Military Moving: Full DITY update, 6 months out

[00:00:00] Alison: Hello. Hello. And welcome back to the show today. I'm going to give you, we are about six months out now from our PCS this summer. We are moving from Colorado back to Washington state. We are doing a full Diddy or do it yourself move and. I'm just sharing with you in real time, because I thought it would be fun.

[00:00:28] Alison: The good, the bad, and the ugly of the move process. So, from the last check in, which was nine months ago when we found out we were going. To now, honestly, not a lot has changed except for my stress level. I really try to be honest with with you guys in, in how things are going. and how I'm coping and the realities of our lifestyle.

[00:01:02] Alison: And that is that sometimes it's really crappy. And I feel like this season of the, I call it the awful in between because it's like, you know, you're going, but it's still too far away to really do anything about it. So you're just kind of sitting in this uncertain. Can't predict zero control space. And it's really freaking uncomfortable.

[00:01:37] Alison: It is really, really, really uncomfortable. I, I am mostly stressed about where we are going to live and getting the girls registered for school because It is, so it's January now and we're moving in probably the end of July, and that's the other thing, right? Probably we don't really know exactly how that's going down the line yet.

[00:02:09] Alison: A lot of that. I think is going to is going to hinge on what happens with our house because we purchased a home here in Colorado. And so we are going to be selling our home before we move to Washington. So that whole pipeline, what is that going to look like? I don't know. What it's going to look like. It's kind of up in the air.

[00:02:33] Alison: You know, we definitely want to sell the house, but with the market and the interest rates where they are right now, how early do we need to put it on the market? And then I feel like we kind of have to be prepared to vacate maybe sooner than we want to. I don't know. I don't know. The, I guess the positive part is that we have options in that line in that The girls and I can go to Washington earlier.

[00:02:56] Alison: And Michael can just stay in and finish his tour and turnover here. That wouldn't be, that wouldn't be terrible, but we, again, housing is really up in the air. We've decided that we're not going to buy a home in Washington. I just did an episode. I think it's coming out the week before this one on should you rent?

[00:03:20] Alison: Should you buy? Should you live in housing and, and, and I, I spoke on this then the, I really think that one, number one, it's a personal choice. And then number two, I think you really have to look at the, the area that you're going into and the housing market that you're going to in that you are going to and where you are in your life.

[00:03:43] Alison: And we know we're going to be there for three years. So ideally we would want to buy something if you're going to be there for three years. But our unique situation is that this is our final tour. Michael is going to retire from this job that we're going to. So we want to start building our, the house that we have been dreaming of for the last, oh my gosh, seven years we've had the land.

[00:04:14] Alison: Yeah. I think it's been seven years. It's been a long darn time. So we have the house picked out. We know exactly what we want to build. It's just, and so like, you know, the last years have just been daydreaming about, I guess that's one of the benefits to the military lifestyle is that you live in a lot of different houses, right?

[00:04:33] Alison: If you, we've moved, this will be our ninth military move. We've lived in a lot of different houses. We've lived in a lot of different areas. And so we know exactly what we want in a home. And so we're going to be able to build exactly what we want, which I think is really cool. And you know, we're really lucky that we have that opportunity.

[00:04:52] Alison: So for us, you know, starting a build process like a year and a half after we get there and to. Have it ready by the time we're ready to get out. It just, I don't want to be tied into another real estate transaction in that same time. You know what I'm saying? Okay. So so that puts us into renting or living in housing.

[00:05:13] Alison: We still don't have hard orders. No idea when harder orders are going to come down the line. Again, we're six months out. That's, that's, you know, would be surprised, to be honest, to have orders this early. It's probably going to be a lot closer, but we know that the housing wait list in Washington is really long, and so no idea if that's going to work out or not.

[00:05:39] Alison: And then, you know, I talked about in the show last week that the BAH rates, the BAH rates came out the middle of what, December 17th, I think they came out. And the rates in Washington went down, our BAH went down by 125 a month. And I'm like, Oh my God! Because all the prices, looking around on Zillow, and everything is, is at or above what our BAH, not everything, but it's, it's up there.

[00:06:08] Alison: It's up there. And then you, and then we, again, we've lived there previously. So we know that the utilities are going to be around 400 a month. That's a lot when you factor in that most of the homes are exactly at BAH, if not over. And then you've got like 400 a month in utilities that's coming out of your coming out of pocket for that.

