Site Visit: Member Tours Virginia’s Cascades at Embrey Mill

By Anonymous

One of our long time Members and his wife visited Embrey Mill recently. We thank him for sharing his observations on the visit!

May 1, 2023 — We’ve been in our present home for about 20 years and have been considering downsizing for a while.  We live in a gated golf community but don’t play golf (I’d guess that 40% don’t, but end up subsidizing the club to maintain home values – IMHO).  Recently, my best man’s wife, widowed about 2 years ago, sold their home in St. James Plantation and bought a 3 bedroom villa end unit on that campus. My wife was intrigued by the floorplan when we visited, not to mention the minimal exterior maintenance. With that inspiration, we went to Embrey Mill to check out Cascades 55+.

Embrey Mill is a huge, non-gated amenity rich community with everything you’d enjoy except golf. Embrey Mill is open to all ages, but we visited the Cascades at Embrey Mill, a 55+ section within it. The community is ideally located close to I-95 in Stafford County near everything you’d need. The amenities we saw were nicely laid out and well maintained. Most of the homes we saw were up-scale two level structures with shallow set-backs. We didn’t see much in the way of guest parking. The only downside is the traffic congestion on I-95 during rush hours, which has been exacerbated by ongoing highway construction in the area.

Our visit focused on the Cascades 55+ main level living villa, which seemed like a good solution to our quest. Here is a link to a video tour, which I recommend you see (it features the very unit we went through). Embrey Mill also has a selection of single family, town homes, and what they call elevator flats.

We toured the main level unit in the Cascades at Embrey Mill. Afterwards, our overall impression was that not all main level living villas are created equally.  What we saw we would actually consider a 3 level townhome with a somewhat narrow floor plan. The floor plan just won’t work for us.  The community also has densely populated (mostly two level) single family homes and elevator flats, neither of which attracted our interest. 

The floorplan is a front to back arrangement. We entered the residence through the garage. The front entry foyer was more like an oversized hallway. That leads to the narrow kitchen area. Cabinets were abundant but significantly unreachable. As you progress to the rear you transit through the dining area to the Great Room. At the rear of the Great Room is a small screened in porch, from which you can exit to a small deck.

From the Great Room, you can enter a reasonably good size master bedroom, a nice master bath along with two smallish walk-in closets. That’s the main level part of the floor plan. Notice, there is no office or second bedroom on the main level – not exactly what we’d consider main level living – Strike One.

‘Office space’, in the case of the model, was relegated to a built in desk unit (extra) on the loft level with two more bedrooms on that level. This unit was also built out with a spacious lower level – featured in the video. There are build out options in this space, including an additional bedroom. This floorplan arrangement may work for a lot of 55+ folks, but it’s not for us.

At the end of our self-guided tour we talked to the agent about HOA fees, which cover outside yard maintenance as well as amenity maintenance – no more lawn mower. HOA fees are $285/mo – split between HOA@ $193 and CDA @$92. CDA is a bit of a contentious area for me. The way I see it, it’s a way for the county and developer to pass off infrastructure development bond fees to homeowners over a 30 year period – Strike Two. CDA monthly fees will vary by the type of structure you acquire.

Bottom line:

After visiting though, the bottom line is that it’s unworkable for us. Coming from a 3000 + sq. ft. home in a club community on over an acre with a deep set-back, this would be a major adjustment, if not a shock to our lifestyle. These units are densely situated with somewhat shallow set-backs. The front facing garage is ‘oversized’ – big enough for a full sized pickup truck and a standard car. Strike Three – we have a three car garage so I can tinker. This would be an expected level of compromise for me. In any event, the CDA stuff would have nixed it.  Past all of this, the sales staff at Embrey Mill was very professional, and particularly transparent about the HOA/CDA arrangement.

We’re not sure where we’ll end up. Every time we go ‘outside’ to look at alternatives we realize we have a pretty good deal right now.  We know the answer will eventually come, but we just don’t know when.

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Thanks very much for taking the time to share your visit. Even if Embrey Mill didn’t pass muster for your needs, we’re betting you probably learned a lot that will help you in the quest to find your best place to retire.

Comments: Have you visited an active adult or 55+ community lately. It would be great if you could share your experiences with your fellow Topretirements Members – please add as a Comment or use the Contact Us page.

For further reading:
This is the Cascades at Embrey Mill website.

Virginia Active Community Directory