Oh geez. Moving in August in Texas should be fun, right?

[Bouncy Ball]

Sigh.

Husband told me this evening his boss asked him today how he felt about a move--NEXT MONTH. I got excited, until he told me it's NOT Austin.

:grr:

It's certainly not a bad place in Texas. But dammit. Moving in AUGUST???? Right when school is starting and when it's one million degrees out. And I like this house.

On the other hand, I get excited about new starts.

:crazy: Don't know how to feel.

[XemaSab]

1. Where in Texas?

n/t

[Bouncy Ball]

5. Houston.

Need to research some nice blue areas of Houston, which I understand is a pretty blue city, so that's good.

God, the humidity in Houston is something fierce.

[Not_Giving_Up]

8. Hey! We'll be neighbors!!!!

I'm not in Houston, but close enough to breathe the air.

[Bouncy Ball]

10. Cool! The air? Cough cough.

Just kidding!

[Not_Giving_Up]

14. Pretty much

Of course, it depends on where in the Houston area you're actually moving too. It's not too bad where I am, but where my parents and grandparents are...look out!

It's nothing to have ozone warning days as early as May. (You know, old people, little kids, people with asthma stay inside!)

[Richardo]

46. Hey neighbor-to-be!

:thumbsup: :hi:

[xmas74]

50. I'm not in TX but I have an ozone alert going right now.

They're not fun to deal w/. You feel like crap all day and you feel like the sky is a huge blanket wrapped tightly around you (sounds silly but I think you understand. It feels heavy outside).

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. I lived in that area for 7 years

It's a great city, I hope you enjoy it there as much as I did.

August is pretty muggy in Houston, dress light and expect your hair to take a little while to acclimate to the high humidity.

[BikeWriter]

23. Hello, Neighbor!

:hi:

[Bouncy Ball]

26. Hey, no way!

Do you ever go to Houston area meetups down there?

Cool!

[BikeWriter]

31. I haven't made any of the meetups yet. I'd like to though...

I haven't gotten out and around much in several years, but I am trying to change that.

[LynneSin]

47. Aren't you lukcy! Tom Delay says Houston is as safe as Iraq

and he might be your representative

[lavenderdiva]

2. do you live in Texas already?

[Bouncy Ball]

3. Yeah, it's not a huge long-distance move or anything.

Just hot. Very hot. And this is coming out of left field for me.

[lavenderdiva]

15. Houston! That's where I live!!!

We need more DUer's here! We'll be very glad to 'claim' you here!! Are you moving in a month? What areas of town will you be looking in?

[Bouncy Ball]

18. I have NO idea yet.

Just found out today. I did tell my husband I wanted to live in a nice blue area. NOT Sugarland or something like that but a nice blue area of Houston proper.

Know any good areas? No suburbs, hopefully. I'm through with suburbs.

Oh yeah, it would be mid-August. Damn, exactly a month. Not enough time!

[lavenderdiva]

22. Montrose and around Rice University are pretty blue...

neither really fits the 'suburbia' mold, in different ways... Montrose is kinda a free-thinking, artsy area, while the Rice University area is more scholarly. Homes are older there, so you will find some unique architecture, not like 'tract' homes or cookie-cutter homes in some pre-planned suburbs.

here's a website that may really help you pre-plan your real estate search:

www.har.com


Houston Area Realtors website


its a fabulous site that includes listings from all the real estate firms in Houston, and includes pictures, information on the listings down to room dimensions. You can search it for particular areas, minimum $ to maximum $, number of bedrooms/baths, etc. Its great... it'll kinda give you a birds-eye peek into what's available and possible $$$ in each area.

[Bouncy Ball]

25. Ooo thnaks, exactly what I needed.

Montrose sounds pretty good...

[lavenderdiva]

30. Very interesting restaurants, shopping etc in and near the Montrose area..

There are a lot of townhomes going up there, alongside the older homes. The lot size isn't huge, but you will have a backyard, as opposed to some of the 'big box' homes (as I call them), that take up the whole lot and you can't even step out of the back of your house without touching the back fence!

There were oodles of Kerry/Edwards 2004 signs there last year!!!

[Bouncy Ball]

28. On that website, I'm searching under area and what area of Houston

IS Montrose?

It doesn't list it in the area search.

[lavenderdiva]

32. when you go to the home page of the website, you will first select

'find a home', then it will take you to a 2nd screen where you can type in specifics. Rather than select from the list of pre-written area names on the left, if you go to the center column, about 2/3 of the way, down, there are 3-4 lines where you can type in the area you are looking for; type in Montrose there. I just tried it and got 7 pages of listings with 10 homes per page!!