[00:06:28] Alison: Right? So it's just a lot of stress, a lot of, a lot of, you know, unknowns. And, and I know, I know, cause I tell myself this, there is nothing I can do about it. There is nothing, there is nothing I can do about the, being able to get on the wait list for housing. Other than asking Michael to poke the detailer about when we're going to get orders. 

[00:06:52] Alison: There's there, you know, you looking on Zillow right now, the homes that are, that are up there are not going to be available this summer. So I, you know, I know this and I think we all know this, but it doesn't stop because I don't know. Is it that like you feel the need? to, to do something. Like, I want to feel like I'm, I'm being productive towards this, the goal of moving our family there.

[00:07:16] Alison: I don't know what it is, what it is mentally, but, but I'm mentally exhausted. That's what it is. I'm mentally exhausted because Again, you know, we, the home that, that we own here, and one of the, one of the beautiful things about Colorado is that almost all of the houses have basements, like full basements and the basements unfinished, which is fine.

[00:07:38] Alison: I've got my gym down there. We've got all of our crap stored down there that we don't need holiday decorations and surfboards that Michael doesn't want to get. Because obviously the surfing is, you know, primo here in Colorado. But you know, just the stuff that you just carry. You don't want to get rid of, but you're just kind of carrying it with you and all the places that you go.

[00:08:01] Alison: And Washington State basements don't exist. Storage is very, very, very limited in our experience from when we lived there previously. And so I'm like, where's all this crap going? Where is all this stuff going to go? It is It is so stressful in that I know we're doing a ditty, right, which means I'm packing everything, we're loading our own truck, and then I'm going to be unpacking on the other end, and so my brain, right, my type A, my type A brain wants to plan, right, where's, I want to know where stuff is going to go, and then it's like, I don't even know what I need to get rid of, because I don't know where we're going, what we're going to have when we get there.

[00:08:44] Alison: Do you know what I'm saying? And it's, Oh, it's just that really frustrating. There's really nothing you can do, but you know, it's coming down the line space, which I hate. And this is, this is when this is when I am so ready to be done and not do this anymore because I feel like the older I get, the older the girls get.

[00:09:15] Alison: The more times I've done this, the less patience and tolerance I have for it. And I'm there. I'm there. So this will be, oh my gosh, 22 years. I've been a military spouse for 22 years. We've been moving around for 22 years and I'm done. I've, I've had enough. I don't want to do it anymore. Michael's this, we're all the whole family.

[00:09:34] Alison: We're all done, but we've got one more. We've got one more. So the other thing that's really stressing me out is the school for the girls. And because, and I, and I feel like what's driving that. Cause you can kind of block it out for a little bit, but you know, I'm dropping the girls off at school. I'm picking them up from school and I'm getting all the emails from the schools and they're planning all of this stuff, right?

[00:10:00] Alison: They're, they're planning next year. I just got an email from Sophia's teacher today. Hey, incoming, you know, sixth graders, they need to pick their what track they want to follow in school, you know, for their electives. And do they want to do this, that, or the other thing and open enrollment and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:10:19] Alison: And I'm like, holy crap. I don't know where they're going to school next year. And, and I don't want to, and I'm worried about being behind the eight ball with education in that. Are we going to want the girl girls to go to school where they are? for, or are we going to want to open enroll them into a better school?

[00:10:46] Alison: So side note, we have a little inside information into the education system in Washington because Michael's brother was was on the board and is like, this is the school you want to go to. Don't go to this school. Right? So we have all the inside information. So we know the school that we want the girls to go to.

[00:11:07] Alison: But you, there's really not a lot you can do. You don't. Okay. So here's the thing. So I want to say we've actually just dug in a little bit to this cause I'm like, there's nothing that we can do. We don't have orders and we don't have an address. You can't register your kids from school. If you don't have orders, you don't have an address.

[00:11:22] Alison: That is not true. So in Washington, we can enroll the girls into school. without having an address because we're military. So the next step for us, and this is something I'm going to do work on next week, is contacting the school and getting the girls registered. And then, from there we pigeonhole ourselves into we need to find a house or live in housing so that we can go to that school.

[00:11:56] Alison: Yay! So that's, you know, because I, I've, you know, again, I can't, I can't help it. Like I'm, again, I know getting on Zillow is pointless because there is. The homes that are there are not going to be available when we're coming in the summer, but I can't help looking around anyways just to, just to see what's out there.

[00:12:15] Alison: You know, you know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about. And recently my last few searches that I've done I've been looking outside. Like we really wanted to be right by the base this, this time around. The home, the prices are just there. They're either right at B. A. H. Or over B.

