Green Acres Beckon, But Not For Long

"Carolyn and Paul Brubaker's million-dollar home, with its five bedrooms, wraparound deck and stone fireplaces, was so gorgeous that it was featured on the cover of a real estate magazine. Its 7,400 square feet was five times the size of their former Old Town Alexandria townhouse... It was everything the city wasn't and exactly what they wanted. But it turned out to be nothing like what they had imagined. 'Within three months, we both knew we had to move,' Carolyn Brubaker said. 'Within five months, we had sold the house.' The Brubakers are part of a mini-migration of families who have headed west to the huge lots and enormous houses that are a byproduct of policies in Prince William and Loudoun counties designed to preserve rural areas and protect open space... The Brubakers -- instead of finding peace and quiet -- found themselves ill-equipped to manage or afford the rural life."

Thanks to Richard Layman, C. P. Zilliacus & David Stauffer