House Hunting

We had a very quick trip to and from Kansas this week. We left Wednesday morning and 10 1/2 hours later got to Fort Riley, KS. It was a very long day. Mom and I drove separately so she could continue on to Utah after our house-hunting. It was helpful to have her around on the trip so that when we were ready for a pit stop she could take a girl or two and I could do the same. Needless to say we were exhausted by the time we got to the hotel on post.

We were up bright and early Thursday to start our day. We met up with a realtor at 9:30 to look at homes. Steve and I had been emailing her and she had sent pictures of a few houses. We picked two that we liked then she picked a few more for us to look at while in town. I was extremely disappointed with her. For being in the sales business, she was a horrible saleswoman. We went to a house, she unlocked it and that was the extent of it. She knew nothing about the properties, she didn't ask us questions, didn't even pry to see if I liked anything or not. I don't like pushy salespeople, but I do like to feel as though they care. None of the houses were great. The Army had come out and said a bunch of families would be moving in soon, so builders from around the country came in and built like crazy. One big problem: the people haven't come in like they initially planned. So, these houses were thrown together as fast as possible, which means they were poorly built, the neighborhoods are all brand new- meaning only a few had sold and it was one big mud pit. Just not impressed at all. To give you an idea- a typical 1400 sq. foot, 3-bedroom house was selling for around $160K. I was more than frustrated by the end of our morning. I thought we'd be living in a hotel for the next year! The girls did amazingly well all through this, considering this was the second day of being in the car.

So then some better news came along. Mom convinced me to talk to Picerne (who is in charge of on-post housing) and I was able to get some good info. Looks like if we moved off the 4-bedroom wait list onto the 3-bedroom wait list there's a very good chance of getting a house by April. Otherwise it would probably be August. We would be back in the same kind of house we were in before. Nothing big, but it is definitely sufficient for our family. I felt much better after making that decision. Now we wait!

That afternoon we spoke with a different realtor and she confirmed our suspicions about the area. She felt that investing in any houses in Junction City (which stays alive only because of Ft. Riley) would be a very poor decision. So, while it was a long way to drive to decide on nothing, I feel it was well worth the trip. Most likely I would not have received this info from Picerne had I not gone in person and let them feel sufficiently sorry for me... dragging in three girls and my Mom and looking pathetic (or at least that's how I felt at that point).

We turned around the next day and drove the 10 hours back. I cannot believe how well the girls traveled. They were exhausted, I was exhausted, but we still made it back in one piece and really didn't have any big troubles. That was a huge blessing. I do know that none of us are interested in getting back in that van for any extended period of time any time soon! That was a very long three days and we are all still recovering.

And there ya have it. Really don't have any set place to live, but I feel good about our decision on housing. When I drove on post on Wednesday night I almost started crying, thinking about how nice it was to have Steve close to work so he could come home after PT and at lunch time. We would have had to give up both those times had we moved off post. Our time with Steve is precious and we want all we can get with him! Now we just need to get him home!!!!!