Moving In

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12

We arrived in Anchorage on Thursday, September 5th and stayed in a Midtown Motel 6 for the next five nights. We had to change rooms on the third night because our heater was smoking, but other than that it was a pretty smooth stay. We began the hunt for a house and immediately found two that we liked. One was a little more than we wanted to spend and the other was just a little farther than we wanted to stay. We viewed several others and they all seemed to need some small compromise. We were wanting to be wise in our decision because we are hoping to stay in one house for the whole time we live in Anchorage, which, as of now, is three years.

After checking the last property I had found on Craigslist, I asked Hubs to check with military housing. I must preface this section to say that Hubs and I are those people who most definitely do not want to live on post. There are too many benefits otherwise, including getting to leave work at work, the potential to make money if we stay under the housing allowance, and the usual government response time for things such as maintenance. However, when we drove on post the day we arrived, we saw the newly-built housing and said to ourselves, "If that's the housing, we might could handle living here."

So, on Monday, after a thorough search and an appointment to sign a lease on a 3rd floor apt that evening, I asked Hubs to just call. The only way housing on-post would work for us is if (1) there is no waiting list, (2) they could show us a place that day without Hubs having to checked-in or be shaved and in uniform and (3) we were placed in newer housing on the Ft Rich side of the joint base. And that's exactly what happened. He called at 12:29 and we were driving away with a lease to sign by 3:29.

We qualified for a 2-bedroom house with a bonus room. However, there was no one checking into the 3-bedrooms available, so that's what we were offered first. We accepted. It is a townhouse style in a four-plex unit, three-bedroom with an office (basically a 4 bdrm), laundry room, 2.5 baths, one-car garage, fenced yard with back deck, and a full downstairs basement. (Plenty of room for out-of-town guests. *wink*) It is a couple of blocks from Hubs' work, a newer neighborhood, a short drive to the commissary and PX, five minutes from Tikahtnu Commons (aka Target, movie theater, Sam's Club, Kohl's, Lowe's, Olive Garden, etc.), with a great view of the Chugach Mountains.

We checked out of our Motel 6 room and signed papers for keys to move-in Tuesday morning, September 10th. Hubs went to sign-in to his unit later that afternoon. We got a call from someone with our property shipment saying that the property was in-dock on the 8th and currently in-processing. The shipment website says it will be here by the 20th, but it might be sooner. We have our blow-up mattress, shower curtains and towels, and a washer and dryer, so we are set until then.

We sold one of our cars before we left FL and drove the other one up here. Because we are so close to Hubs' work, we are thinking we will probably wait to get another car for a while. There is just really no need.

We feel totally blessed to be here and, other than the discovery of paper-thin walls between units, are so glad we decided to check out on-post housing. We half-way expect for the "catch" to reveal itself, so I'll let you know if we run into it anytime soon.

Hubs has a buddy. Dan was a class behind him at NAVSCOLEOD and had to sign-in same day. Dan is awaiting his fiancé who is set to arrive with their dog on Oct 15th. He is trying to figure out housing for when she arrives, so he is staying in one the spare rooms here until then. The guys went to get their hunting and fishing license today and have done all the briefings and running around together to get everything in order to start work.

Jessie is loving life. She has a completely unfurnished playground to romp around in. Plus, Dan seems smitten, so she likes pestering the new guy to play fetch incessantly. She is also really loving the backyard. And I am loving getting to just open the door and let her run free. She is starting to get used to letting people walk by the fence without giving them the business, so that's good. We can't wait to get our outside patio set and grill for the next few weekends while it's still nice here!

I'll post again with other pictures once we have our furniture set up. So excited to start getting settled!

View off the Back Deck.