through the ground and all of the glorious trees fill up with their new leaves to give us our quiet solitude and privacy in our back yard.

With each passing day as more of the gardens “spring” to life, the harshness of the past winter becomes more and more of a distant memory. Our home has now been on the market for almost two months and while we have had lots of activity, we have yet to see a serious offer. It is our thought that as the spring house buying season heats up, our home will finally be showing itself at its best.

My next blog will continue to show spring pictures as the flowers and plants burst on the scene.. This is Pat Colliton signing off from his glorious home at 6528 Heather Brook, McLean, which is in Fairfax, Virginia.

Spring Preparation at 6528 Heather Brook Ct.

2010-04-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

My name is Patrick Colliton and my home is in Fairfax at 6528 Heather Brook Ct., McLean, VA 22101. I am back to talk to you about spring preparation for our yard and my wife’s glorious gardens. After a monstrous winter that gave us more snow than any in the last 100 years, spring preparation took on an added dimension.

Our twelve boxwoods that surround our front door and walkway took an unusually harsh beating. Besides the three feet of snow that Mother Nature provided, they were also covered with an additional two feet from the walkway as we dug ourselves out of the February Blizzard. The short version is our boxwoods were covered in snow and ice for well over a month. Besides completely losing their “box” shape, they also got infected with “talking” little critters. They sounded like the fizz in a carbonated drink as they come out of their eggs and started to eat the leaves. Fortunately neither issue was fatal, and with a good spraying and some flexible bush wire, they all seem to be bouncing back nicely.

The same could not be said for our pine tree at the corner of our sunroom. The weight of the snow virtually split the tree in half and the lower branches ended up covering one complete side of the sunroom windows. The tree itself had grown so much over the last eight years that it was now resting on our roof, which is never a good thing. After taking down the tree I was able to move three cherry laurels to the corner of the house and we ended up very pleased with the outcome.

My wife does a lot of spring planting and prefers to have our gardens mulched in mid-June. In order to appease our Real Estate agents we agreed to have a very thin (less than 1 inch) layer of mulch spread in our gardens. Still, we ended up using 18 cubic yards of mulch to cover all of the gardens on our 1.25 acre lot.

My next blog will show some spring pictures as the flowers and plants start to bloom. This is Pat Colliton signing off from his glorious home at 6528 Heather Brook, McLean, which is in Fairfax, Virginia.

Patrick Colliton's Home at 6528 Heather Brook Ct.

2010-03-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

My name is Patrick Colliton and my home is in Fairfax at 6528 Heather Brook Ct., McLean, VA 22101. I would like to continue discussing the renovations that took place to our home back in 2005. The total renovation was very extensive and took almost eight months to complete. The award winning firm, Bowa Builders orchestrated the renovations and we could not have been happier with the finished product.

We had work done on all three floors and we have already talked about the second floor and the work done on the main floor. Today I want to tell you about the lower level and how well we utilized the 2,000 square feet of living area.

The walk out lower level now has two French doors that open to a sparkling patio and professional gardens. There is also a spacious bedroom complimented by a full bath and an oversized laundry room with custom cabinetry and Italian tile flooring. Tucked away in the back is a convenient storage area with sturdy shelving throughout for the ultimate use of space.

The recreation room includes wall to wall carpeting and three separate built-in custom book cases and cabinets. The large room also includes a gaming area and is finished off with a media center that includes a JBL surround sound system that is perfect for watching the latest movie or just entertaining close friends.

As I have said repeatedly, we have truly loved our time at 6528 Heather Brook Ct, McLean which is located in Fairfax, Virginia. My next blog will talk about the most recent improvements as we recover from an incredibly harsh winter and get the beautiful gardens ready for spring plantings.

Pat Colliton's Chef's Kitchen in Fairfax, VA

2010-03-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

My name is Patrick Colliton and my home is in Fairfax at 6528 Heather Brook Ct., McLean, VA 22101. I am back to continue my talk about the fabulous renovations we did to our home in 2005. We have finished discussing the upper floor and we will now move to the main floor or more specifically, the kitchen area and family room.

This was actually our second try at remodeling our kitchen as we redid our kitchen in our previous home. The second time around is a lot easier as you now know what works and what doesn’t and you are more sure of what you like and don’t like. As I mentioned in my previous blog, we used the award winning Bowa Builders for our renovation and their work is truly outstanding.

The redesigned kitchen has expanded rear windows to bring in a flood of light as well as beautiful views of the property. The expansive gourmet kitchen has granite counter tops, a large center island with seating as well as a Thermador gas cooktop. This could only be considered a chef’s kitchen with Woodmode cabinetry, Thermador appliances, and the largest Sub-zero refrigerator on the market. Add to that a very open Breakfast area and you have a perfect kitchen for both family and entertaining.

