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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.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
K Bay Marine Base housing anyone? *edited* - Hawaii Base
Just curious if anyone has had any experience with the on base housing in K Bay? We are expecting orders to go there next week and do not know anyone who has lived there recently.
TYIA
*edit*
I meant K Bay in Hawaii, sorry for any confusion!
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Re: K Bay Marine Base housing anyone? *edited* - Hawaii Base
I've tooled around Kaneohe, but I haven't seen base housing. My understanding (and we're still looking for housing in HI) is that you're technically allowed to live at any base. However, priorities are assigned based on branch, ie AF gets highest priority at hickam.
Any particular reason you want base housing? Kanoehoe has some pretty nice affordable housing. In fact, we're looking at living there even though we'd prefer to be downtown Honolulu.sa
Since we are supposed to be down there before the end of the year we can't afford to make a weekend trip to explore the area and actually look for & at any houses/apartments we find online. Base housing has 6 month lease terms, so we figured that it would be more prudent to live there the first 6 months, be able to physically house hunt, and then move out at the end of our first lease term.
Well, my DH thinks this would be the best option. I'm not sold on it though. That is just a lot of moving around for me. Especially since this is our third move in 2 years.
Are there any areas that you would recommend looking for off base housing? Or any areas to avoid?
I have never lived in Hawaii, but I'm with you, I wouldn't want to move twice in six months. No thanks.
ETA: What s**t are you talking about?! What am I getting myself into?! Ahhhhhh!
Hello!
I've been living in K-Bay base housing since mid-May and I love it! We have a great 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house that is clean and spacious. I personally wouldn't want to live off base because from what I have seen you can get such better and bigger housing on base than off. We have friends that were living in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment in Kailua and paying 1800/ month and were going over their BAH when you included utilities and they didn't even have A/C in their unit! Most of the housing on base, with exception of a couple of neighborhoods, are newer. They are in the process of building new housing and I'm *pretty* sure the people in the older housing will be moving into newer housing once they are finished next June. (Call Forest City to confirm that though.) If you decide to live on base, be sure to get on the housing list ASAP because it's pretty long!
Besides that, I LOVE the K-Bay and Hawaii in general. The base is small but, I prefer that because it gives the base a great community feel. I know a lot of people that don't enjoy living on "this stupid rock," but I think it's fantastic and wouldn't trade the opportunity to live the island lifestyle for anything! It's all about what you make of it!
Since our HHG are coming from 4 separate areas (welcome to multiple COTs and remotes), I decided to move into a furnished month-month rental on the edge of Waikiki. That way I can apt hunt since it's not like I'll have furniture to move into a new place yet anyway. Some of my stuff just got picked up this week, and we got orders a couple months ago.
So, I'm not really moving twice. I'll have 2 big duffels plus some pantry stuff when we find a real place. But I've been loving where I am where I can explore and find a good match rather than just first available.
I know some other people who did a similar thing, finding a place downtown or in Waikiki.
As for what you can get vs BAH, that's entirely dependent on rank and family size. We'll do far better on our own than with base housing.
Also, don't be too dissuaded by PP about utilities. Mine are included in my rent, and it has a/c. That said, if I was windward (Kaneohe or Kailua) I really don't think I'd need a/c at all with the tradewinds. As it is, where I am mostly in the lee, on the Waikiki coast, I only turn it on in the late afternoons when the sun is directly in my unit, and I only do that a few times a week. Usually a fan plus breeze is more than comfortable.
I agree with everything BGosh said! I LOVE living on base here in K-Bay. If we were on the mainland I'd be all about living off base, but economically it makes no sense to live off base here. Your house will be the size of a matchbox. I have a 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom home by the golf course.. It's not an amazing house, but it's nice compared to the ones I've seen off-base nearby.
IF you're set on living off-base.. look in Kailua. I've heard horror stories from people living in Kaneohe. People have been mugged and I had to go pick a girl up and have her stay with me for a few days while our husbands were at training. When our husbands deployed she broke the lease from her condo and stayed with me until she could move back to California for a bit. Living in Honolulu/Waikiki area sounds nice... but it's one heck of a drive. And the traffic at the end of the day can be AWFUL. If you have any other questions, you can message me. I haven't been on MN in awhile but I'll try to check my messages on here for the next few days if you have any questions! Good luck!!!
An AMAZING garden back at home. I adore flowers, so naturally this place is my favorite.
Thanks everyone for the advice! MH is an E-4 so while we are getting a fair amount of BAH, it isn't a ton. (based on the COL there). Ideally we would find a place that we could pay utilities (water & electic) with leftover BAH each month, but so far I haven't found anything like that. We will be getting on the base housing waiting list as soon as the orders come in and I will probably be in touch with a real estate agent and just have them look for me. This way we have the back up housing but can still look.
Again, I really appreciate all the input!
Yeah, I think e4 is a better deal being on base. I'm still stalking craigslist, but I haven't seen much in that price range (or what I assume it is, since I haven't looked it up specifically) that would be all that decent. You may luck into a few deals so I wouldn't rule it out entirely.
I have gotten recs for a couple townhouses in Kailua that are supposed to be great and around 2k or maybe a little less (util incl). Gardenia manor and somethingelse manor. I know some people who now live downtown Honolulu, and they talked about how they loved that area but had to move closer to work.
I've never heard Kaneohe is so bad you have to move to California or be afraid to live alone. I give that a side-eye. I know some people who've lived there for decades and love it, and aren't too afraid to live in their own homes. From the sites I've looked at, Kailua and Kanoehe are roughly equivalent in crime rate. Your biggest problem is car break-ins, but that's going to be the case all over Hawaii. Most people will just tell you to not leave anything in sight (even cheapass rubber slippers which a friend had stolen from her car, it was the only thing out) and even to leave the door unlocked to prevent a smashed window.