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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Moving to the Quad Cities, NEED HELP!
We currently live in in Sumner and my husband is starting a new job in Muscatine at HON in a few weeks. We need to start looking for housing, we are thinking maybe Davenport area???
Can anyone suggest areas/neighborhoods for youngish married couple. We want to just rent for now since we haven't sold our house in Sumner yet, so if anyone can suggest apt too that would be awesome! Thanks
Re: Moving to the Quad Cities, NEED HELP!
Does your DH want to have a 45 minute commute each day?
Here are a few of my thoughts:
-What are your plans for work? Want to work in Davenport or Muscatine? How comfortable are either of you with the commute?
-What about living in Blue Grass? It's a little more than halfway to Davenport, on Hwy 61 (which is 4 lanes from Muscatine to Davenport). The cost of renting in Blue Grass is quite reasonable... and they have a great market if you don't want to run to town for milk or a steak and Casey's charges too much. If I ever moved back to the QC... I'd be living in Blue Grass.
-I'd rule out living in Fairport on Hwy 22. Nice little pub on the river, but town is dead otherwise. Personally I'd also rule out Buffalo... not a place I could live (and I know people living there, it's just not for me). Hwy 22 is a bit more curvy coming from Davenport, all 2 lane road past Buffalo going towards Muscatine. I don't think I'd want to be on this road in the winter.
You aren't too far that you can't come down for a day and drive around to get an idea of where you want to live. Also check out the ads at Hy-Vee (bulletin boards), etc. Maybe check Craigslist and google some apartment management companies in the area. See where graduate students might rent an apartment. Call city hall and see where the recommend to rent? (Crazy, yeah...) Does Hon offer any help or "boards" that mention rentals?
I think it may be best to rent in/near Muscatine since you will be renting. Test out the town. You can always buy in Davenport later on if you don't like Muscatine.
If you really think Davenport... I'd suggest something on the West/South West side... ideally Close to Hwy 61. Don't go to close to Bettendorf unless you want to add a 1/2 hour to the commute. I'm thinking some of the new developments or apartments on Locust St. that are close to I-280 (one exit down from Hwy 61). I would not pick a place near Rockingham Road (closer to the River... not the best part of town). I'd rule out anything south of Locust (other nesties may differ). Yes Davenport might have more to offer, but you can always drive up to Dport for dinner/night out.
Best of luck! Stop by and update us at some point. We love seeing people on the QC boards... no matter where they live
Wow! Thanks for all the advice, it is super helpful. Where I work isn't as important because I plan on starting nursing school, I am looking around for my options because that will help us decide what area to look in as well.
I am excited to be moving to the QC because hopeful there will be a chance for more social interaction for us. We live a tiny little town now surrounded by old people and our family lives in Michigan so it would be nice to find a younger crowd to hang out with
My SIL went to SAU for her BSN. The area around is horrible, but not as nice as it used to be. Her car got broken in while a student there about 2years ago. There are also some nice apartments off Kimberly. A great area is also around 53rd Street... but it's more West Davenport, and makes it for a longer drive to Muscatine. Target, PetSmart, Old Navy, BBB and alot of places to eat are in the 53rd Street area.
Peace!
Hi, I live in NW Davenport myself. As the PP said Buffalo might be a good place as far as commute but we love Davenport. There is a good neighborhood by the West Walmart just off of Kimberly that has townhouses with 2 bedrooms and I believe they were $635 last year. The same lady owns blocks and blocks of them and is very particular about who rents so things are taken care of very well.
Also, as the PP stated I'd check craigslist and maybe qctimes.com. I think you can even try www.qcfsbo.com for rentals now.
We live 3 minutes from I-80 and can take that to 61 very easily, only go through 2 stoplights so that makes commuting good for us since I work in Rock Island and he's in Milan or Davenport depending on the day.
If you are talking about the townhouses on Hillandale... they are quite decent and taken care of.One of DH's friends lived there a few years ago. I think it had a garage in the basement (never went downstairs).
The area around the West Walmart on Kimberly is a great area of town to live in and has lots of choices of rentals. It's not "quick" to get on I-280 (have to either take Fairmount down to Locust or backtrack on Kimberly to 280). I kinda thought it might be adding too much time to the commute (an extra 10 minutes or so), hence why I didn't originally suggest it. If you end up renting on Kimberly, you'll be a quick ride from the mall
I think Hitched was spot on. Blue Grass is a nice little town that has a neighborly, small town feel but is very close to 2 highways (61 and 280) making it quick to get nearly anywhere. It's 10-15 min to Davenport and would cut as much time off your DHs commute to Muscatine.
Muscatine itself isn't a huge town, but its no small fry either - they have plenty of dining, a wal-mart/target, nice school, etc. and would only be 20-25 min for you to go to Davenport for shopping and whatnot. Another option would be Wilton, which is about as equally far out from the QC as Muscatine, but it's right on Interstate 80, making it a quick drive to east Davenport where all of the shopping, movie theaters and good restaurants are.
If you do really prefer Davenport, we live on the southwest end, which sometimes carries a bad stigma, but if you stick close to 280 in the far west neighborhoods, you find a lot of nice, small houses in quiet neighborhoods. Lots of rental houses - not so much apartments. I would say you probably wouldn't want to look any farther east than Division St -- that's where the neighborhoods get spotty with trouble IMO.
Since you mentioned wanting more social interaction and your DH will be working with HON may I suggest checking out the Young Professionals Network of Muscatine (YPN), we have a once month gathering along with special events for younger professionals to gather, network and have fun. It a great way to meet new people and check out the businesses in Muscatine; HON may even pay for his membership which isn't that much for all that is offered to you. Feel free to check out some pictures from past events on the website (www.ypnmuscatine.org) and we would love to have you both at an event. Let me know if you would like to attend an event.
I know the QC also as a young professionals network (www.thenetworkqc.org) so you could also check them out if you end up in the QC.
I lived in Muscatine (husband works for GPC) for a few months before moving to Iowa City to be closer to school and really liked it. We lived in the Cobblestone apartments on the north side of town. Muscatine was bigger than I'm used to (small town Upper Michigan) and I was really suprised at the young crowd they have. GPC has been hiring a lot of new engineers so there's a lot of younger people around looking to have fun. We went out the the Missipi Brewing Company pretty often. They have bands there or a regular basis and I had fun every time I went.
Just make sure to really research the areas of Davenport if you end up moving there because there are bad areas there. My husband is pretty sure a hooker was trying to pick him us at a gas station near the baseball stadium so I'd avoid that area.