First move, Bangor WA orders. Looking for people from Kitsap/Bangor Naval Base

[ImagineryPi]

Hello Ladies,

My husband just got orders for WA. Im looking for anyone with a run down on the process of moving. My grandparents on both sides are all retired military so im sure the process has changed since then. We'd like to have off base housing so anyone that knows of good communities by the base, with good school districts would be appreciated. This is my first move so any experience with off-base housing v. on base, pros and cons would be very helpful cause we are not 100% sure yet.

He finishes with training at the end of August, so how would the process work between now and then? Im very a get it done early person and my husband trusts me completely with everything, so what forms do I need and can fill out, who do I need to call? Is there someone at the Fleet & Family Readiness that I need to contact, when do I need to contact them? Can I do the move completely on my own so we can just meet my husband up there? Or are there certain things he has to sign for and be present for? I take care of everything so my husband can focus on training, so no worries with taking it all upon myself to take care of details.

Also if there are any ladies or gentlemen out there who have a spouse that is apart of the SSBN Pennsylvania, I'd love to meet you, as I will be joining your community soon. Which group (I think its called) is your spouse apart of? Gold or Blue?

Thank you everyone with your help I really appreciate it.

- ImagineryPi

[Emily-aaronsgirl11]

Congrats on the orders! I live up here in WA, and I'm thoroughly convinced it's the most gorgeous place I'll ever live! 

I can't help much with the move part of it, but my one piece of advice I do have is to get a Power of Attorney (POA) NOW! I have been told that some things with teh move you cannot do without that POA, so do it now and get it out of the way so you have it whenever you need it. I do know that you can just meet him up there if you want to do the move, but definitely make sure you have that POA (or multiple POA's) for any problems you may run into. 

As far as where to live. In my search, I personally avoided West Bremerton at all costs (mostly the 98312 zip code). Silverdale is nice and so is a lot of East Bremerton (98311 and 98310 zip codes). Poulsbo is also really nice, and if you're willing to make the drive to Port Orchard, you get more bang for your buck there. Basically as long as you stay away from West Bremerton your'e good to go. I can't say much on school districts though... That was never a part of our search since we don't have and won't have any kids in school while we're here. Definitely keep an eye on AHRN.com though. That was a huge help in my search :)

Good luck with your search! :)

[ImagineryPi]

Yeah I cant wait to live up there, definitely beautiful when I visited last. Thank you soo much for the tips, needed a good area to start looking for a place to live. Ive been bugging my husband about POA and he keeps telling me yeah yeah I know. And now Im really down his throat about it about how it was semi-important before but now very very important now. I really appreciate the reply. Perhaps ill run into you up there.

Thank you again

[EmilyNicole98]

Hi! I just got married and moved here last month. I hope you'll like it here! :)

We decided to live off base for a couple of reasons: Price wise, you can easily find places that will cost you a few hundred less than your BAH allotment. The extra money can go toward utilities and other bills, whereas you have to surrender 100% of the BAH if you live on base. We wanted to be able to escape the military life as much as possible and try to live "normally", so living on base didn't seem like a good option (just didn't want to constantly be surrounded by everything military). 

I don't know anything about the school districts, so I can't help you there.. Port Orchard is where we live (Mariner's Glen apartments) and it's awesome. It's a little smaller than Silverdale and Bremerton but it's not like we're out in the middle of nowhere or anything. Silverdale is great if you want to be close to a ton of stores and the mall. I've only been to East Bremerton once, but I've heard that it's fairly nice but it's better to live near the water and avoid the central areas. 

As far as the move goes...It can take up to six weeks to process all the forms, so make sure you do it ASAP. I filled out all the forms for us, but we were never able to submit them because he was getting the run-around from Personell and he wasn't able to get the right paperwork in time. We ended up biting the bullet and paying for the move ourselves because there wasn't any other option.. If you send me a message, I would be happy to forward an email to you that has some PDF attachments describing what to do. Good luck!!

[tata1986]

i'm going to be moving to WA as well. My fiancé is stationed in that were same base. so I have the same questions as well. Due to being new at this. its just the two of us so he found us an apartment called Madison Ridgetops. maybe that might be something to look into. And I'm hoping to get a job as a teachers assistant up there at a place called discovery depot montesori. I also have if no idea on what is the first thing I should do so if there's any advice I will take it