Gateway Village military housing...Drill Instructor Husband

Alyssa - posted on 07/17/2010

I am moving into Gateway Village in a couple of weeks. My husband will be stationed at North Island as an instructor at SERE school. We have a townhome on Barnett right across from MCRD. Does anybody know if this is going to be a noisy area at night, if you can hear traffic, anything going on at MCRD, etc? Also, we have a 3/2.5 townhome but when we drove by our unit it looks like a 3 story. Are all the layouts different, we thought we would be in a 2 story. Our friends unit looks lilke it is a unit by itself, rather large but it looks like they barely have a backyard? Does anyone know about the units? Are they spacious and laid out well? Also, anybody have children that attend Silve Gate? My daughter is starting Kindergarten and this is where I registered her at..
Thanks guys!

Diana - posted on 06/07/2010

Hi Haley,
First of all I want to wish you luck this comming year, you'll need it! You should defenetly consider moving to Gateway Village when your husband graduates. He will probably start within two months of his graduation, to pick up his first recruits in early fall. We moved there when my husband became hat. It was the best decision we made. They are never home, and when they get the chance to come,their sleeping. I was able to schedule a time almost every day, exept when they were in penelton, to meet up with him and give him a plate of food. It was the only meal he ate most days and he got to see the kids briefly. They also have a school right in front of the housing. Its beautiful. I loved it there. Good luck, be very supportive and patient. Their not new hats forever! It gets easier after every cycle.

Melissa - posted on 05/12/2010

We were offered a house right away, as are all Drill Instructors, because of their Duty. They sometimes start right away and so that's why they get first priority in housing.

Typing in "Lincoln Military San Diego Hot Sheet" I got this:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lincoln-Mi...
It shows gateway to be 1-3 mo for a 3 br, and 18-20 mo for a 4 br... no dogs or cats. what a difference!! haha

The traffic here is something you get use to. Your mind trains you to leave the house extra early and not be on the road at certain times unless you need to be.

Also.. not to solicit.. but there's a site called militarysos.com, it's really informative when it comes to relocating to san diego because there are a lot of members from the area. if you have school information questions they can probably help, as well as if gateway doesn't work out where you can look for good housing.

Haley - posted on 05/12/2010

I forgot to ask you....when do you find out how long the waitlist will be?? I know the housing ladies have been in contact with me about what our top 2 preferences are....i told her Gateway for sure and she said "great...when do you want to pick up the keys?" Which i thought was strange because my husband hasn't even graduated yet...not until June. So i'm not sure what the deal is, but hopefully the wait won't be too long...she didn't mention anything about a long wait list. I'm gonna cross my fingers its not too long...i gotta start my daughter in first grade this fall and I don't want to have to pull her out from one school and stick her in another in the middle of the school year.

Haley - posted on 05/12/2010

Thanks Meghan...that was a very informative answer and glad to know someone that has seen the area. I grew up in North County San Diego and its really hard for me to visualize myself down in Southern San Diego...i personally HATE california traffic and the congestion. I think that is going to be one of the number one "dislikes" about the move. Although we have some bad traffic and congestion up here, nothing compares to down there! But i think the idea of being that close to his work will outweigh all the cons I am coming up with. ;) And for now we only have one vehicle, so that should work out well for parking :)Thanks again for your help!

Melissa - posted on 05/12/2010

Honestly you will want to be as close to base as possible. Traffic is a wench down there, especially traveling from point loma to base. Gateway has the longest waiting list, I think, and even though your husband gets top of the list I think the waiting time on the housing you select has to be less than 24 mo. I know that when we moved to SD the wait time for gateway was 25+ mo so we got Santo Terrace, it's military housing 15 mins away.

the downsides of gateway is that its VERY cramped and be prepared to vacuum 3 flights of stairs. You get a 1 stall garage and the other car you have to park on the street-- which once you see the housing you'll understand when I say, "good luck." Your best bet is to let him have the garage (if you don't plan on using it as a storage space like everyone else) and you park your car in the street-- b/c coming home at the hours that he would he'd be parking 4-5 blocks away sometimes. No dogs, I think you can have cats.

But I do have to say that my husband is jealous of the DIs that can just wake up 5 mins before they have to be to work and freakin ride a bike to work if they want. lol

Haley - posted on 05/11/2010

Thanks Meghan!! You have definitely made it easier for me to make a decision...I completely agree with you about being closer to their work because of the complete exhaustion they endure on the Drill Field..especially as the "new hat" :) And I agree about it being easier to come and go when they can and sneak in a few visits whenever possible :) Thanks again!

Meghan - posted on 05/11/2010

We aren't stationed at MCRD SD we are actually MCRD PI but we decided to live on PI which has been very beneficial to us. We have two little ones (2.5 and 4.5) so that has been great for them. It has also been great being so close because it saves on driving and the time that it takes him to get to and from work. It literally takes him about 3 minutes to get to and from the squadbays in the morning and in the evening when he doesn't have duty. Its great on duty nights so that we don't have to drive very far to bring him food. Also if he needs something from home he can always swing in and get it quickly if I am too busy to do it for him. Personally I think that staying close to base is safer for them. Especially when they are new and will be working really long hours. That is part of the reason we decided to stay on PI was because all our friends that were hats before him said that there were times when they would fall asleep driving home and thats just scary to me. I didn't want to have to worry about that. So I guess my recommendation would be living close to base is the best way to go. There are a ton of kids that live here and there is a great playground and a pool that opens the end of this month. I know you are not going to be here but I thought I would give input based on the benefits we have seen while being on PI. Good Luck!