Hanco

Depends on budgets, but if you need to, summer wear clothing bargains can be found. My other half likes "Ross" stores (advertises "Dress for less"). My beef with them is the long wait to pay. Stores are *full* of clothes choices, then you get a TK Maxx or Primark queue experience but it's good value other than that. I saw there are two or three Ross stores in the area of FW, and near Keller (west of Grapevine)

Target and TJ Maxx offer good clothes choices too. Sometimes my female friends have found something in Walmart (but they generally feel it lacks the womenswear by "George" which they like at ASDA)

Leave space in luggage if you might take clothes back to the UK... We have clothes in the UK in the wardrobes of family to save luggage for trips "home"

We're visiting Washington DC for Labor Weekend, then we visit Grapevine/Keller etc for our home hunt!

Tanja87

Again, great advice all! Thank you!
Toll lanes, thank you for reminding me! Someone had mentioned it before but by now I'd already forgotten... I sincerely hope hubby has sorted car seats from the rental company lol. That could be interesting otherwise....
Ooh?! Can you take a cooler into the festival? I thought it said on their website that you can't... Presumably because they want you to pay for stuff on-site?! Great idea for getting shopping home though!
Yes, I'll be happy to post about our experience, neighbourhoods etc. It's probably all I'll be talking about for weeks, if not months, after we get back! Try and stop me lol!
We'll have to go get groceries when we first get there so will get sun cream and repellent then, DEET and all
Haha, very true! If push comes to shove we can always buy clothes out there - it's not like we're falling off the end of the earth lol! Plus we do have a washer where we're staying so... Though I'd rather avoid having to do laundry while on hols lol!

Tanja87

Ooooh and enjoy DC and house hunting! Sooooo jealous lol! Good luck with it all! Hope you find your dream home

Hanco

In Norcross Georgia, we have music concerts of various types in our parks and people take their chairs and coolers with snacks, beer, wine, soda. It's totally encouraged that you do.

In Atlanta though, I've been to festivals that do say not to bring your own food and drink. Yes, because they do want trade and I think that's reasonable if the prices are reasonable. The first time we went we did so on our bikes, cycling the "belt line" (cycle/walking path thru parks etc). We didn't know about the request and we had cool beers and soda in our backpacks. They didn't stop us cycling in with them. It would be impossible to "police it" anyway as there is no fencing around the big parks. It's not illegal, and we didn't repeat it every time after we knew. We certainly were not alone, plenty of people took rugs, picnic sets, blow up and fold out chairs... Like full sitting rooms outdoors!! I do t know if there would be byelaws of any kind that apply in TX that would make it "illegal". Maybe go with their request first time and see what others do!


Excellent... Feedback from your visit welcomed by me and others no doubt.

Laundry on hols is a pain but another unusual difference here, certainly comparing Yorkshire to Georgia, is tumble drying... Nobody hangs washing out here. Ever. In fact, washing lines are specifically not permitted in the 'code' of the home owners associations where I have rented the last couple of years. I imagine similar in Texas.

Couple of points come to mind now... Has anyone explained the Home Owners Association setup which exists in lots of places? I can't recall if it is in this thread or not. If property you buy is in an area with a home owners association, there is often a fee (monthly) to pay for the work they contract. That's usually a good thing. Eg. Communal area grass cutting, gardening, even your land garden/lawn, pressure washing of homes to remove green moss/mould from the humid conditions, painting, road pavement and sidewalks maintenance, communal club house/tennis courts/pool maintenance, gates if closed gated community, etc. Fees range from $20 month into the hundreds... depends what they do. They also set rules/standards for what type of fencing you can put up, where etc... It helps prevent rogue neighbors ruining the area by not maintaining their home and garden. Keeps the area nice and house prices up!

And second, final thought, especially as you have young family: When you land in DFW... It is a bus/coach ride (free provided) from the airport to the car rental lots. I was very unlucky coming back to the airport from dropping the car off. The rain was very heavy (full storm) after weeks of no rain they said. Even standing under the shelter people were getting soaked as it bounced off the pavement/road... It's unlikely to cause you bother, but when the rain comes it is rarely a bit of drizzle or fine rain! On the plus side, it doesn't normally last even half a day and sometimes just passes in a half hour.

