Moving up to Great Lakes to be with my hubby!!Have some questions about the neighboring communities...

[FCwifey]

 

Hello all! I am a brand spankin' new Navy wife and I am so appreciative of this website because it has helped me SOOO much with dealing with my hubby being away. :) But I do have some questions that I haven't really found answers to ....

 

My Hubby is in BC right now and his PIR is 7/29...he will be attending Great Lakes A-school (for 33 weeks?!?!) and we both want to get moved up there as soon as humanly possible. I know that as soon as he gets to A-school after PIR he needs to let them know that he wants to have me moved up there and that he needs to get his Live Ashore Package (and I know it will take him awhile to reach Phase 2 Liberty)

 

So here's what I don't know...

I'm from California and I have no idea how the community up there is...when looking for a new place what cities/area/hoods (lol) should I avoid? We don't want to stray too far from base, but we also don't want to live in...the ghetto (sorry,that's the only word I could come up with right now!)

 

Oh and we may bring our dog (He's the sweetest 95lb. mutt you'll ever meet LOL)

 

ANY AND ALL ADVICE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!   <3

[Angie]

hmmm...seems you had this post and than deleted it and reposted it....guess you didn't like the answers on it???

[FCwifey]

No that's not it Angie....I was merely taking someone else's suggestion of moving my question to a different group that may be able to help me . And I hate spamming lol so I deleted my past discussion since I posted the same thing here. :) do you live around Great Lakes?

[Angie]

I live in Kenosha WI, and am stationed at Great Lakes, IL as staff.

[sammy]

I live in waukegan. Its not the most beautiful town in the world but i really like the apartment complex that we live in. (The reserve at Eagles Ridge)  We moved here because they allow our dog to live here too. You might run into the same trouble we did.. (finding a place for a large dog to live.) There are a lot of navy familys who live in this apartment complex too. My husband has already worked out carpool with another family who lives here. Check out the apartment complex online and see what you think. If i can be of any help let me know. I went through the moving process on my own. I had to do a lot of research and it was such a pain! I decided that i wouldn't let anyone else go through that alone.. so let me know if i can help :) 

[FCwifey]

Thank you so much Sammy!! I'll talk to my hubby at PIR this Friday about The Reserve apartments.

I will totally be in need of your help lol  I'm not sure how soon I can go move up there, but if you could tell me your story and all the things you had to do to get up there I would greatly appreciate it!!  Thanks for your help!  :)

[Josh's Wife ET3]

I moved out of great lakes about 3 months ago were now stationed in key west fl. But while I lived there we were at Forest Pointe apartments! They are very clean and in a great neighborhood called lake bluff it. Your dog will be accepted there and as a military couple you will not pay a security deposit, or pet deposit which is great and youbget a discount off rent!

I moved the week before my husband graduated bootcamp, it took about 2 months for him to get phase 2 lib but I was able to see him fir lunch and dinner on base and on weekends that he didn't have duty I signed him out and he got to sleep at home! Forest pointe is only 7 miles from base about 10 min drive. I would stay away from Waukegan it's not a great area and I have heard lots of horror stories about the north gate apartments and the reserves at eagle ridge.

[FCwifey]

Wait, I'm confused...you moved out there a week before he graduate from BC?...I thought as a wife we are supposed to wait for him to get all the PCS paperwork approved and THEN have the Navy move us?   ...Please elaborate , as I'm lost now  haha!

 

Forest Pointe sounds great!! Thank you so much for the advice!!!

[Ash]

Hey Christie :) When I talked to the office about that puppy we had for those couple weeks they said there's a weight maximum for dogs of 50lb...so she'd want to call the office and check....

OP- I moved out here before my hubs graduated from BC too (and also live at Forest Pointe, and totally recommend it if they'll allow your dog). The navy can't tell you when to move, you can come out here whenever you want...BUT they won't pay to move your stuff out here until his live ashore is approved. I just packed what I could fit in our car and everything else is still in storage back home. We had planned on having it moved out here but keep going back and forth about what to do about it now. Now I think we're just waiting til my hubbs gets orders to decide to move it out here or not...

As far as apartments, personally I would recommend staying away from Waukegan, I know a lot of people live up there but the couple times I've gone up there it looks pretty scary and ghetto. Pretty much anything south of the base is a nicer area, like I said I'm in Forest Pointe and recommend it. There's a complex next to us that is similar called Deer Park or maybe Deer Creek? I think Park. Anyways, I don't know their pet policy but they'd be worth checking out. There's a place that's across the street from base housing called the Woodlands that are less expensive and even closer to the base (again, don't know their pet policy though)...If you have any questions feel free to send me an email since I'm living in the area :)

[cricket926]

We also lived in Waukegan when we were there. There are a few nice neighborhoods in Waukegan, and we were very close to the base.

[FC Breaux's Wife]

Me and my daughter moved up here from Texas and did it by ourselfs and we looked online for apartments and live in Waukegan at Hinkston Ponk and I DO NOT recommened it. I swear it's like the hood or something, it's not too bad but the people here are rude and they love to listen to loud music and have parties late late at night.

[HalfOfMyHeart]

Not sure if you have already moved, but im moving soon and i would recommend lake bluff, libertyville, vernon hills, gurnee - all of these are pretty nice neighborhoods :) i'm in love with libertyville bc it has a very cute downtown area hehe :)

[duhhuh58 Ship 10/Div 267]

i moved my son in law up there at the time of PIR.  moved in on Wed night and PIR was on friday.  they got an apartment at Pembrooke Club and while the apartments aren't really that bad they did mis-represent some things.  my daughter started her live a shore paperwork monday (at least that's what she told me).  she was also told that already having a place to live helps move the paperwork along faster.