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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 17:03:53 GMT
My DH is set to retire from the military in about a year and we're thinking of retiring in AZ. We've never visited there but being in the military we figure with the right amount of research we'll be okay. That being said, we ARE hoping to visit there sometime over the next year, if at all possible.
So please tell me the good, bad, etc. about living in your state. What do you love about it? What do you hate about it (other than the heat in the summer)? We will be moving with 4 kids (2 of which plan to live at home and attend ASU). We're looking at moving to the Peoria area. Does anyone know if it's family oriented? What types of activities do they have for kids? What advice would you give a newcomer, coming from the East Coast (NC)?
Anything else you can tell me about your state would be great. We're a bit nervous but mostly excited about this new chapter in our lives.
TIA.
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gottapeanow
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,783
Jun 25, 2014 20:56:09 GMT
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Post by gottapeanow on Apr 28, 2016 17:31:32 GMT
I actually live fairly close to the base, in an area called Old Litchfield Park. It's right by the Wigwam Resort. I love love love this area. The heat in the summer bites. Yes. Other than that, I have no complaints. Lots to do for families. The schools right here are really good. I could PM you more. I am a native. Lisa
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 17:36:03 GMT
Yes, feel free to PM me anything you can think of. I'm not a fan of hot summers, but I HATE the humidity in NC and would rather have heat over cold winters. Is the cost-of-living good in Litchfield Park? We may be coming there with just my DH's pension and savings at the beginning. Are there areas of the state people should avoid?
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Apr 28, 2016 17:59:00 GMT
I've only lived in AZ for about 10 years, all of that time in the East Valley. So I can't speak to Peoria at all, nor can I comment on family at all because we don't have kids-- but I can give you some general info about AZ and the Valley.
-- The summers here are similar to winters on the East Coast-- most people tend to stay indoors, like you would stay indoors during the winter somewhere cold. The fact that it's a 'dry heat' with very little humidity really DOES make it not as horrible as you'd think. Yes, once it hits 110F+ it's HOT, true, but 90-100F here IS really not bad. You just have to make sure you drink water during the summer if you're out and about.
-- The Valley is large, very spread out, and there's a lot of urban sprawl. It was not 'planned' very well-- most of the suburbs started as separate towns and sort of 'grew together' so the roads / highways aren't always straightforward. You can be driving on one road and when you cross into a different suburb, that same road changes names. It's not hard once you figure it out, but it's a quirk.
-- It rains VERY infrequently here, except for during monsoon season in the summer and sometimes there are winter storms. People here (I'm generalizing) do NOT know how to drive in that type of weather mostly because it happens so rarely. When it rains traffic problems and backups get worse and accidents happen, just because people freaked out by having to use the windshield wipers, it seems. Flooding can also affect traffic depending on where you are-- the rain can't soak into the ground quick enough so certain areas / roads can flood; it's really odd to see a highway of 6-8 lanes each way totally shut down due to having more than a foot of water on it! So getting places can sometimes be tricky during bad weather due to those issues.
-- The public transportation system isn't set up as nice as back East (I'm generalizing again). In my opinion, you really need a car to get anywhere, and traffic can be VERY bad-- afternoon rush hour starts about 2:30 pm and goes till after 6. They've put in a light rail system, but in my opinion it isn't nearly as efficient / easy as the Metra system in Chicago was, for instance. The light rail lines follow the existing roads; there's not a dedicated track for it. And from what I hear, I don't think the bus system is very good, at least in terms of the routes and numbers of buses.
-- The landscape is very different than the east coast / Midwest; it took a good few years for me to get used to the lack of green. If you want green grass, etc. then you will pay dearly to have it (the water bill for irrigating it). In my opinion the desert / mountain landscaping is 'striking' and not exactly inviting, but it does have its own sort of appeal. You do have to be okay with the fact that we live in the desert; depending on where you are, there can be scorpions, there can be rattlesnakes, there can be black widow spiders, there can be coyotes... and it seems like most plants are set up to hurt you, lol-- pretty much every native tree / cactus / plant has spines or stickers to protect itself.
