Coffee Break #63

Last June, our family moved into our 11th home on Camp Pendleton, California. And then just a few months ago, we moved again. I know. I kinda can’t believe it either. This move, however, was unlike any other we’ve tackled in the 20+ years of my husband’s military service. In this month’s Coffee Break, I’m breaking down where we moved to this time, why it was so sudden, and why it means even more good news for you and the blog!

Around the Corner

Let me quickly get the specifics out of the way, and then I’ll explain the why behind it.

This past March (yep, just about 9 months after moving in), we moved to a new (to us) home…just around the corner from our previous one.

In the 20+ years Greg and I have been doing this military life thing together, our moves are typically a state-to-state ordeal. Moving from one house to another within the same area/military tour is something we’ve only done one other time (at the very beginning, when we owned close to nothing!)

This move was unexpected, sudden, and still so much work despite the short distance.

What is BAH?

To explain the reasoning behind this move, I want to give a (very) brief explanation of Basic Allowance for Housing…aka BAH. This is a “living allowance” earned by service members to cover the cost of rent/mortgage in the area where they are assigned. 

BAH is calculated both by where you live (the rate is higher in more expensive areas) AND by rank (the higher the rank, the higher the BAH).

Because BAH (i.e., the amount you pay in rent) scales based on rank, on-base housing is often organized by rank. Typically, although not always, as the service member achieves higher rank, they qualify for bigger/nicer housing.

Bad Timing

When Greg was given orders to Camp Pendleton last Spring, we were assigned a house based on his rank at the time.

Shortly AFTER we moved in (still surrounded by moving boxes, in fact), Greg was selected for promotion, making us eligible for a new/different house.

Yea. Not great timing.

At the time, we (I?) couldn’t even fathom moving again. We had moved three times in the previous three years. We wanted our kids to feel settled, I wanted to decorate our house, and we were just so tired of living in limbo.

So we decided to stay put and embrace the home we were in. 

We changed light fixtures and re-sized rugs. We hung wallpaper and installed shelves.  

But by the Fall, Greg’s future here on Camp Pendleton came a little more into focus, and we got confirmation we will be here for (at least) a few more years.

Suddenly, the prospect of a bigger, nicer house that we’d be in for a while sounded pretty appealing.

So Greg added our name to the waitlist, and we expected to wait (at least) another year before our number came up.

I continued to hang more wallpaper, install shiplap, and organize more closets. 

So imagine our surprise when we got a call in February for a house available in March.

It felt very “now or never.” 

And so, after some hand wringing, late-night discussions, and even some tears, we decided to accept the new house, which was literally just around the corner.

A Move Unlike Any Other

This move was different in so many ways, some good, some not-so-good. Here are just a few noteworthy examples…

• When a service member is required to move, a lot of the expenses are paid for. But since this move was “elective,” we were responsible for 100% of the cost. That hurts, especially on the heels of 3 recent moves.
• Moving around the corner lessened the need for (lots of) boxes and packing paper (we used and re-purposed about 50 boxes), but it also meant lots of trips back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth). As a result, it didn’t feel particularly orderly or efficient. But it did feel extra exhausting.
• Usually, we move during the summer when Greg is off, kids are out of school, and we aren’t committed to any extracurriculars. This typically allows us to get unpacked and set up fast. This time, we had three days to get everything moved from one house to the other. Then we were right back to work, school, sports, appointments…life! This has made the “settling in” period veeeeeeerry prolonged and particularly frustrating.
• Finally – this move taught me that the work, logistics, overwhelm, and bone-deep exhaustion is the same whether you’re moving across the neighborhood or across the country. In fact, this one might have been a little tougher because we moved out of one house (which required all the un-doing, repairing, cleaning, etc) while simultaneously moving into the other one (figuring out what goes where with completely exhausted bodies and brains). We didn’t have the usual 1-3 week “break” between homes…which is when we typically recover and gear up for the next move-in process.

What This Move Means for the Blog

The timing of this move was (at first) not quite ideal for blog content either. 

I had, quite literally, just made the decision to return when we got the call with the house offer. And I had partly made the decision to return because I had so many projects done and ready to share, and others I was gearing up to do. 

I briefly considered delaying my blog return until after the disruption of the move. But I was really ready to come back and had so many wheels in motion. So I came back, showing you all these projects from our “new” house, when they were actually already our “old” house.

Yea…it’s been quite the ride over here.

So…what does this all mean moving forward here on the blog?

For one, our first Camp Pendleton home has officially come and gone! You’ve seen everything I got to before we started taking it all apart.

But the silver lining is that our new home is a big, blank canvas with so much lovely potential. And now I’ll be able to reveal things a bit more fully and in real time. 

Starting next week, I’m sharing the first few glimpses of our 12th home…still here in Camp Pendleton, California. And I can’t wait for you to see the first few things we tackled!