Moving, Again…

Hey y’all!! I know it’s been a while since I shared anything new on here and I wanted to finally let you all in on why. This will not be the lighthearted, home décor post that you’re used to, but I promise to end with some happy stuff.

Over the last few months we’ve been dealing with some vandalism on both our vehicles and some incredibly inconsiderate neighbors. It started with something wrapped around the brakes on my car. Thankfully, Jordan was driving and could hear it and immediately stopped and took it off. That scared us so we got a police report. Then, someone put their chewed up gum on the hood of my car. All of that combined with people setting off fireworks in the middle of the night, in the middle of the week, when school was still in session and people riding dirt bikes on our front lawn in the middle of the night, in the middle of the week, when school was still in session and continuous parties in the middle of the night, in the middle of the week, when school was still in session. Finally, last month someone jumped on the truck of my husband’s car, ran over the top and jumped on the hood, leaving dents and scratches all over. (We didn’t witness that, but the large muddy footprints told the story.) We finally decided that it was time to move.

I certainly don’t want to place blame on off base housing because many people live off base without issue, but we definitely would feel more secure and comfortable if we lived on base. For those of you who are not familiar with military housing, I’ll explain a little. Most base housing is privatized. That means it is no longer owned or managed by the military, it is owned and managed by private companies. Some bases have homes both on and off the base. The homes off the base are sometimes offered to people other than military. Usually they start with retirees, DOD employees and veterans, but if they need to, they also offer homes to civilians (people who are not, never were or have no affiliation with the military). It may not seem like a big deal if you’re not used to living in a military community, but there is a huge difference if you are. First, there is no security in off base housing. Second, when you’re in the military everything you do is held to a high standard and that includes your off duty behavior and the way to take care of your home. It is not uncommon to get notices about your overgrown grass or too many toys on your porch or even noise complaints. It can be a nuisance, but it also keeps your community clean and prevents people from being intrusive neighbors. That being said, if you have a rude or dirty neighbor who is a civilian, there’s not much that’s going to happen to rectify the issue, other than move, so here we are.

The problem is that we don’t technically qualify for a new house because there hasn’t been a change in rank(my husbands pay grade) and we haven’t had a change in dependent status(more children). Actually, to be completely clear, we have had both of those things happen in the year that we’ve lived here, but we already had a 4 bedroom home and that is the largest home we qualify for with my husband’s current rank and after adding the new baby. Those are the only reasons you are able to request a new home. I know this may be a little confusing to all my civilian readers, but long story short, we don’t qualify to move into a different base house. Throughout all these incidents we have been making our housing management aware of all the problems and even made a couple police reports for documentation, so they were more than understanding when we told them we needed to move.

We first started looking at the other side of the base which is about 30 minutes away from where we are now. That would unfortunately mean we would also have to move the girls’ school. We still went ahead and filled out an application for housing over there because we were desperate. We even looked at buying a house even though we vowed that would NOT happen in New Jersey because the taxes here are insane. Then, an answer to our prayers, one of the housing managers knocked on my door one morning and told me they had a house that will be available soon on base and as long as a senior enlisted or officer didn’t show up before in the next 30 days, we could have it. I couldn’t believe it. We waited the 30 days and no one showed up so yesterday Jordan and I signed the transfer paperwork and got a move in date!!! I have to give credit to the management office here because they have been more than helpful and they didn’t have to.

It’s almost too good to be true y’all. But, we have been praying and praying and waiting for an answer and like always God has taken the wheel. It may seem like a big pain in the butt to move only a year later, but this will be so much better for our family. Not only are we getting more space with this new house but now my husband will have peace of mind when he deploys or has to leave us for an extended period of time. And of course, I get to decorate another place and I promise to document every minute.

Now, since it wouldn’t be a true home décor post without of few home pictures, I snapped a few of the new home. It’s actually really cool. Built in the 1930s (or 20s), it has some of that old home character that I love. There is a historical office on base so I’m going to see if I can get some old pictures of the neighborhood and homes.

We have more space with a full basement and a garage. Our neighbors are not close so we no longer have to share a wall with someone we don’t know. Whoop whoop!! Come check it out…

I love that it looks like a little white cottage (where you at, Joanna Gaines) 🙂

The porch is much larger than the one we have now and it’s enclosed so we will be able to enjoy it rain or shine.

The ceilings are tall, I’d say at least 10′ and we have a working gas fireplace.

There are hardwoods throughout and surprisingly they’re in great shape. That chandelier in the dining room will have to go though

It’s a 5 bedroom home, but two of the bedrooms are smaller with the slanted ceilings you see in attic rooms. We’ll be using them for a guest room and the nursery.

The basement isn’t finished, but we have tons of room for storage and now I have a large space to work on DIY projects. I’m already trying to persuade my husband to get a table saw 😉

The only thing I am worried about is the small kitchen. I love to cook and bake and we obviously do a lot of that with a big family so I will need to get creative about storage in here. There is a large pantry right off the kitchen that has a bit of shelving and Jordan promised to build me some more. I’ve been eyeballing some peel and stick mosaic tile and marble contact paper for this room.