-- You can get to a lot of different places / climates within a day's drive from the Valley: California, Mexico, Las Vegas, up into the mountains for pine forests and snow skiing... the mountains make the area very diverse.
-- I know the word used to be that it was cheaper to live here than back in the Midwest, but honestly, we haven't found that. The real estate crash did make housing prices drop like a rock there for a while, but gasoline, groceries, etc. are pretty much the same prices we saw in Chicago.
-- I think wages are less here than back in the Midwest or East Coast; apparently the thinking is (so I've read, anyway) that people aren't supposed to mind being paid less in this part of the country because we live here to enjoy the climate. I know I took a giant step backwards in my pay grade for comparable jobs when we moved from the Chicago area.
-- The state / area is conservative, overall. There are a lot of older snow birds and retirees; that may help it lean more conservative (?? not sure).
All that being said (it feels like I wrote a lot of negatives), I do enjoy living here now-- it's nice to be able to call my family on Christmas and tell them that we're sitting on the patio wearing shorts and a tee shirt, lol! There are a lot of opportunities to learn about the Native American culture, travel to amazing historic sites, national parks, the mountains and landscape is gorgeous, etc. This turned out to be longer than I thought it would; hopefully some of it is useful to you; I really don't mean to sound overly negative, if it comes across that way-- just realistic.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 18:15:08 GMT
I've only lived in AZ for about 10 years, all of that time in the East Valley. So I can't speak to Peoria at all, nor can I comment on family at all because we don't have kids-- but I can give you some general info about AZ and the Valley. -- The summers here are similar to winters on the East Coast-- most people tend to stay indoors, like you would stay indoors during the winter somewhere cold. The fact that it's a 'dry heat' with very little humidity really DOES make it not as horrible as you'd think. Yes, once it hits 110F+ it's HOT, true, but 90-100F here IS really not bad. You just have to make sure you drink water during the summer if you're out and about. -- The Valley is large, very spread out, and there's a lot of urban sprawl. It was not 'planned' very well-- most of the suburbs started as separate towns and sort of 'grew together' so the roads / highways aren't always straightforward. You can be driving on one road and when you cross into a different suburb, that same road changes names. It's not hard once you figure it out, but it's a quirk. -- It rains VERY infrequently here, except for during monsoon season in the summer and sometimes there are winter storms. People here (I'm generalizing) do NOT know how to drive in that type of weather mostly because it happens so rarely. When it rains traffic problems and backups get worse and accidents happen, just because people freaked out by having to use the windshield wipers, it seems. Flooding can also affect traffic depending on where you are-- the rain can't soak into the ground quick enough so certain areas / roads can flood; it's really odd to see a highway of 6-8 lanes each way totally shut down due to having more than a foot of water on it! So getting places can sometimes be tricky during bad weather due to those issues. -- The public transportation system isn't set up as nice as back East (I'm generalizing again). In my opinion, you really need a car to get anywhere, and traffic can be VERY bad-- afternoon rush hour starts about 2:30 pm and goes till after 6. They've put in a light rail system, but in my opinion it isn't nearly as efficient / easy as the Metra system in Chicago was, for instance. The light rail lines follow the existing roads; there's not a dedicated track for it. And from what I hear, I don't think the bus system is very good, at least in terms of the routes and numbers of buses. -- The landscape is very different than the east coast / Midwest; it took a good few years for me to get used to the lack of green. If you want green grass, etc. then you will pay dearly to have it (the water bill for irrigating it). In my opinion the desert / mountain landscaping is 'striking' and not exactly inviting, but it does have its own sort of appeal. You do have to be okay with the fact that we live in the desert; depending on where you are, there can be scorpions, there can be rattlesnakes, there can be black widow spiders, there can be coyotes... and it seems like most plants are set up to hurt you, lol-- pretty much every native tree / cactus / plant has spines or stickers to protect itself. -- You can get to a lot of different places / climates within a day's drive from the Valley: California, Mexico, Las Vegas, up into the mountains for pine forests and snow skiing... the mountains make the area very diverse. -- I know the word used to be that it was cheaper to live here than back in the Midwest, but honestly, we haven't found that. The real estate crash did make housing prices drop