Tanja87

Yes, I'm aware of the HOAs and tbf we have something similar here I guess.... We also have to pay a maintenance charge for communal grass being mowed etc. which I wouldn't mind except stuff just doesn't get done! So if over there the neighbourhoods actually do get properly maintained I have no problem with that. It does sound like they're "stricter" there though. No one here would tell you not to put up a washing line in your own garden! Seems a bit extreme...?! What do you do with clothes you can't put in the dryer? Certain fabrics can't go in there.... Aaaaanyway, lol!
Also thanks for the tip with the shuttle bus to the car rental place (I think we're with Avis) When we first went to Turkey we spent the best part of an hour looking for where to pick up our car lol! The shuttle is a bit inconvenient as we're taking our own car seats along with all our luggage and the buggy but I'm sure we'll manage

Hanco

Yes, similar thing to the shared maintenance in UK grounds, but this is for homes too, on "housing estates" as we say in the UK, which translates to "Sub Division" here in GA
I experienced this shared maintenance in the UK only around flats/apartment complexes.

Yes, stricter/wider remit which is set out in the detail for each individual HOA. I think, where we are, the washing line thing is a code issue (code = local byelaw) not sure but it is not done. Because it is rarely cold I find a washing clothes horse to be sufficient to dry "never tumble items but we don't wear them often now! We tumble everything on the very low setting until "extra dry" and it works well for things like sweatshirts that used to shrink (we learned!)

I was very surprised by the reach of the HOA rules. I just wanted to add a fence panel for privacy and my landlord was fine with that, but then the HOA provided me with the exact specs of the wood (must be cedar) and the stain color to use, and the finial design to buy. I did not like the costs at the time for our short period their and we did not bother!

Good news on the shuttles... I have never found a driver yet who wasn't helpful with luggage. They will do what is needed to get loaded so they can move off. Also you will find (I think in DFW) that the luggage trolleys are plentiful and I don't remember seeing a need for coinage. If you get one/two then you can just leave them at the bust pickup point. Wishing you best of luck for the trip!

Tanja87

Awesome! Great news about the luggage trollies (haha, what a minor detail to get excited about lol) Luckily we won't have to pack heavily for the weather so it shouldn't be too bad I hope. Plus there's always a bit of extra storage space in the bottom of the buggy
Honestly, I sometimes wish there were stricter rules here when it comes to property/grounds maintenance! We live in a relatively new-built neighbourhood (about 4 years "old") and already it looks a bit scummy in areas.... Annoying things like people not picking up after their dogs, leaving their rubbish bags out only for the seagulls to rip into them leaving rubbish all over the place, inconsiderate parking.... Stuff like that. You'd hope that having to pay for maintenance people would at least do their part as well to ensure the place was tidy and pleasant to live in! Anyway, rant over! Only 3 more sleeps and we're off to explore

kodokan

We had a HOA for our last house, and it was ok - I got on the board (super easy to get voted in as hardly anyone wants to do it), and steered the system from within. Our community was really easy to manage; it was gated, with all the houses costing over $500k, so a bit of a self-selecting bunch when it came to keeping their houses tidy and the property values up.

We chose to be fairly light touch - not sending people a snottagram if their grass was a tad long during July when they were clearly on holiday, etc - but I've heard tales of power-crazed clipboard-wielding zealots.

It WAS a nice place to live for my youngest, 8 when we moved in. It was one of the few places in the US where everyone's kids still played outside unsupervised and could ride bikes and scooters without worrying about traffic; what little traffic there was was always going slowly and carefully as pretty much everyone had kids or grandkids.

Tanja87

Sounds lovely Don't get me wrong - the kids in our neighbourhood play outside as well! It's just that they've been known to throw stones at cards and write profanities onto the walls of (not their) houses.... And we live in a nicer area, believe it or not...
You might be wondering why I'm still up at midnight on a school night writing this?! Well, as I'm getting over a chest and sinus infection just in time before our trip, our little girl is just getting ill now! :'( I'm up with her running a fever and I pray to whoever may or may not be up there that this is a short lived little virus so she's all better for our trip which she is so excited about!! I have once flown long-haul with a cold, to Toronto I believe, and it felt like my face was going to explode during take-off and landing! Seriously hope she'll be ok, poor girl....!!

kodokan

Oh no, that's bad timing! Still, little ones tend to blast through viruses quite quickly, I've found, and regularly go from flat out on the sofa to charging about in under 24 hours. Fingers crossed it's one of those. And lollies to suck on for the plane.

