As a military family we are guareenteed to deal with a PCS sometime around every four years. For those of you who don't know, a PCS is a 'Permanent Change of Station' or a move. Chance just PCSd to his new duty station in December and we chose to stay in VA. Being a Sonar Tech (STG) really limits Chance's options on where we can move next. San Diego (CA), Hampton Roads (VA), Washington, Hawaii, Japan, and Jacksonville (FL) are basically the only places he will ever get to choose from with Jacksonville showing up NEVER (lol).
Our next big change will be in 2017. Right now we are struggling with some rather big decisions. Renting in Hampton Roads is very pricey. Right now our walls are closing in on us. With one little guy and another on the way we are running out of room. We've looked into renting bigger but neither of us want to pay $1200+ to rent. This has led us to consider buying. Since this particular area is expensive and trashy we would be moving 45 mins to an hour away to North Carolina. This is a really big decision for us. Hampton Roads might be trashy but there is so much here that we can do. Chance loves the car scene while I really enjoy all the shopping and history.
The biggest factor thats making our choice hard is PCSing. I have never traveled at all. Chance has been everywhere and has a particular soft spot for San Diego. We'd love to be stationed there or Jacksonville. Just this past week we've also been looking into Japan! We'd both love a change of scenery and how many chances does one have to visit foreign countries? I've been doing as much research as I can to help our decision. It's such a hard choice to make. We so desperately want a house and love the country feel NC has to offer but we don't want to be stuck here either. The obvious thing would be to buy and then try to sell. If we were to purchase in VA it would be a lot easier to do this but in NC houses sit on the market for half a year or more. This could potentially have us split up for an uncertain amount of time and we don't want that.
Making decisions like this happens every day in life. Its a tough one and we'll continue to do our research and reach out to our friends for guidance and understanding.
I cannot wait to be away from this area! However, there is still possibility of us staying here as David is looking at jobs around the area. I have too looked at NC, but found some nicer homes in Va about 45 to an hour away from the base. I already informed him if we are staying down here there is no way I am staying in this area. We will be breaking our lease in June no matter what, I am ready for a change! I hope you guys find what you are looking for.
ReplyDeleteThere are totally lots of areas in VB and Chesapeake that aren't trashy!
ReplyDeleteYeah for $230,000+ and ten feet down the road is a shitty neighborhood. Hampton roads in general is a VERY trashy place.
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