Wwyd housing

[morecoffeeplease]

Mar 21, 2016 12:24:47 GMT -5 Stan said:

Option one.

I thought you'd vote that. :-)

That is where I'm leaning. I also think we could make up the difference in money by saving using the commissary and having access to medical (if we live off base they can assign us to so many places and in traffic, it could cost a lot in time and gas) and access to the events on base. Not to mention being close to the zoo and other free DC activities for the weekends.

I just wonder if I underestimate living in drab base housing for 3 years. I really don't think I will care. The pictures are decent but it's obviously super plain. But I guess there is a reason people don't pick the older places and its making me question why it sounds like such a good choice in my mind!

[ggirl]

My only concern for one would be lack of garage? Would you be able to have room for storage and outdoor stuff for the kiddos with no garage?

[morecoffeeplease]

Mar 21, 2016 13:31:40 GMT -5 ggirl said:

My only concern for one would be lack of garage? Would you be able to have room for storage and outdoor stuff for the kiddos with no garage?

If we had a garage, we would definitely use it for the car and not storage. My in-laws live in the area so all of our extra stuff (even holiday stuff) will go to their house. I also think all of our kids outdoor toys would go there too because we would have a play ground on our street. We would keep D's bike and maybe something for M but there is a big laundry room right inside the front door.

[morecoffeeplease]

I should add that a garage is a huge plus because DH's hours are early so it would be nice for not digging out the car but I'm not worried about storage.

[ggirl]

Mar 21, 2016 13:41:53 GMT -5 morecoffeeplease said:

I should add that a garage is a huge plus because DH's hours are early so it would be nice for not digging out the car but I'm not worried about storage.

Lol if I had to go to work I would push for the garage. But I hate brushing snow off my car with a fire of a thousand suns. Which is why we did not move back to buffalo lol

[morecoffeeplease]

Mar 21, 2016 14:49:22 GMT -5 ggirl said:

Mar 21, 2016 13:41:53 GMT -5 morecoffeeplease said:

I should add that a garage is a huge plus because DH's hours are early so it would be nice for not digging out the car but I'm not worried about storage.

Lol if I had to go to work I would push for the garage. But I hate brushing snow off my car with a fire of a thousand suns. Which is why we did not move back to buffalo lol

Does a carport count?! ;-)

[Deleted]

Option one. Money makes me happy and not having to worry about utilities is amazing. Option three is terrible. LOL. Says the girl who nixed all possible apartments that were not within a 15 min commute of work. My time is worth a lot to me.
I've lived in pretty run down places and you get blind to stuff eventually. I look back to some pictures and completely forgot what an ugly ass kitchen my first apartment had.

[morecoffeeplease]

Mar 21, 2016 17:08:40 GMT -5 @lemonlover said:

Option one. Money makes me happy and not having to worry about utilities is amazing. Option three is terrible. LOL. Says the girl who nixed all possible apartments that were not within a 15 min commute of work. My time is worth a lot to me.
I've lived in pretty run down places and you get blind to stuff eventually. I look back to some pictures and completely forgot what an ugly ass kitchen my first apartment had.

Thanks for your input! I really truly don't think I care about things like the size of the kitchen or how nice the cabinets are. I really like that the older housing is larger and that we'd get money back.

I lean most toward base because this is the three years we have with my H that he is home no matter what. For the past four years he has been gone 6 months out of each year. So even though an hour and a half after work to commute home doesn't seem like much, I don't want to waste that time when he could be with us.

[Aquatica]

Meant to reply earlier but got distracted.

I'd go with optional 1. At H's first duty station we tried living off post but now that we switched, I don't think I'll do it again. H is able to come home for lunch, get more sleep, we have more time together because of the lack of commute, and more square footage/yard. I do love in older housing (the red brick) and while they do look crappy, I started slowly decorating.

Not sure what yours looks like, but I have cinder block walls on both sides (middle unit), and have used fabric (not expensive) to decorate for an accent wall (just use staples on the trim/baseboards).

Also, something to look into is if you get money back on utilities. Where I'm at, if we use under the allotted amount our account is credited. When we hit $15 in credit they cut a check. I usually get one every other month (heat is 73 and in the summer house is 69).

Wishing you the best on your move, and if in 6 months you don't like it you can check out other housing options.

[morecoffeeplease]

Thanks Aquatica

I think I would be bummed about hanging stuff up if we had block walls but that would also mean thicker walls, lol! I have a loud one year old so I do worry about sharing walls but we would have to share no matter if we lived off or on base. I highly highly doubt we could afford a single family, unless we went so far out that it'd be a two hour commute each way. No thanks.

[ggirl]

Mar 21, 2016 16:37:32 GMT -5 morecoffeeplease said:

Mar 21, 2016 14:49:22 GMT -5 ggirl said:

Lol if I had to go to work I would push for the garage. But I hate brushing snow off my car with a fire of a thousand suns. Which is why we did not move back to buffalo lol

Does a carport count?! ;-)

Nope lol. My conditions for moving back north are a house a with a heated garage and a job with a heated parking garage lol. Aka. Something that will never happen haha

[dcn]

I missed the original post but I will just say, for me, with small children it is worth living on base. You do not want your husband's day extended by 2-3 hours for a commute, no matter how awesome the house is. I really value him being home and having family time as much as possible. I'm willing to sacrifice having a nicer house for that for the time being.

Not having a garage is kind of a pain (we don't have one here) but as long as there is other storage you will get by.

We always lived off post and moved on when we had ds1 and I really like it. Communities on base are set up for kids and families and it is so convenient.

[morecoffeeplease]

Mar 22, 2016 8:44:05 GMT -5 dcn said:

I missed the original post but I will just say, for me, with small children it is worth living on base. You do not want your husband's day extended by 2-3 hours for a commute, no matter how awesome the house is. I really value him being home and having family time as much as possible. I'm willing to sacrifice having a nicer house for that for the time being.

Not having a garage is kind of a pain (we don't have one here) but as long as there is other storage you will get by.

We always lived off post and moved on when we had ds1 and I really like it. Communities on base are set up for kids and families and it is so convenient.

Thank you for your input! The gist is that we could live on base in older housing and pocket some money, live off base and pocket more money but have a longer commute, or live in newer housing and pocket no money.

Right now I'm leaning older housing and then newer housing. The community rep sent me pictures today and both are decent with newer obviously being nicer.