like a rock there for a while, but gasoline, groceries, etc. are pretty much the same prices we saw in Chicago. -- I think wages are less here than back in the Midwest or East Coast; apparently the thinking is (so I've read, anyway) that people aren't supposed to mind being paid less in this part of the country because we live here to enjoy the climate. I know I took a giant step backwards in my pay grade for comparable jobs when we moved from the Chicago area. -- The state / area is conservative, overall. There are a lot of older snow birds and retirees; that may help it lean more conservative (?? not sure). All that being said (it feels like I wrote a lot of negatives), I do enjoy living here now-- it's nice to be able to call my family on Christmas and tell them that we're sitting on the patio wearing shorts and a tee shirt, lol! There are a lot of opportunities to learn about the Native American culture, travel to amazing historic sites, national parks, the mountains and landscape is gorgeous, etc. This turned out to be longer than I thought it would; hopefully some of it is useful to you; I really don't mean to sound overly negative, if it comes across that way-- just realistic. You've given me some great information here and exactly what I was looking for. We're not going into this with rose-colored glasses and know all places have their good and bad points. I pretty much "hibernate" in NC all summer, because my tolerance for humidity is super low. Unfortunately, NC's winters aren't great either with lots of rain and gray skies. That's why we'd like to consider the Southwest. We love the idea of it being closer to CA, WA, Mexico, etc. We hope to travel that part of the country and having a large family with kids' school schedules makes it a lot more complicated/expensive from the East Coast. Thank you for the information!
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stittsygirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,590
Location: In the leaves and rain.
Jun 25, 2014 19:57:33 GMT
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Post by stittsygirl on Apr 28, 2016 18:54:30 GMT
We lived in AZ for five years, and central Texas for eight. As another hater of heat and humidity I'd far prefer AZ over Texas (or any other humid state) in that respect. The dry heat in AZ was much more bearable, and we really enjoyed our time there overall .
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 19:17:25 GMT
We lived in Tucson for six years and were so sad to leave. The desert is beautiful in its own way and you have to learn to appreciate that. And you do learn to adjust your schedule in the summer to avoid the hottest part of the day just you adjust your schedule elsewhere to work around snow and cold. You quickly learn taking your kids to the playground at three pm in June is really quite stupid unless you like second degree burns inflicted by scorching hot playground equipment. But at eight pm in the summer, the same park is swarming with kids enjoying the more bearable temperatures and natural shade of dusk. We had a pool which helped a lot. I don't give a rat's right nut what anyone tells you about the alleged difficulty of pool maintenance. It was never a problem. There was a pool service which kept the pool clear and it was worth every penny, a high, self-locking pool fence for safety, and we enjoyed the hell out of being able to come home from work and take a dip with the kids. The greater PHX area had a lot to offer in terms of entertainment and culture (it's the fifth largest metropolitan area in the country) so if you can tolerate the urban sprawl, it's a great place to live. And yes, we used to walk outside in shorts in November with the air warm and the sky beautifully blue and think, "Yep. THIS is why we live here."
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Post by stingfan on Apr 28, 2016 19:24:09 GMT
I was born and raised on the east coast. I lived in Phoenix for about 3.5 years when I was newly married. It never really felt like home to me. It just felt like a place I was living, if that makes any sense. The environment is vastly different from the east coast. It had a lot to do with the reasons a pp listed. But dh, who is from CA, loved it there. It was so similar to CA that he was comfortable there - but I was not. I don't know if you're an east coast lifer or not, but that was my experience...
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Post by kimpossible on Apr 28, 2016 19:49:55 GMT
Celebrating our 10 years here in AZ. The first summer is a eye opener. I came from California where it would cool down after dark. Nope..count on 100 degrees at 10:00pm during the real heat of the summer.
During Monsoon season (late July through end of August) you will see our real weather - heavy rain storms (yep there is sometimes flooding) and Haboobs (dust storms). These don't happen everyday, but there is humidity during those few weeks.
Peoria is a great family place - however, if your 2 going to ASU are going to commute to the Tempe campus, its a bit of a drive and heavy commute. They have a west valley campus you might wnt them to check into.
