Arrival At New Base
Whereas we've lived off-base in an apartment here in Biloxi, we have decided to live in base housing at our new base. However, a house won't be available upon our arrival. It might take a week or so before a house is available for us (this is very common). It is not so bad for us because it is just Mr. Mays and me. But imagine waiting around for several weeks with multiple children and pets with only a few suitcases full of things!
In order to make the transition smoother, the AF bases have TLFs (temporary lodging facilities) for these families. They vary base-to-base, but they are basically like full-equipped little apartments (complete with kitchens, washers/dryers, etc). In the event that all the TLFs are full, the hotels on base are also available to house people in transition. In a hotel, you don't have all the amenities, but you are still taken care of. So...we will be waiting around for a few days (?) and living in one of these temporary locations.
Since we are doing a DITY move (and will have all of our things with us), we will have to rent a storage unit to hold our things until our house is available. Obviously this is not ideal. But if the AF had moved us, they would have put our things in storage and it would have taken longer to get them once we got access to our house. At least if we do the storage unit on our own, we will be able to get our things out of storage on our own time instead of waiting! :)
Mr. Mays will check into the new base and then be given "permissive TDY" (up to 10 days off to find a house, get moved in and get his family settled before having to start regular work). He'll have a list of things to do on base in order to "check-in" (submit receipts from the move, make sure medical records and finances are transferred, etc)
And then...we officially live there. :)
It is times like this when Mr. Mays is very, very glad that he married a girl who grew up moving. ;) This will be my eleventh home in less than 25 years so I've had a lot of experience packing up boxes.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
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Hi Callie! Thank you so much for writing about your experience! We are getting ready to make our 2nd move in the Army and your articles have been very informative. Things are pretty similar across the armed forces when it comes to moves it would seem. I am hoping that this move will be smoother for us than our first one when we didn't know a thing about military life! lol!
ReplyDeleteAnyways, thanks for your great tips!
Lauren, I'm glad it was helpful! And I hope that your move goes well - it can be so stressful the first time around, but hopefully the second time is the charm for you! :)
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