In Corpus Christi, TX we chose to receive the housing stipend and find our own housing. I am a frugal person and love to see how little money we can spend so I was determined to stay under a $1200 monthly budget. That number is for furnished housing all bills paid. If you don't use the full amount of the stipend you just keep the extra. (Housing is never "free". No matter how the agency words it - it's all a part of the total pay package.) It took hours and hours over several days of combing through online sites to find our condo. And it wasn't even listed online. I got lucky and got the owner's number from someone else I had called. So that is one downside to finding your own housing. It can be very difficult to find a place that will do a three month lease and that is furnished. The owner we rented from was great to work with. Her condo had been updated within the last few years and it was right on the bay. The location was amazing. It wasn't the fanciest place but we are not fancy people and we enjoyed a summer of living like beach bums. It was, at the time, the smallest place I had ever lived in at 420 square feet. Two girls slept on bunks that were built into the hallway and one slept on a blow up bed in the living room. James and I had our own tiny room. Having the beach right outside and a playground and multiple tourist attractions within walking distance made it worth it. We took the good with the bad and I would recommend Villa del Sol to frugal minded people- at least the condo we stayed in anyway. We ended up spending $1100 per month.
The plan was to do the same thing in San Antonio. I started weeks before the move looking for a furnished place that could sleep our family of 5 and that wasn't in a place that I'd be afraid to walk outside at night. I just couldn't do it. Everything I found was between 2 and 3 thousand dollars a month if not more. James' company has 2 amazing housing coordinators that are there for us every step of the way for any kind of help we may need. I called and spoke with one of them and she told me they had a relationship with an apartment complex in NW San Antonio- Mission Ranch Apartments. To get the cheapest deal the lease would have to be in the name of the travel nurse agency and so that's when we switched to company provided housing. Like I said before- it's all part of the total pay package and so $1700 a month was withheld from James' paycheck. Ouch. That's really the only complaint I have though. The apartment was completely furnished with a washer and dryer. There was a beautiful pool, workout room and indoor basketball court. It was a two bedroom two bath also so if you were traveling alone you could spend less and get a smaller apartment. These photos are from the Mission Ranch web site. http://www.missionranchapts.com/
While we loved the apartments we didn't enjoy having to pack up our family of five every time we moved. We homeschool and so we have many, many books and other school supplies. We also liked the idea of our kids having their own beds and surroundings that could travel with them. Most people that live in apartments are not travelers and we liked the idea of living among other travelers so we decided to purchase a travel trailer. We switched back to the housing stipend and it more than covers our RV expenses and site rent. There are so many different options when it comes to buying a travel trailer or motorhome. We didn't want to spend a crazy amount of money on one because we don't know how long we will be traveling. So a motorhome was out. We chose this 35 foot travel trailer with a bunk room for the kids that has a slide out. They each have their own bed and storage space. They have each made their space their own with wall decals and various stuffed animals. With the slide out in their room they have more space than we do in ours. At the first RV park we stayed at we immediately met other families who live fulltime in their RVs due to the husband's job. At our current park we have met another "fulltime family" that travels because the dad is a travel nurse. For me that is a huge benefit of living in an RV. I love meeting other people and hearing their stories. The best thing is that our home stays the same but the view changes.
Soon the views outside our windows (or near by) will include The Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and Chloride Ghost Town as we travel through the American southwest on Historic Route 66 and then north through California toward our next assignment in Auburn, Washington. We are finally leaving Texas! I have, however, been warned by a few that once you leave Texas you will realize how great Texas really is. I don't doubt that at all but I am so looking forward to this next chapter of our adventure.A bonus is that we will be just a few hours from Jerod, Mikayla and Lila- my little brother and his sweet little family. I'm happy that we have chosen a travel trailer for our housing prior to our big trip so that we will still feel at home when we are so far away from home. Or as Taylor put it, "We are like turtles- we carry our house with us."
