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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
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.
Iowa City?
Hello!
My husband and I are soon moving to the Iowa City area and looking for some advice on where to live, etc. We are possibly looking for a quaint pocket of Iowa City or a small town not too far away (West Branch?) that offers a community feel and some old historical homes. The in-laws live in Muscatine- we do not want to be that far from Iowa City, but easy to access. I am not sure if I should be on this board or the Des Moines board. Thanks for any advice!
Re: Iowa City?
You've come to a good board. We love new nesties
I want to get many more people on this board. You'll have to keep us updated with the move and how things work out when you settle in.
I would suggest checking out North Liberty as well. Yes you should also check out WB. Coralville does not sound like your place, imo.
There are a few other IC gals on TN. Check back in a few days... sometimes it takes a bit to get the to respond. kmjarvey and jilybeans4 are in the IC area.
Thanks, Hitched!
Hubby is in IC now for a second job interview- hopefully it will go well. I am a little apprehensive about our move from CO, but looking forward to being near relatives. I am originally from Cleveland, Oh, but my husband is from scatine. We met and have lived in CO for almost 10 years, so I know very few people in IC/quad cities area.
Looking forward to meeting new people!
Hi Mouse!
I live near Iowa City - specifically North Liberty. It is kind of what you described - minus the historical houses. It is a nice little community but growing fast and while there are some older homes, the majority (it seems) are newer construction that have been built within the last 10 years.
It is about 20 minutes from Iowa City (depending on what part) and is a nice small town. I've only lived in the area about 2.5 years so I'm not real familiar with a lot of the other smaller towns, but I'm sure they are fine too (but really small!)
Where is your DH interviewing? Hopefully it goes well! Let me know if you have any questions and I'd be happy to help you out. I'm a regular on MM so if you are ever looking for me that would be the quickest place to find me
Welcome! I've been living in Iowa City for the last year now. I'm at Iowa and DH works in Muscatine. The east side of south east side of town has worked well for us. We're living in a condo at Saddlebrook right night but just bought a house on Essex St. The east side is definitely a lot quieter than downtown and Coralville but is still only a 10 minute drive from downtown. If your DH is interviewing with the University of somewhere else downtown, being on the bus route is nice too. Parking downtown during the day is a PITA.
I've heard West Branch is nice but I've never been there. Stay away from West Liberty! We looked there because it's about halfway in between Muscatine and IC and it leaves a lot to be desired.
Let me know if you need more area advise!
Ha, that is ok! I'm not familiar with Praxair, but my DH does something similar for a living...he drives around fixing stuff (although much more locally and doesn't go as far as Des Moines). I think it is kmjarvey's DH that works in Muscatine, my DH actually works out of our house but drives as far as Muscatine, Cedar Rapids, and a bunch of other places in the area.
Sounds like the east side of Iowa City would probably fit you pretty well. Coralville seems fine but nothing exciting. North Liberty is a lot more laid back than Coralville and seems to have a lot of people in their 20's and 30's, but it is more "up and coming" rather than an establish community like Iowa City (in my opinion).
What grade(s) do you teach? If you have trouble finding a teaching job, don't forget that ACT is in Iowa City and hires a lot of teaching types (I work there... not a teaching type though). Just an idea!
Let me know if I can help at all with any other information. Lucky that you will have family in the area! That makes a big move like yours much easier I'm sure. We'll have to have an Iowa City/Quad Cities GTG sometime.
I agree with jilybeans on Coralville and the west side of Iowa City being the more up and coming side. The east side seems to have the more developed neighborhoods. You might want to check out the area around Towncreast (intersection of First and Muscatine). The sellers were using this project as a selling point for our house
http://www.icgov.org/default/?id=2085
DH isn't crazy about the drive to Muscatine but he said it's not terrible. Where we're at right now, it takes him about 40 minutes to get to work. He's a GPC on the south side of town which adds a little extra to the drive once he's in Muscatine.
Are you looking to buy right away or rent for awhile?
Totally agree with this one!
Thanks ladies!
Well, my husband officiall accepted the job! It actually sounds a lot like jilybean's husband's job- too funny! (Sorry I got confused in my previous post.) He will start April 11th so he plans to live in Muscatine with his parents until I get out there- probably by the middle of June after the school year is over.
A GTG is definitely in order!
As for housing, we will live with in-laws (yikes!) for awhile probably until we know for sure that our house has sold in Colorado and then look for something in the areas we have discussed. I would like to buy, but renting is a possibility if we can't find what we want right away. We have lived in a very "suburban" area in a development for the past 6 years, so I am really jonsing for some character and personailty. I want a community where people actually know their neighbors. We really want an older home with great architecture. However, hubby really wants some land etc so that is why we may check out West Branch too. I am not familiar with Towncrest, but I will check it out.
I have been teaching for 10 years- mostly 5th grade. I noticed ACT was there and this may be a possibility, but I am not sure what I would really do there?? Do you have other teachers that work there? What do they do?
kmjarvey- I am very familiar with GPC!
I guess you know all the crap going on with the union at GPC too. DH was working 84 hour weeks for awhile because of it. So glad he's not doing that anymore. I'm still ready for it to be over.
I'll be able to give you more of an opinion on the Towncrest area after April 15 when we move. I've been running through there and I get a good community feeling. Our sellers said their neighbors are great. I'm excited for it. We're in a condo/apartment complex that's kind of just off by itself right now and we just feel really isolated. I can give you a realtor recommendation if you end up needing one.
One area I was going to tell you to avoid is the southeast side south of highway 6. The main street through the neighborhood is Lakeside. It's a lower income type area and it always feels a little sketchy going through.
DH's dad who's a high school science teacher actually had an offer with ACT (probably 20 years ago). He said that his job would have been writing exam questions and getting them approved with "experts."