Do any of your kids do sports? Check out the Peoria Sports Complex and Deer Valley sports opportunities. Glendale is close by and also has other sports opportunities.
I live in the west valley also, not far from Peoria and really like it. But the east valley has a lot more shopping and infrastructre already built. We are the last part of the valley to recover building wise from the recession.
Property taxes are considerably lower than most states (I don't know about NC). Luke AFB is not far from Peoria if you will have access to on base amenities.
Peoria School District is highly rated and check out the BASIS school for very high level education - there is one in Peoria.
Feel free to IM me if you have specific questions. Welcome (hopefully) to our state!
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 19:51:22 GMT
I was born and raised on the east coast. I lived in Phoenix for about 3.5 years when I was newly married. It never really felt like home to me. It just felt like a place I was living, if that makes any sense. The environment is vastly different from the east coast. It had a lot to do with the reasons a pp listed. But dh, who is from CA, loved it there. It was so similar to CA that he was comfortable there - but I was not. I don't know if you're an east coast lifer or not, but that was my experience... They are military and I suspect they are more used to adapting to their current surroundings than most families are. I know we are. We've always believed that every duty station is as good as you think it is. You could be happy or miserable anyplace, just depends on how you look at it. I had a friend try to complain to me about being in Hawaii and I had to tell her to step back and listen to herself for a minute. She was whinging about living (for a limited tour of only ten months!) in a place some people save years to spend a week in. So shut your piehole and go down to the beach, look at the ocean, and try to tell me again how awful it is. Adapting is just part of military culture and I suspect they will do just fine. Semper Gumby!
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Post by reedina on Apr 28, 2016 19:56:58 GMT
I live in Peoria (north part). Lots of new building happening now. Peoria school district is good (not sure if you'll have school age kiddos).
I grew up in Ohio, Michigan, and England. I went to college in Utah. I thought Utah was such a desert compared to Michigan. Then I moved here, I realized Utah is practically lush compared to here! I am used to the desert now. I do miss green. I miss Autumn a lot. But I don't miss winter, that's for sure. The winters here are glorious. The desert has its own beauty, and Arizona can be stunning (Grand Canyon, Sedona, Mogollon Rim). We put fake grass in our back yard and that was worth every penny. We have a pool, too, which helps a lot in the hot summers.
People here tend to be friendly and easy-going (in general). I think that's true of a lot of the West/Southwest. Phoenix has lots to do--art museum, theater, opera, AZ Diamondbacks, the Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Coyotes, etc. There isn't really a "small town feeling" in Peoria where I live, but honestly I don't do many community activities b/c I'm just swamped with my work right now. They're building a giant community park up here, though, and it is supposed to have ball fiends and all kinds of amenities.
Good luck with your decision!
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Apr 28, 2016 19:59:14 GMT
ah, compwalla reminded me of another thing that's quite different here than what we were used to: Depends on where you end up living, of course, but builders tend to squeeze every lot / house out of the available space that they can. This means that yards are quite small for the most part, unless you live in a more expensive / more upscale neighborhood, golf course community, etc. And in most neighborhoods (unless you're in an older area where the houses were built earlier than 80s-90s), the houses are ALL separated by 6 ft cinderblock walls. There is no 'visiting with the neighbors' over a backyard fence, at all. The front yards are quite small, and typically not used as 'living' space, just landscaped to look nice from the street. People seem to keep to themselves more, at least it seems like that to me. Because of the block walls, maybe, and the way the houses are so separated?? (again, we don't have kids, so that probably makes a difference.) And, one more thing: There are very FEW houses here that have basements. Typically houses are built on slabs and basements are a higher-end homebuilder option only. Because of that, there is VERY LITTLE storage space in most houses! You have to store your "stuff" in a closet, spare bedroom, garage, etc. Some people can't even park inside their garage due to all the stuff stored in them... But you also have to be careful with what you store in the garage because the heat can damage things. ETA for weather info: Yeah, be prepared to have your eyes opened during the first full summer you're here, for sure. We visited here in Feb/March and it was gorgeous!! We moved here in October... so the first real summer was awful for me, because I didn't know what to expect. Everything was so drab and brown! (or so I thought) I literally cried when we went back to Wisconsin to visit family because it was so green there, and so (seemingly) dead and lifeless in AZ. The desert isn't dead; it's just a very different kind of beauty with subtle shades of green, gray green, sage, etc. instead of the bright greens and bright colors of the flowers elsewhere. Summers can get long; about Sept. / Oct. I start getting antsy for the weather to cool down kind of like I got sick of winter in March back in Illinois. And believe it or not, I sometimes actually get BORED with having sunshine day after day!! Any change from the sunshine is an event that gets talked about-- cloudy all day long, cooler than normal temps, etc. are all topics for conversation. And a monsoon storm? That's an occasion! When it storms we sit out on the patio and enjoy it, because it happens so rarely in the area where we live. (the mountains affect the weather systems; not many of the storms actually cause rain at our house.)