A spacious family room with marble hearth gas fireplace, vaulted ceilings, skylights and French doors gives way to way to the expanded deck overlooking the private and professionally landscaped gardens. When you add in the completely refurbished gazebo you have now created a perfect setting for outdoor entertaining.

As I have said repeatedly, we have truly loved our time at 6528 Heather Brook Ct, McLean which is located in Fairfax, Virginia. My next blog will finish with the interior improvements when we talk about the lower level of the house, including my favorite, the media center.

Interior Improvements to 6528 Heather Brook Ct Fairfax

2010-03-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

My name is Patrick Colliton and my home is in Fairfax at 6528 Heather Brook Ct., McLean, VA 22101. I am back to tell you about the fabulous renovations we did to our home in 2005. First of all we used the award winning contractor named Bowa Builders. The renovation took approximately nine months and included exterior work which I mentioned in my earlier blog, and interior work on all three floors. I am proud to say that our family decided to stay in the house during these renovations and this proved to be quite an adventure.

The first step of any renovation is the demolition. Since we completely redid our kitchen and master bath, they completely removed our old kitchen (appliances and all) and master bath. All this was done in the first week of our renovation.
I will start with the improvements we made to the top floor of our home. After adding ceiling fans and lights to all of the bedrooms, we redid all of the hardwood floors.

Then we added to the master suite a his/her walk-in closet area that included built in cabinets and shelves. Finally we added a master bath with Wood-Mode custom cabinetry, two separate sinks with granite counters and a custom shower designed with Italian tiles.

We have truly loved our time at 6528 Heather Brook Ct, McLean, VA 22101. My next blog will continue with the interior improvements this time on the main level of the house, including our “to die for” kitchen.

Pat Colliton's home at 6528 Heather Brook Ct. McLean, VA

2010-02-25T12:34:00.000-08:00

My name is Patrick Colliton and my address is still 6528 Heather Brook Ct., McLean, VA 22101. In my last blog I believe that we clearly established that our lot is the nicest 1+ acre lot inside the beltway.

There are a couple of exterior items that I missed in my last blog. They first is the sprinkler system with an amazing 12 zones. This allows the professional gardens and landscape to thrive even during the hottest days of the summer. The other point on the exterior that is worth mentioning is the fabulous job Outdoor Illuminations did with the exterior lighting. Not only does the property maintain its warmth at night but it is also a very comfortable safety feature.

We have enjoyed our home tremendously over these past eight years and part of the reason is the major renovation we did with Bowa Builders in 2005.

I will again start with the exterior improvements and I know it sounds like a tease but I do promise to describe the interior improvements soon enough.

We started by replacing the cedar shake roof with a black asphalt shingle roof. We did this to both the main house and the gazebo. The black roof gives our colonial style home just the right amount of stateliness while still maintaining its warmth. We also replaced the aluminum siding from the rear of the house with the very durable hardy-plank siding.

Next we renovated the gazebo by re-screening the entire exterior and putting a gorgeous ceiling fan and light in to allow us to entertain at night. We also extended the rear deck and built a second set of stairs that lead down to the gardens.

Finally we had Land Art create a fabulous setting by adding a forty foot curved stone wall to the front yard and several sets of stone and slate steps to make it easier to enjoy all of the gardens.

We have truly loved our time at 6528 Heather Brook Ct, McLean, VA 22101. My next blog will finally get to the interior improvements of the house that we have added.

6528 Heather Brook Ct. McLean, VA 22101

2010-02-22T18:50:00.000-08:00

My name is Patrick Colliton and my current address is 6528 Heather Brook Ct., McLean, VA 22101. I have called this my home for the last eight years. While the Langley Oaks subdivision has always been considered
popular because of its location and school districts, clearly our custom home and lot are what makes this address so special.
We are located on two spectacular lots that cover 1.25 acres and overlook the George Washington Park that will never be developed. The front entrance has a long circular driveway as well as professional gardens that are accented by a forty foot stone wall which curves through the center island. We have seen our magnolia tree grow from a tiny twelve footer to close to forty feet in just seven years.
Our back yard is fenced in the front with cedar while the back three sides are nine foot black chain link. We had it installed in 2004. We also renovated our detached gazebo in 2005 adding a new roof, ceiling fan and light. We have had countless meals out here enjoying the view and sounds of nature. We also renovated the deck in 2005 with a new second stairway to the back yard and deck extension.
We have truly loved our time at 6528 Heather Brook Ct, McLean, VA 22101. My next blog will detail the interior of the house and all of the love and improvements that we have added.