[00:12:38] Alison: A. H. And again, that's without utilities in there. So I, I've started kind of expanding out just a little bit and I did find some more homes in that are a little bit further south than we want to be. But so I'm like, so that made me feel a little bit better. Like, okay, then we can actually maybe stay in BAH because the rent is just a little bit below.

[00:12:59] Alison: And then by the time you add in the utilities would put us like right at and but a lot, not all of those homes are districted for the school that middle school that we want the girls to go to. So that is, that is where we're at. with all of that business. And again, you know, if you're a military family, this is, this is the mental chatter.

[00:13:24] Alison: I'm just sharing with you. This is the mental chatter. I don't know if this is how your brain works, but mine, it is really freaking stressful right now and stressful because I have zero control. I don't know what's happening. I don't know when we're going. I don't know where we're going. I don't know where we're living.

[00:13:41] Alison: All of that stuff is, it takes a toll mentally, for sure. It is, I'm really tired. I am very my temper is very short lately. It's not, I don't enjoy it. I don't enjoy it. I'm trying really hard. I've started the, I told you guys about the miracle morning in the January 1st episode. I'm on day 29, I think of, of that.

[00:14:07] Alison: So I've been doing that every day, which is good. Trying to get outside and walk the dogs when it's not negative 15 degrees here. So I've been able to walk the dogs the last two days, which is really good. So just trying to get outside and get some fresh air exercising. I've been, I always work out.

[00:14:24] Alison: That's not, that's never been an issue for me. So, that has been good. So those stress things are good, but it is just the mental load is it's a lot it's the mental load is a lot and then it's it's the trying to Keep it all of these things these conversations that Michael and I have around it Away from the girls, kind of, because I don't want to stress them out.

[00:14:52] Alison: Where are we going to go? What are we going to do? Like, that's my mental chatter, but I don't actually say it out loud, because I don't, I don't want, I don't want to stress the girls any more than they have already got their underlying level of stress. They haven't been saying, we're still, again, we're still kind of far out.

[00:15:11] Alison: So they've been. You know, they haven't really voiced that as of right now. And, and I think for Sophia, she's going to be quote unquote, graduating. I think that's hilarious. Graduating from fifth grade. They do this whole like ceremony. Like clap out thing, which is really cool. I think is really cool.

[00:15:31] Alison: Savannah really liked it last year. It's like a fun way to send them out. So she'll be kind of closing the chapter on elementary school as we move anyway. So I'm hoping that's going to help her transition. And then for Savannah, the big. like bone that we're dangling is that the schools here start early for middle school.

[00:15:52] Alison: And and it's brutal for my little, my little mini me who likes to sleep in like I do is she's gotta be at school. School starts at seven 50, which I know is not abnormal. And it's brutal for Savannah for sure. Cause elementary school starts at eight 30, right? So it was, it's a lot earlier. Well, 40 minutes.

[00:16:17] Alison: is a lot when you don't like to be up early. And so the middle school that we want the girls to go to in Washington starts at 850. I mean, come on. That is like Primo, which is honestly really where it should be because like middle school, high school, those kids don't want to get up early. Who wants to be up that early?

[00:16:41] Alison: Start the elementary school kids earlier. They're already up super early anyways, right? So so she is really, both of them are really excited about the later start time. So that's kind of like the, kind of the carrot that has been dangled for them in that, in that way. But yeah, so and then as far as the house goes Packing wise so packed all the holiday decorations away did get a cool tip from another military spouse When she was showing packing out Holiday decorations she used old Christmas wrapping paper to wrap their stuff.

[00:17:24] Alison: And I was like, Ooh, that's really smart because I have wrapping paper that is not really my favorite anymore, but you don't want to be wasteful and get rid of it. So a great way to recycle it. Right. Is so I did do that. What I didn't like though, is that cause I was using like the taller rolls because those are a pain and more of a pain in the neck to move than the other ones and the taller rolls.

[00:17:49] Alison: It's hard to get the paper off. Right. And cause they're really long. , so I was just trying to rip it. Which was a little awkward. And then the paper is a lot stiffer than like packing paper, which is a lot softer. And so it was, it was a little stiff and hard to bend stuff around.

[00:18:09] Alison: I thought maybe, maybe the paper that I was using was just. It's a little on the thicker side and so not as ideal maybe, I don't know, but I think that that is a really cool idea that I might try more. So stand by as I actually start packing I think I'm going to go ahead and go through my wrapping paper and pick this stuff out.