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 20:07:37 GMT
Some people can't even park inside their garage due to all the stuff stored in them... But you also have to be careful with what you store in the garage because the heat can damage things. Haha! Yes! You don't store Christmas candles in the garage. Puddles of melted and rehardened wax do not generally make for festive decor. And you don't store anything in your car either. No electronics, no lip balm, no plastic items of any kind. Salvador Dali would love the result but odds are you wouldn't.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Apr 28, 2016 20:10:34 GMT
They occasionally do news stories in the summertime about 'is it hot enough to fry an egg?' and I have heard that when it's hot enough, if you put a cookie sheet of cookie dough on your dashboard they will (sort of) bake after a couple hours.
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azredhead
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,755
Jun 25, 2014 22:49:18 GMT
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Post by azredhead on Apr 28, 2016 20:18:33 GMT
agree with compwalla! I wouldn't go back to Utah if you paid me. I lived there for 6 years but grew up here then married DH we lived in Utah mostly cause our family are there, but we wanted to move back here to Mesa. We both went to Jr and Highschool here. I left to go to Utah when my parents got divorced as teenager. It was always my goal to come back here and spent my summers going back and forth. After Dh went to school he wanted to look for work here. He found a job in his field and we've been here ever since. We've been back for 12 yrs now. LOVE it. I don't mind the heat as I don't do cold weather at all. It does get could for a few months in the winter. It can get bitter cold much people wouldn't think. But in March- June it's beautiful. And then from late Aug till about Nov. The monsoons are an adventure. But I will take them over the other natural disasters any day! I love our area and our neighborhood. Dh has about a 40min commute give or take on traffic. He commutes into downtown Phoenix everyday. There are so many new surrounding areas it's growing all the time. The home market is getting a little bit better It took a hard hit with the housing crisis a few years ago. The further out you go the less expensive but less property. Depending on the area.
And we have a salt water pool. Cake to take care of for the most part. It was a stipulation for me when we were looking for a house.Cause I had one before as a teenager. Dh wasn't so sure but now he wouldn't change it for anything. Salt waters nice cause you don't have to do all the chemicals just shock once ina while and more in the summer.,due to the heat.
We do have some grass but it doesn't grow very well, we'd like to put in something nicer and that the dogs can be on and less maintance and something I'm not allergic too. That's our next goal.I don't mind desert landscape but with the dogs I'd like to have some grass plus it keeps it a little cooler. The desert is a beautiful thing. Some like some hate it. My mom is hard to get to come visit it's not her favorite but she'll come in the winter.
There is so much to do - sports teams, outdoors. You can even go up north if you want snow or colder weather. Camping is our favorite thing to do along with the sports stuff.
Allergies might be a bit of a set back as there is loads of stuff so that's my only complaint.
The only other state I would consider moving to is Oregon as the coast is our home away from home. It's the vacation spot way before we moved here.
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Post by cadoodlebug on Apr 28, 2016 20:40:01 GMT
I have never lived in AZ but a friend who lived near me in CA moved there over 20+ years ago and was completely freaked out by the scorpions.