[Bouncy Ball]

34. Thanks!

[Maddy McCall]

4. I moved in July in Texas.

You are right. It wasn't fun. At all.

Where ya headed?

[Bouncy Ball]

6. Does it have a nickname?

Houston?

I know there's Big D (or D Town) and Funky Town (or the older name, Panther city---Ft. Worth), but what is Houston's nickname?

[KitchenWitch]

13. I have only visited Houston

I visited for a week and a half during July....The temperature did not dip below 100 even at night...dewpoints in the 70s and 80s....Instant fog on my glasses every time I walked outside.

[Bouncy Ball]

16. Yep, I've been there many times. The humidity is a killer.

It's damn hot here, too (Dallas area), but at least our humidity isn't as bad as in Houston.

On the plus side, getting to Port Aransas won't be as much of a drive!

Or New Orleans!

Hmmm. This could be exciting. Plus the best part--I am probably going to go to graduate school full-time. I might not be there in time to start in the fall, but spring, and going to school full time has been what I've wanted to do for a while now.

So maybe this is pretty good after all.

[KitchenWitch]

24. I spent a couple of days down in Galveston

the ocean breeze helped.

[Maddy McCall]

19. Houston: Worst Interstate System Ever-city.

:D

[Igel]

20. I think I've heard "space city". n/t

[jobycom]

29. H-Town. Well, that's what Jim Rome calls it.

Seriously, if I had to move from Austin, and had to pick another city in Texas to move to, Houston would definitely be in my top ten. Maybe top five! :-)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

21. I moved in July, too

From Houston to where I live now, about 50 miles NW of Austin. I was one hot bugger. Everything here was dried up from a drought they were having and you could feel the heat bouncing off the baked ground as we carried in boxes. It wasn't pretty, that's for sure.

[progmom]

7. no no no no no

you need to move further NORTH!

[Bouncy Ball]

9. LOL, no kidding, not going in the right direction here.

But there are some great DUers down there, too!

:-(

I'll just have to come up there for a meetup someday.

[progmom]

12. yes.

most definitely.
we gotta get that boxing match going. :P

[Not_Giving_Up]

11. No she doesn't!

We need more DUer's here!!

[Igel]

27. We moved to Houston in early August of last year.

My brother-in-law and I loaded up my family's stuff in Rochester, NY, and a week later I unloaded it all by myself in Houston.

Temp: 98-99. Humidity: 70s or so. I thought I was going to die.

So far this month, it's been mid 90s, give or take a few degrees; high humidity. Lows at night in the mid 70s. And for the last few days, afternoon thunderstorms. Which do nothing but add moisture to the air (and ground).

If you're buying, have fun with realtors, *but look up the flood plain maps ahead of time*; they're newly revised, and on the web (don't ask me where, I looked at them last June when I was a contract worker for a company here). And it's possible to find block-by-block reports for crime in Houston on the web. If you're interested in renting, there are folks paid by large apt. complexes to help scout you out a place. You don't pay them, but the different apartment locator services have different apt. lists, and a lot of apts. don't go through locator services.

[ltfranklin]

33. Houston...hot!

I suggest you do all your moving after dark, at least after 10pm. Not only will it be a lot cooler, it'll spark much interest with your neighbors, who, if they're not already making Meth in their garage, will probably assume you will be.

[Igel]

57. After 10 pm ... and wearing a lot of DEET or other mosquito

repellent.

[Kenneth ken]

35. heck yes!

I don't know about the school thing, but you've already got lots people posting on this thread, excited about you moving to Houston, so I'm sure they'll be willing to help you with at least the unloading-unpacking-at-the-new-house part of the move :evilgrin:

August Meet-up at the Bouncy residence!

I don't live in Texas at all, so I won't be there, but I'm always willing to offer other peoples' assistance. :7

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[texanwitch]

36. Welcome to Houston, it isn't so bad.

I just wanted to warn you if you are going to buy a house beware of the new townhouses being built, they are crap.

My old neighborhood is being being taken over by townhouses and we flooded four years, I hate to see the next flood. The little rain we have had the past few days are already flooding the streets, no drainage and no ditches. Townhouses are being built in places where no houses should be built, be carefull where you buy.

[Bouncy Ball]

37. No 100 year flood plains for us!

Blech!

:hi:

[texanwitch]

39. The problem is so much building has gone on and cement poured

the flood plain is all screwed up now, neighborhoods that never flooded now flood.

I live in a very high area with a lot of flood plain but the flood plain is going under townhouses which means runoff, no more yards to hold the water.

There is a reason for Houston's old houses being built above ground and in yards. Now everyone whats to live inside the Loop 610, and thats not possible. I spent the whole night of the flood of 2001 out in the street in 17 inches of water, grabbing all kinds of things floating by so the storm drains wouldn't be blocked, it wasn't a lot of fun. The thought of this new storm coming here brings back a lot of bad memories.

