The past month or so has been crazy busy at work with all of the orientations taking place at the College and classes started last Monday. Hopefully things will be quieting down again over the next few weeks and I can get back into the blogging swing of things.
I'm linking up again today with Ashley from Eights on the Move for Military Monday!
This weeks topic is.......
This weeks topic is.......
Do you live on base/post/fort or away from the military world?
What factors did you consider when deciding where you would live?
Was one more affordable than the other?
Did it help/hinder your family situation?
What things would be helpful for others to know before they potentially move to your area?
S and I have only lived in one city together, Charleston. We live and have always lived off-base. The Navy base here is called the Naval Weapons Station and it a part of Joint-Base Charleston (joint as in with the Air Force.)
Even though it's called "Joint-Base", the Air Force base and Navy base are not exactly in the same location. See below.
The Weapons Station has a Commissary and Navy Exchange, however, the Commissary and BX at the Air Force base are quite larger.
S and I obviously did not make the decision together to live off-base considering we are not married and wouldn't be able to live on-base together anyway. Another reason S did not live on base, is because his brother moved to Charleston with him and he also would not be allowed to live on base (his brother no longer lives in Charleston.)
S and I have lived together in two different locations: James Island (black *) and Hanahan (red *). If we did have to make the decision together whether or not to live on base, I'm pretty positive we would have chosen to still live off-base. The Weapons Station in Charleston is not exactly in the best area. The base itself is fine, it's more the surrounding area. There are wayyy nicer and prettier areas to live in around Charleston and I wouldn't want to waste our time here living in Goose Creek.
We also prefer to live off-base because we have had the chance to leave right down the street from the beach and just minutes away from downtown Charleston, where we like to spend most of our free time. We are also closer to our non-military friends.
Some benefits to living on base would be easy access to the Commisary, NEX, and other special events on base. I have seen a few areas of base housing and some is super nice (E-6 and above/ officer housing) and some is definitely not nice. I do, however, like how the higher ranking housing is behind a gate with armed guards. I always feel super safe when I'm there to the point where I'll leave my keys and purse right in the car. I definitely love that.
We also prefer to live off-base because we have had the chance to leave right down the street from the beach and just minutes away from downtown Charleston, where we like to spend most of our free time. We are also closer to our non-military friends.
Some benefits to living on base would be easy access to the Commisary, NEX, and other special events on base. I have seen a few areas of base housing and some is super nice (E-6 and above/ officer housing) and some is definitely not nice. I do, however, like how the higher ranking housing is behind a gate with armed guards. I always feel super safe when I'm there to the point where I'll leave my keys and purse right in the car. I definitely love that.
I can't really speak to what the ratio of on-base to off-base living is, but I would imagine it's about 50/50. There is also limited base housing so I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. There are a lot of military families that live in our neighborhood, however, there seems to be all over since there is a high concentration of military in the Charleston area (Mt. Pleasant, Daniel Island, Goose Creek, North Charleston, West Ashley, James Island, and downtown Charleston.)
Wherever we move to next, fingers still crossed for Hawaii, S and I have been talking about buying a house. I would still like to live close by the base so we have easy access to the commissary, the NEX (Navy Exchange), healthcare, and other support services.
What are your experiences with living on or off-base?
8 comments:
We like living off base now but we lived on base in Hawaii and that was fun because everyone around us was all out age and in the same situation (read that as partying a lot). :)
We didn't have an option when we first lived together either, but I still would choose to love off base. Welcome back to the blogosphere. =]
We've done both and prefer to live off base for a few reasons. One being we're in our 30's with children and don't want to live next door to 19 yr old newlyweds. No offense to anyone, but it's a different lifestyle...
I definitely see your point! Had we had more to look at apartments/ houses for rent we may have went that route, but for now we love living on base!
I would think it would be nice to be off-base since you still get the benefits of base. I bet it's hard though!
Wow - I had no idea how far apart the bases are! Thanks so much for sharing, Miss Kelly! Hope to see you back again next week :)
I bet that area is so pretty! Also, I've noticed that a lot of bases are in areas that are not too nice... Our last base was like that.
Having lived on base all summer, my number one reason to not live on base is having to hear Reveille played across the PA on base every morning hahaha
Also it's nice to get all of your BAH and be able to live where you want, rather than forfeiting your allotted housing amount to live on base.... aaaand if we don't cut our lawn for a bit we just get a nasty letter from the HOA, rather than having J's boss at work have to speak to him about it! Too many rules and regulations for me!
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