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Deleted
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Jul 8, 2024 3:43:56 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 20:43:45 GMT
I lived in Scottsdale for two years and HATED the climate. I couldn't wait to leave and I did for San Diego (best weather in the country). I will say that I met some fabulous people during my two years there and had a great time as far as things to do, but living in a blast furnace for 3/4 of the year was not my cup of tea.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 20:46:00 GMT
^^This is high on our priority list for finding a home. In NC, a pool would be nice, but you can't use it year round. I love that AZ is pool-friendly all the time.
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Post by ladytrisha on Apr 28, 2016 20:47:33 GMT
We lived in AZ for five years, and central Texas for eight. As another hater of heat and humidity I'd far prefer AZ over Texas (or any other humid state) in that respect. The dry heat in AZ was much more bearable, and we really enjoyed our time there overall .
This is our one of our main concerns between our 2 main choices which are Texas (San Antonio 'burbs/Austin 'burbs) or Phoenix area, Arizona. The 2 biggies for me are the humidity (my Mom said it took her 3 years to get used to it in Texas when she moved from Prescott) and the Texas sized property tax bill every year. I got dizzy when we visited San Antonio in October!
Thanks to the OP for this post - we've researched too and now it's just a case of trying to see the way clear to relocate with 1 college age kid and 4 dogs along with me trying to get a job ahead of time so we can actually get a mortgage instead of trying to find a rental that will even take 4 dogs (getting rid of them - or the kid - is not an option). My head hurts even thinking about it. LOL
A friend told me that for 3-4 months you live inside, go to the movies, mall, etc., but the rest of the year Arizona rocks!
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Deleted
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Jul 8, 2024 3:43:56 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 20:48:24 GMT
I was born and raised on the east coast. I lived in Phoenix for about 3.5 years when I was newly married. It never really felt like home to me. It just felt like a place I was living, if that makes any sense. The environment is vastly different from the east coast. It had a lot to do with the reasons a pp listed. But dh, who is from CA, loved it there. It was so similar to CA that he was comfortable there - but I was not. I don't know if you're an east coast lifer or not, but that was my experience... This is EXACTLY how I feel about the East Coast. I've lived here for 14 years now and it still doesn't feel like home. We want/need a fresh start in a place with no history for us.
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Post by reedina on Apr 28, 2016 20:49:32 GMT
We don't use our pool year round. We are wimps! Right now our pool temp is in the 60s, which is way too cold for me. You can use it year round if it's heated or if you have high cold tolerance. My British friends think I'm ridiculous for not swimming in it when it's cold, b/c their pools are always cold. I've lived here too long and my blood is thin. At least, that's my excuse!
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azredhead
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,755
Jun 25, 2014 22:49:18 GMT
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Post by azredhead on Apr 28, 2016 20:51:52 GMT
Yup ladytrisha and @trezmom that's why I told DH it was MUST! Actually I think the dogs get more use out of it then we do! LOL! Pia goes for a swim almost every morning. Almost never cares what the weather. Once I'm in it , I don't want to get out.. Although they don't like the storms. You would be surprised at the houses that are there for lease options. I think that became more so after the housing crash. We have a had a few in our area that are rentals and DH's cousin is in one thats how she got hers. They are south of us between Gilbert and Chandler.