Kids playing... one of the nicest discoveries about moving here, with our then kids of 7 and 11, is how long childhood lasts and how unworldly they often are. We'd moved from Switzerland and I was a bit worried that my kids would seem immature and hick, as Swiss kids and teens seemed very different to the UK ones (not caring overmuch what they looked like as scooting or biking everywhere was so practical, no clue about celebrities, no culture of teen alcohol, etc). I thought American preteens and teens would be so much more 'street'.

But no - they're delightfully young in their outlook! They're so open and friendly with adults, not regarding them with suspicion or not knowing how to talk to them. I've NEVER seen anything that I'd regard as yobbish behaviour - public swearing, spitting the street, throwing litter, etc. Any kind of dating or relationship is unusual under 16, and simply not bothering for the whole of high school doesn't seem to be out of the norm, so no puppy love dramas and parental angst about schoolwork suffering. No at-home parties with smuggled in vodka like my stepsister is currently suffering through with her 15 year old; that would be considered INCREDIBLY deviant here. Childhood just seems to last longer. It's great.

Tanja87

Oh that sounds lovely! Sounds like they stay more "innocent" for longer, if you know what I mean, I like that! Over here it's like we have gangs of 8 year olds running the neighbourhood. No respect for adults or anyone not in their little clique... They're rude, they swear, they're all out with their smartphones and expensive branded clothes and there's just so much pressure for everyone to fit in and "be cool". Then you get early age drinking and smoking and all that. Looking at my kids now that's not what I want for them. 12 year old girls caked in makeup and wanting boyfriends and all. Scary really!
My little girl seems ok this morning. She still had a temp but after giving her some Calpol (godsend!!) she managed to eat something and is now playing. Hoping this was it for her and our little boy doesn't get it next lol!

Tanja87

2 healthy kids and tomorrow is the big day! Thank you all for your advice so far. I'm sure I'll be back with loads to discuss and ask in the meantime have a great couple of weeks guys! I might even see some of you out there - and we'll never know lol

scrubbedexpat097

Have fun. Try to enjoy some of it even though I know you will be fact finding!

Hopefully the weather behaves and you can see Texas at it's best

Good luck

kodokan

Have a great trip! Looking forward to hearing about your impressions.

Tanja87

Hello! We're back from our trip and we have honestly had the best time! Absolutely loved it!
We did find the weather a tad hot at times, especially with the kids, so we didn't see everything we wanted to but we did as much as we could. The area we were staying in (Southlake) was very affluent with houses going for millions of $$ but we did venture out a bit to scope out the area. Not as much as I wanted to though. We never got to McKinney or Frisco, for example, which are places I really wanted to check out. Just didn't get a chance...
Although I was nervous about it to start with, I really enjoyed driving out there! It's just so relaxed! Wide roads, no one seems in a major rush, and they actually let you go and get into the right lane if you've gone wrong and stuff! Very nice
Another thing I loved? Walmart!! Haha! You can literally get anything there, it's awesome!! Lol!
And the people were just all so friendly! Everyone was doting on our kids and striking up a conversation with us, so lovely! Also going out for meals was just such a great experience every time! I know they work for tips etc but the service we received literally everywhere we went was second to none! Our favourite places to eat were Babe's in Roanoke and Saltgrass in Lewisville.
We also loved visiting the Stockyards and the Dallas World Aquarium! There was just so much to do with the kids!
I had to visit the doctor while out there which all in all cost us about $200 but the experience was just so good! Nothing like the miserable doctors offices here in the UK where you have to wait forever to receive minimal treatment....
Petrol stations were tricky and we always ended up having to go in and pre-pay with the cashier before pumping which was a bit annoying but nothing major of course.
Also met up a few times with one of my husband's colleagues' family who had moved over from the UK 4 years ago so got some great advice from them in case we do manage to make this move happen.
All in all we absolutely loved it out there and now I'm left hoping and wanting even more to move! Fingers crossed I guess...