Saturday, March 31, 2012

Housing Update

   The house we looked at a few days ago is starting to bug me the more and more I think about it. The views were absolutely amazing but there are things that we hated too.  The road that it is on is very busy, 40mph so its kind of scary getting out of the driveway. Lets talk about the drive way... It is so small! There are 5 different apartment like units in this house (including hers) and they have this tiny tiny driveway. Parking would be a nightmare! (you have to call people to ask them to move) Having a few people over for a BBQ or to watch a football game would just not work. There is no storage what so ever in the place either. We have a lot of things from Mikes mother that we could just never throw away plus the things of Mike and his sisters childhood. Things that mothers save when the children are young that I would never even think of getting rid of. We came to the conclusion that we really need a garage. Nothing special...just somewhere where we could at least put Mikes toolbox and a few storage containers.  This place also use to be a bed and breakfast. She used it for that for about 10 years and just recently started to rent it long term.  I wanted to see if anyone wrote any reviews about their stay there and I found exactly what I expected. I had told Mike once we had left that I thought the lady was extremely nice and very friendly but I had a feeling that she would always be there. What I mean by "there" is she would always be knocking on our door, and that is what I found. The reviews talked about her coming into the people's unit when they were not there, or knocking on the door several times a day. (this was in about 7 different peoples reviews) I would be scared to death to ever leave because of Bolo. They also talk about her calling and telling them to be quite each time they were on the balcony, that they didn't even go out there anymore. (They might have been really loud though) She would also be very demanding about the air-conditioner, and that they weren't allowed to use it. Mike and I both grew-up without a air conditioner so that is not really a problem for us, but it is nice to have the option of turning it on. She also has a beautiful garden that I could tell she works very hard on. It pretty much takes up all of what would be grass. Being on such a busy road I think it would be very hard to find somewhere to take the pups to go potty. I wouldn't want myself or my dogs to get hit walking down this busy road with no sidewalk, nor would I want to ruin her garden. So we are deciding not to rent from this lady. (she will have no problem finding someone else though, there was a stack of applications when we went)
   I went to the housing office to do some paperwork yesterday and found out we are now bumped to #6 on the list to get base housing. The woman there made some really good points. Anything we find that is not on base will never live up to the housing on base because base housing is way newer and you get more for your money. All of the housing we were looking at was about $500 or more over our BAH, (plus utility's.) and it still wasn't right. So I talked to Mike and we came to the decision that we will now start looking for a month to month place. We both agree that there are some perks with living off base but its OK and we will make it work. Having 2 dogs is just making the whole experience of finding a house off, miserable.
    So before Mike and I came up with this conclusion I had already made another appointment with a gentleman to see another house. This house was a little over our price range but it was a single family home that I thought would have enough space. (Mike said it would be OK if I really loved it)  I was in contact with him a few times because every time we would set up a time for me to view it, it ended up not being good for him and he would residual. I should have known better. I finally found the house (it was in the back of another house on top of the mountain) Once again, beautiful views but he never showed up for me even to see inside. I waited for about 20 min and decided to say screw it and we weren't suppose to live there, so I left. I guess he didn't want to rent his house out that bad.
   So now my search will go on trying to find a vacation rental or something along those lines that would be willing to do month to month and allow to very cute puppy's.

6 comments:

  1. Good luck! Finding a house was an uphill battle for us as well, though I am very glad that we waited and ended up living on base here...my dog loves it, he's welcomed here and has his own yard, and we don't have to pay anything additional out of pocket. Works for me! Hopefully you guys will either get an offer or else find something soon.

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    1. I'm jealous you have a house!!! I think it will be worth the wait for us too. Till then, umm I donno yet... :)

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  2. I'm so sorry this whole process has been such a pain in the butt for you guys! I seriously can't believe you went from four to six. Why did they bump you? And how much longer do you have TLA?

    My offer still stands though if you guys want to stay at our place, even just to save one month's worth of rent money. I don't mind more doggies (we have to let yours and mine meet anyways!) and we have a relatively large backyard for military housing. Just something to think about. We had people offer for us to stay with them if housing didn't work out when we first got here, and it was so nice to know that someone had our backs.

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    1. Thanks so much! We were going to see if we could find a month to month, even if its far away. Its nice to know tho that your offer is on the table. Thank You :) We have till April 28 on TLA. They bumped us because it has to do with how long people have been married I guess. People that have been married longer gets housing first. MAKES NO SENSE!!!

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    2. Ugh, that is ridiculous! Why in the world does being married longer have any effect on it? It's bad enough that families with kids are considered "emergencies" or whatever and immediately get first dibs, but come on, that's pretty dumb! I'm glad you still have until the 28th for TLA though, that should be comforting! Oh, and I forgot to mention it in the previous post, but me and the hubby are also available for moving day duty so you won't have to go it alone!

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  3. I hope housing on post calls you soon girl, sorry your having such a ruff time finding a rental.

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