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Deleted
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Jul 8, 2024 3:43:56 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 20:57:51 GMT
Celebrating our 10 years here in AZ. The first summer is a eye opener. I came from California where it would cool down after dark. Nope..count on 100 degrees at 10:00pm during the real heat of the summer. During Monsoon season (late July through end of August) you will see our real weather - heavy rain storms (yep there is sometimes flooding) and Haboobs (dust storms). These don't happen everyday, but there is humidity during those few weeks. Peoria is a great family place - however, if your 2 going to ASU are going to commute to the Tempe campus, its a bit of a drive and heavy commute. They have a west valley campus you might wnt them to check into. Do any of your kids do sports? Check out the Peoria Sports Complex and Deer Valley sports opportunities. Glendale is close by and also has other sports opportunities. I live in the west valley also, not far from Peoria and really like it. But the east valley has a lot more shopping and infrastructre already built. We are the last part of the valley to recover building wise from the recession. Property taxes are considerably lower than most states (I don't know about NC). Luke AFB is not far from Peoria if you will have access to on base amenities. Peoria School District is highly rated and check out the BASIS school for very high level education - there is one in Peoria. Feel free to IM me if you have specific questions. Welcome (hopefully) to our state! Some more great information here and lots of things I haven't been able to find on the Interwebs. Yes, we have 2 younger kids who will be in school so it's good to know the schools are rated well in Peoria. Most likely our older two will start at the West campus at ASU. The lower property taxes are a huge draw for us. We pay at least twice as much in property taxes here in NC. The summer haboobs and monsoons are things my husband told me about. I'm sure they'll freak me out the first few times I see them. I'm glad to know people are laid back and generally friendly. I've read mixed reviews online, but we're hoping we'll find the right mix of friends there. :-)
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Post by ladytrisha on Apr 28, 2016 21:00:41 GMT
You would be surprised at the houses that are there for lease options. I think that became more so after the housing crash. We have a had a few in our area that are rentals and DH's cousin is in one thats how she got hers. The are south of us between Gilbert and Chandler.
We've been looking in Gilbert area - we live in a house built in 68, so I'd love a house built in the 80's/90's. We're going to take a short vacay and drive over to Phoenix this summer (might as well go when it's furnace time) and plan to meet with an employment agency and a realtor. Thankfully our house has equity now and we can do this (especially since there's a brand new $16,000 roof sitting on it now - termites bite - literally!).
I'm a legal sec for corporate private equities firm - hoping I can find something similar. He'd like to work at Costco - wrenching as an auto tech is a no go now I'm going to show him this thread tonight - you've made it sound realistic and doable, and have the AZ vibe we felt when we visited my parents.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Apr 28, 2016 21:03:50 GMT
by the way, not everywhere has scorpions or other creepy-crawly things, by any means.
It depends on what vegetation you have, whether they have a food source, and how neat you keep your outdoor areas. Scorpions hang out where there's places for them to hide / live and where there's a food source. We make sure we don't have any brush and stuff piled up in our backyard and we have a pest control service spray quarterly to keep the crickets away. No brush = no living space, no crickets = no food... end result ---> no scorpions!
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Deleted
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Jul 8, 2024 3:43:56 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 21:09:58 GMT
ah, compwalla reminded me of another thing that's quite different here than what we were used to: Depends on where you end up living, of course, but builders tend to squeeze every lot / house out of the available space that they can. This means that yards are quite small for the most part, unless you live in a more expensive / more upscale neighborhood, golf course community, etc. And in most neighborhoods (unless you're in an older area where the houses were built earlier than 80s-90s), the houses are ALL separated by 6 ft cinderblock walls. There is no 'visiting with the neighbors' over a backyard fence, at all. The front yards are quite small, and typically not used as 'living' space, just landscaped to look nice from the street. People seem to keep to themselves more, at least it seems like that to me. Because of the block walls, maybe, and the way the houses are so separated?? (again, we don't have kids, so that probably makes a difference.) And, one more thing: There are very FEW houses here that have basements. Typically houses are built on slabs and basements are a higher-end homebuilder option only. Because of that, there is VERY LITTLE storage space in most houses! You have to store your "stuff" in a closet, spare bedroom, garage, etc. Some people can't even park inside their garage due to all the stuff stored in them... But you also have to be careful with what you store in the garage because the heat can damage things. ETA for weather info: Yeah, be prepared to have your eyes opened during the first full summer you're here, for sure. We visited here in Feb/March and it was gorgeous!! We moved here in October... so the first real summer was awful for me, because I didn't know what to expect. Everything was so drab and brown! (or so I thought) I literally cried when we went back to Wisconsin to visit family because it was so green there, and so (seemingly) dead and lifeless in AZ. The desert isn't dead; it's just a very different kind of beauty with subtle shades of green, gray green, sage, etc. instead of the bright greens and bright colors of the flowers elsewhere. Summers can get long; about Sept. / Oct. I start getting antsy for the weather to cool down kind of like I got sick of winter in March back in Illinois. And believe it or not, I sometimes actually get BORED with having sunshine day after day!! Any change from the sunshine is an event that gets talked about-- cloudy all day long, cooler than normal temps, etc. are all topics for conversation. And a monsoon storm? That's an occasion! When it storms we sit out on the patio and enjoy it, because it happens so rarely in the area where we live. (the mountains affect the weather systems; not many of the storms actually cause rain at our house.) I'm a very private person but our neighborhood has zero privacy due to the elevation of the homes/lots. I look forward to being able to sit in my own backyard with pajamas on and have a cup of coffee in the morning or swim in my pool. We have the same problem with storage here...no basements so it gets stored in the garage (but I have to be careful not to put anything that will get melted/damaged due to the humidity).
