Also, I believe it was Amanda who asked how we will know if we are getting the new housing or not. We definitely qualify for the new, 4-bedroom houses. (John's rank and number of dependents determines that.) So what we have to do is get there, go into TLF (temporary lodging facility), and wait for one of these to open up. There may be some right away. There may not be any for quite some time.
We have "sponsors" who are there already. That is Nick and Kristy. We know them as Nick was one year ahead of JB in residency. They had thought that they could pick a house for us that would be ready when we got there. But we have now been told that the only way they can do that is if we agree to be in the older housing. Nick and Kristy agree that we should wait until we get there to try and secure new housing. I agree. I have seen pictures of both, and while I would make due with the old, the new definitely blows it out of the water. Nick and Kristy are currently in older housing because they only have one child. Noah is right inbetween my boys in age.
What we are not sure of is whether they will allow (and for how long) us to wait for the new houses. We are not sure if they could ultimately "force" us into a 3-bedroom, older unit.
JB will be one of the highest ranking officers on the Base and he has three dependents (me and the two boys.) They said they have a shortage of 3-bedrooms so we have been told that it is very likely we will get the new housing.
However, like all things related to the military recently, I am learning not to get my hopes up. I am not decorating our new house in my mind yet nor do I want to show pictures of that house to the boys. I'll only feel confident when we actually move in.
We have also gotten word that our HHG (household goods) is taking between 70-110 days to reach Turkey. This is what comes over on ship. We were given a 60 day estimate. However, I have met a new friend online who lives there, and she said that her's was 5 weeks late (110 days.) I am therefore simply planning on not having our HHG for 4 months. If it comes earlier, I'll be pleasantly surprised and excited.
Our UB (unaccompanied baggage) is currently taking between 30-45 days. These are smaller more important items not including furniture. We are only to ship 1,000 pounds in our UB. We plan to ship some kitchen stuff and a lot of the boys' stuff. If that stays accurate, it should be getting there about the time that we get there or within about two weeks. I am therefore doing my best to plan to live out of the eight bags we are allowed to travel with for up to three months.
P.S. Keep the advice coming!
4 comments:
My husband has been in the Army for 21 years. My best advice is to be nonchalant about everything - the move, saying goodbye to friends and family, all of it. If they see you stressed, sad, or worried, they will be the same.
Will you guys (if offered housing within a reasonable time of arriving without any household goods) be able to have loaner furniture that "some" overseas bases store until yours arrives? If not, blow up furniture is always fun..... LOL
I kid you not we lived on blow up "inflatable" furniture for nearly a month after arriving at our new destination, mattresses, a chair, and somehow we had found a small sofa that was blow up as well. We used it while the furniture was being packed out of our old place and then when we arrived at the new place. It was awesome and kinda like "glorified" camping. LOL
It will be hard not to be even a tad bit emotional when saying goodbye that is understandable. End the goodbyes with we will chat with you via skype, email, blogs, etc. that will help both you and the kids not to stress too much.
Once our household goods arrived without notification so unfortunately even the best laid plans of "knowing" when things should arrive they usually will either surprise you early or not arrive on time when they should of.
Are there any childrens books on Turkey? I always tried to find out more about where we were going to prepare the little one of what we were "looking" forward to especially in those times when I just wanted to burst into tears.
Can't wait to hear all about the new adventure.
We had the same situation with our furniture when we moved and lived with loaned furniture on a Navy base for about 4 months, and to be honest, being fresh out of college and with student loans, some of it was nicer than the stuff we owned! It was certainly newer, as lots of it was stuff that people had bought and did not want to ship back home as they were over allowance, so they donated it to the base housing fund.
One thing I did want to add, I am not sure that the boys will be old enough to verbalize this, but for my kids, they had a difficult time understanding why it was taking so long for our things to get to us, so if I had had a chance to make our books over again, after I did the page where I showed the movers packing our things I would have included a picture of a boat of a long journey with our boxes inside.
This might have staved of some questions and tears when we arrived and all of our stuff was not waiting for us when we moved into our house.
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