[00:18:31] Alison: That's really not my favorite anymore that, you know, I still have a little bit left, but I don't know if I'm going to, if I really want to use it, you know what I'm saying? And. aside as I start to pack up other stuff. So another thing that we are starting to do in in the house is again, we, we know because we've lived in Washington state previously.

[00:18:57] Alison: that the storage is not there. They don't have basements unless you want to use your garage. I actually like parking my car in the garage, especially in Washington because it rains so much. I don't want to be schlepping all my stuff in and out of the rain. So I'd really like to use my garage for my car and I know I'm not gonna have a place for my gym.

[00:19:16] Alison: So I'm thinking that the garage is going to probably end up being my gym. So then I don't, we don't have a lot of space. To use for storage. So, and we know, we know that we're going to be there for three years and then we're going to our forever house. So we're kind of taking a very critical eye as we're looking around of like, okay, do I, am I going to need this or want this in the next three years?

[00:19:45] Alison: And if I don't, Our plan right now is to get a storage space, probably in Virginia, because that's where our house is going to be. And and note, Michael looked it up because he's like, Mr. dot all your, cross all your T's and dot all your I's. He looked at the JTR, which is, oh gosh, what does that stand for?

[00:20:07] Alison: Joint travel whatever. It's what is like the Bible for travel stuff. Is it, is it travel regulation? Joint travel regulation? Maybe? Is that what that stands for? I don't know. But it is like where you go for the rules and the do's and don'ts for travel and all this other stuff. So he looked it up and for PCSing, we could take rent a U Haul and take a load of stuff to a storage unit and that weight, get weight tickets.

[00:20:36] Alison: So weight empty and weight full and that weight counts in our weight as we move to Washington State. So we'll still get credit. for the weight that we take to Washington state. So if that's, if you're like, Oh, I don't know. I really want, cause it's, I feel like that's something that. You is a little bit of a, I dunno, everybody's got their own opinion on do you, you know, some people are like, don't get rid of anything, especially if you're doing a ditty, don't get rid of anything until you get to your next duty station.

[00:21:07] Alison: You want all of the weight that you could possibly can. I'm a little bit of the other camp in that. And we've never bumped against our our weight limit. Like we've always been way under what our weight limit is. I'm looking at it as more of a, it's more crap that I have to pack and more crap that I have to load onto a truck, fit onto a truck and find a place for in my new house.

[00:21:37] Alison: And so we are looking at it as, okay, if we don't need it in the next three years, Oh, I've got some of my Nana's stuff that I really like, or there's these books that I have. From college or whatever that I don't want to get rid of their reference stuff, but I don't necessarily need it in the next three years.

[00:21:52] Alison: We're going to pack all that stuff up and we're going to get a storage space and including some of our furniture. We have a curio cabinet and I've got. That I don't need to take with us. And I've got my grandmother's hope chest that has like a bunch of heirloom y stuff in it. Again, I don't want to get rid of it, but it doesn't have to come with us.

[00:22:11] Alison: So we're, you know, what can we like pare down in that way and stuff wise? Because When we moved from Washington to here, here to Colorado, we maxed out that truck. I mean, it was, it was really full. Michael was like tying in the garage stuff. Cause that's the most pain in the neck is like. You know, if you look at the YouTube videos, and I highly recommend if you're going to do a ditty move, there's a lot of YouTube videos on how to properly load a truck and it's, you load all of your boxes and this is where having boxes of a similar size.

[00:22:49] Alison: And again, I know this is also. Not everybody's opinion, but because people are like get boxes wherever you can from Costco, from Trader Joe's, from other people that are moving, like whatever, don't pay for boxes. That is a path, which is, you know, that you can do. However, then you end up in a situation where you've got 50 different boxes that are all these random sizes.

[00:23:14] Alison: Like we had our neighbor next door to us moved out of their house. And so I was helping her load their truck and she hadn't even finished packing. And so my little, my little military moving brain was like, Oh my God, this is a. S H show and she had been, she just been like saving her Amazon boxes and all this other stuff.

[00:23:41] Alison: So you have all this stuff that you need to pack and it's like. In these weird boxes, and I was like, Oh my god, this is such a pain in the neck. And then, once you take everything out to the truck, and then you're trying to load the truck, it's like a freaking game of Jenga, trying to load all your stuff into the truck.