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azredhead
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,755
Jun 25, 2014 22:49:18 GMT
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Post by azredhead on Apr 28, 2016 21:12:00 GMT
ahh I wish all the luck! Like I mentioned we made the move for the work reasons. Dh is in your similar field. plus he's doing school. Gilbert has lots of newer areas and is growing all the time. It's nice that we have friends kinda spread out. It's a huge valley! Lots of options. There are two costcos in Gilbert well Gilbert/Mesa i should say. We go to both depending on the time of year as the 'winter vistitors.' lol. We don't get the problem with the scorpions and bugs like some other areas further out. It depends on the area. You are in the desert
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Post by ladytrisha on Apr 28, 2016 21:16:01 GMT
I'm a very private person but our neighborhood has zero privacy due to the elevation of the homes/lots. I look forward to being able to sit in my own backyard with pajamas on and have a cup of coffee in the morning or swim in my pool. We have the same problem with storage here...no basements so it gets stored in the garage (but I have to be careful not to put anything that will get melted/damaged due to the humidity). THIS!! I couldn't live without fencing either - preferably block walls high enough that someone can't poke their heads over. Thanks to your post today, I'm able to visualize living there, having a pool, the dogs and the kid finding a new life balance. We have a 24 year old who is trying to find his path and he can't even dream of having his own apartment in So. California on what he makes here. And he LOVES sports and sports stats so I'm thinking more and more he might find his home there too. My boss just paid $800,000 for a 1200 sq foot condo ... just boggles my mind.
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Deleted
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Jul 8, 2024 3:43:56 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 21:23:27 GMT
ladytrisha...glad to know we're not the only ones trying to figure it all out. We've looked at CA several times, but it's ridiculously expensive, so it wouldn't work for us. At least it won't be a cross country move for you!
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Apr 28, 2016 21:25:48 GMT
...just know that your neighbors might be able to hear your backyard conversations, depending on how big (or small) the lot sizes are, lol! Our side yards are probably only about 4-6 feet wide, literally. But we live in a master-planned community where they really DID cram the maximum amount of houses into the area that they could. There is a 2-story house right behind ours, so unfortunately someone in the upstairs bedroom can look out at us relaxing on our patio, but that's not a normal occurrence, thankfully.
We do have a small patch of grass in the backyard for our dogs to play in (I'm not going to even dignify it with the title of lawn) that's about 20 feet x 20 feet or so, maybe. The rest of the yard is gravel with cactus and other desert plants. Pets are another consideration for the hot summers, too-- there are ways to have outdoor pets during the summer, if you make sure they have plenty of water and shade, but walking a dog in the summer can literally burn its paws. Our dogs are house dogs; they go outside only to do their business and are ready to go right back inside, lol! They also don't like to get their feet wet, mostly because they're not used to it, I think! We don't need to walk them; they get plenty of exercise inside the house-- but if we do walk them, it's only in the cooler months, and only earlier in the morning, so that they don't get overheated (they're long haired).
ETA: I don't know if you read any of the HOA threads here, but (I'm generalizing again) typically, most, if not all, newer master-planned communities are governed by an HOA. We live in a town southwest of the Valley proper, and other than a few houses in the middle of town that are technically part of an Indian reservation, EVERY other neighborhood has an HOA. You'll have to factor in those rules (whether you can live with them) and the costs (some can be quite high, depending on what amenities the HOA provides in the neighborhood) into your living situation decision.
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