Meet the Manassas ‘Golden Girls’

By Josh Eiserike

Published: August 24, 2008

The builder was first and the name stuck. Four single, older women were customizing a new home in Manassas where they'd live as roommates. To the builder, it was obvious. They were "The Golden Girls," like the characters from the popular television sitcom.

The 1985-1992 TV series portrayed the experiences of four previously-married women living together in Miami.

"I'm Sophia," Frances Costanzo, 72 said, referencing the wise-cracking eldest Golden Girl who moved in with daughter Dorothy and roommates Rose and Blanche.

"And I would be Dorothy," said daughter Cindy Diaz, 52.

It's not clear which of the women would be ditzy Rose or boy-crazy Blanche, but real life rarely follows a script. To continue with the analogy, their show would be ending after about two years in their large Manassas house. Margie Thorpe, 56, remarried and moved out earlier this summer; Diane Anthanas, 61, was forced into early retirement.

Still, it was a pretty unique circumstance to begin with, four older women living together.

"This is pretty rare," said listing agent and Golden Girls friend Cheryl Heywood. "I've never seen this before in my career in real estate."

Living together made sense from a financial and security standpoint. Plus, they'd been great friends for the last couple decades.

Cindy and Margie met in the early 1980s as neighbors in Dale City. They babysat each other's children. Through Cindy, Margie got to know her mother, Frances.

"We just continued our friendship through children and then I got divorced," Margie said.

Margie met Diane in a group called Parents Without Partners in the early 1990s.

"Cindy said sometimes she was jealous she wasn't single when Margie was in PWP because we had so much fun," Diane said.

Cindy separated from her husband in 2000. A few years later the women started talking about living together, maybe when they all retired.

"The idea was someday we were going to have a house at the beach and then all live together," Diane said.

But, Frances remembers that someone said to her "why wait?" The thought was at her age, she might not be around when the other women retire.

"The next thing I knew, we started looking at property together," Frances said.

The women knew what they wanted—four bedrooms with four bathrooms and walk-in closets. They worked with a builder to customize the house to meet their needs. There wasn't even an argument over who got the master bedroom.

"Frances says she thinks she's going to get the master bedroom because she's going to die first," Diane said.

The women laugh.

"I thought that was easy, I thought I was going to get in an argument," Frances said.

They moved into the house in February 2006.

The house has a large deck, a screened-in porch, a basement recreation room (itself a self-contained unit with kitchen and bedroom), as well as multiple common areas.

"It's great for entertaining," Diane said. The house is big enough for three extended families to celebrate Christmas in their own space.

The best part of living together is sharing meals and responsibilities.

"When you're sharing everything with everyone else, it's not really a chore anymore," Margie said.

Even for Cindy, who hasn't lived with her mother since the mid 1970s, it's been fine.

"Mom has become my best friend," said Cindy, a FAA analyist. "We're really close.

But, there aren't any perks like Mom making her lunch or bed.

"I don't do laundry and I don't cook meals," Frances said. "I did the lawn work."

That suits everyone fine.

"Frances has more energy than the other three put together," Heywood said.

Margie moved out last summer, but not without one final party. She celebrated her wedding, com-plete with a Hawaiian band, at the house. In the past year she's still made her payments and visits to play canasta.

Now, Cindy and Frances are looking for their own place. Diane, who was forced to retire from her cartography job last year, shortly after she signed the contract on the house, was worried at first, but has been able to make housing payments. She plans on moving to Surf City, N.C., near her brothers.

"We all wanted to live near the ocean someday, so I'll be the first to do it," Diane said.

She hopes the other Golden Girls come visit her.

Staff writer Josh Eiserike can be reached at 703-878-8072.

ABOUT THAT HOUSE

What's up: The Golden Girls' home is on the market

Price: $949,900

Stats: 5114 square feet

Info: Check it out from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sept. 7. Call Cheryl Heywood with Long and Foster Real Estate for details, 703-403-6898.