[00:23:59] Alison: Whereas if like we did, we went to the U Haul store, we've got boxes that are all X, Y, and Z sizes. They're all pretty uniform. You put the bigger ones on the bottom, smaller, blue, blah, blah, blah. You're done. That's it. Right. As opposed to like, Oh, this one, Oh no, we're not. And like, nobody wants to take that time.

[00:24:17] Alison: You, you want to get all your crap on the truck as quickly as you possibly can and be done. So you load all your boxes into the back and then you load furniture. And then. At the end of the truck is inevitably where all of your random garage crap goes, right? Your bikes, your ladders, your lawnmower, all of your shovels, and whatever.

[00:24:41] Alison: You know, all of the stuff that doesn't fit in a box. That's all the stuff that goes onto the back of the truck. And it's just like, and the stuff, right, all the things that don't fit in a box. That's what's going in the back of the truck at the end of it. And so when we moved here, we were right at the end of the truck.

[00:24:58] Alison: I mean, there, there was. There was not a ton of space left. And so, and then since we have lived here, Michael has grown his tropical fish. Oh my God. I can't even tell you how many flipping fish tanks we have. It's insane. And I love our fish, our saltwater fish. And our tank is not super huge, but we've got the tanks for quarantine.

[00:25:21] Alison: And Oh my gosh, if you're, if you're a significant others has saltwater fish, you know what I'm talking about? It's bananas. So we've got all of this, like, Fish paraphernalia and that we didn't have when we moved here and I'm like, where is all this stuff going to go? Where, how is it going to get on the truck?

[00:25:39] Alison: Number one, because we were already pretty darn close to maxing out the biggest Penske truck we could get. And, and then again, where's it going to go once we get there? So those are, those are kind of the logistical games that we're playing in our brains. So that's where we're at. It's honestly, this sucks.

[00:25:57] Alison: This is, this is my least favorite part of the moving process. It's, you know, you're going, but you don't know when or where or any of the details yet. And it's just like, you're kind of sitting in limbo and it 100 percent sucks. So that's where we are. I think that's enough rambling for today, but. I will check back in again with you guys in another few months, probably three ish unless something really fun happens that I want to share with you . I will attach, I have an Amazon list that has a moving supplies that I really have liked that we have used. We bought a hand truck and some of the, 

[00:26:36] Alison: we bought the sticky stuff that you can put on the stairs so that you're not tracking a bunch of dirt and stuff in as you're, as you're loading in and taking and unloading the house. And some other, you know, different types of moving supplies and things like that, that we use. So I, there will be a link for that in the show notes if you want to check some of that stuff out.

[00:26:54] Alison: Some of the stuff I'm going to be using is new to us this time. There's some bags. That kind of look like the giant Ikea bags, but they zip that i'm gonna be getting for like linens and stuff like that So i'll let you know. How that's working out and then This is gonna be our first move using Box Ops.

[00:27:12] Alison: Box Ops is a military, she's a military spouse. I had her on the show last summer for the PCS series. Super awesome. Love. She was so gracious and she's like, let me send you some samples. And I was like, oh, cool. So I can just, you know, before we talk just so I could, she sent me the whole freaking thing.

[00:27:29] Alison: Like, The whole system. So , I'm set. I am ready to go and it's already helping because I already have stuff that I know is going to go to storage, right? We don't need it. And so I have already labeled some of that stuff. And what's really cool about the, the box op stickers is that they go on two sides of the box.

[00:27:51] Alison: So it's real and they're color coded and they're, it's really big writing. that it says on there what it is. And so you can very quickly look at a stack of boxes and know, right? Because we've been in this situation in Washington where I would not let myself really start hardcore packing until we were a month out 30 days out because I knew I'm like, I just want to get it done.

[00:28:15] Alison: So I had to restrain myself, hold myself back so that we weren't living in a sea of boxes forever. So we had started to load stuff into like the dining room area. Cause we, we we, oh, we always sat at the, the island in the kitchen anyways, we never used to use the dining room. So we kind of moved the table to the side and started packing up boxes there.

[00:28:39] Alison: And I remember that I packed something that I needed and I was like, Oh, it's in a kitchen box. And we're like, it's where? Because right, you write on the top of the box, what it is or what's in it. And then you stick all the boxes on top of it. So then you're like, well, what is in that box? I don't know what's in that box.

[00:28:57] Alison: Right? So this what's cool about the labels is again, that they're on two sides. So then it makes it really easy to identify what you're looking for, where you're going. So yeah, so box ops will be new this time too. So I'll let you know what I think of that system. And I think that's it. All right.

[00:29:16] Alison: Until next time.