You might want to live in a houseboat.

[XNASA]

51. You're right about the houseboat thing. .....

Or consider Clear Lake. I know it seems odd. "Why move down by the water, when you're trying to avoid a flood?" But actually, down in Clear Lake, the water HAS someplace to go. It goes into the bayou and into the bay, etc. It actually floods less down there than in other parts of Houston.

:shrug:

[lavenderdiva]

38. texanwitch, is this Mother Jones article talking about your area?

This article was part of another post by a DUer on the Texas forum. use the link, and if the whole article doesn't come up, use the code MJQUR3 to access the full article. It is talking about a new development in the Montrose area, that has had a LOT of problems with the builder... The original poster was talking about the loss of rights that new home buyers have in Texas, because of the TRCC. This article was in his newsletter.


link:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/07/home_sour_home.html

[texanwitch]

41. I live near the Montrose as we call it, and the same thing is going on

there to.

We call the townhouses anthills because they go up overnight.
The builders use chip board not ex-plywood and pour the cement slabs over loose downsoil with means a bad fountation in a few years.

I know people in the various construction fields, and they have nothing good to say about townhouses.

We have a paper called The Houston Press which recently had a good article about townhouses, you don't have to believe me. The website is www.houstonpress.com, the story was excellent.

I live in a old house built in 1930, tough old house, it has been though a lot of storms and floods. Try to buy a old house if you can, they are built for Houston.

[lavenderdiva]

52. I read Houston Press every week!

I live in Houston too!! Howdy neighbor! I've been following the Texas forum here on DU, and there have been a number of posts about the bad builders here, specifically in Houston.

Unfortunately, when we moved here 3 years ago, we bought a home that had been built in 1973, and while well-built, has a NUMBER of other problems we are trying to deal with. In fact, Mr. Lavenderdiva and I go for a hearing with HCAD today to protest our taxes!! wish us luck...

[Not_Giving_Up]

40. I almost forgot

The MetroRail runs right along with the traffic. Don't make a turn unless you're SURE there isn't one coming. They've had a ka-jillion accidents.

[texanwitch]

42. One more thing, we had street flooding tonight and flooding on I-10.

Homes out on I-10 east flooded to, try to buy a houseboat.

[Bouncy Ball]

43. Well now I'm completely depressed about moving there.

[texanwitch]

44. The problem with Houston is no planning, ever.

Zoning is a bad word here.

I know what you mean about being depressed, I am getting out as soon as I can sell but I am stuck here right now.

Look for an old house, even if it needs a fixing, the new houses are just crap. Don't forget the flood insurance.

[lavenderdiva]

53. this is something that I found surprising when I moved here...

no zoning whatsoever. They seem to think that when a suburb enacts some sort of 'restrictions' when they first build the subdivision, those are sacrosanct. Conceivably, a hamburger stand could be built next door to you, and there's not much you could do about it. No 'residential' or 'commercial' zoning. They don't seem to 'get' that zoning would actually be a GOOD thing.

[NawlinsNed]

45. I did it in June...

... and between the year of unemployment and the year at a desk job, let's just say that there were plenty of beer breaks in the cool ov the air conditioner between moving everything from the apartment to the car or truck to the other apartment. :)

[crispini]

48. You're moving?

:cry: You have to find us another good activist to replace you first! :7

Seriously, there are a lot of cool DU'ers down there. I'm sure JohnCoby, PDittie, and everyone will be glad to welcome you! Don't, repeat, don't buy anything built much after 1940 or so. Most especially, make sure you get a pier and beam foundation. MUCH cheaper to fix if you have problems. :hi:

[xmas74]

49. Hopefully the move will be over before school starts

or it would really stink for your daughter. And moving in TX in Aug is similar to moving at the same time in MO-it sucks!
Sorry to sound this way but I'm glad it's you instead of me! No way I want that hassle (and the permanent sweatstains that will set into your clothes from the constant lifting and running in and out of houses!).

[Samurai_Writer]

54. I'm also moving to Houston in August

But I lived there for 25 years, before moving to Florida 3 years ago. I'll be staying with my mom for a couple of months, and then will be moving to an apartment inside the 610 loop -- very blue area. Basically anything inside and slightly outside 610 is blue, especially Montrose, the Heights, Greenway Plaza, Rice University area, West University area, downtown, etc.

[Lady Effingbroke]

55. Hi, soon-to-be neighbor!

:hi: :woohoo:

[Saphire]

56. Live in San Antonio, have moved 3 times in August....my best

advise is to do it in the middle of the night..when it's only 80 degrees out.