[surfergirl602]

Our first time west of the Mississippi. We've always lived on base, with housing before we've even arrived. This is the first time we've ever had to find out own housing, and I'm completely freaked out. I have no idea where to begin, what neighborhoods are the safest for me and my children, and what schools are the best in the area.

A little background: we are coming from New York - we aren't used to the weather, heat, country, etc. (I'm a city gal)

We have three children ages, 8, 6, and 18 months. We have 3 dogs and a cat. We need s p a c e. A nice big plot of land. We want to rent. A commute to post really doesn't bother us.

We will be relocating there around 15 January 08, and will probably stay in post lodging until we find a house we like.

What should I be doing right now?

[colleeng47]

Hi surfergirl602 - Welcome to the forum and OK! We addressed PCing at Fort Sill recently. Check out this thread: http://www.city-data.com/forum/oklah...sill-help.html

Good luck with your search. Check out all the prior threads here, and you'll get a lot of good info from a lot of helpful people.

[surfergirl602]

Originally Posted by colleeng47

Hi surfergirl602 - Welcome to the forum and OK! We addressed PCing at Fort Sill recently. Check out this thread: http://www.city-data.com/forum/oklah...sill-help.html

Good luck with your search. Check out all the prior threads here, and you'll get a lot of good info from a lot of helpful people.

Thanks so much! Still working on getting to know the forum, so thanks for the link! Three months and I'll call OK home - waaaaayy different than NY!!

[2Blonde]

Originally Posted by surfergirl602

Our first time west of the Mississippi. We've always lived on base, with housing before we've even arrived. This is the first time we've ever had to find out own housing, and I'm completely freaked out. I have no idea where to begin, what neighborhoods are the safest for me and my children, and what schools are the best in the area.

A little background: we are coming from New York - we aren't used to the weather, heat, country, etc. (I'm a city gal)

We have three children ages, 8, 6, and 18 months. We have 3 dogs and a cat. We need s p a c e. A nice big plot of land. We want to rent. A commute to post really doesn't bother us.

We will be relocating there around 15 January 08, and will probably stay in post lodging until we find a house we like.

What should I be doing right now?

Surfergirl,
I grew up in Lawton/Ft. Sill. You will find it a wonderful community to live in with a reasonable cost of living. I married an Army officer who I met while he was stationed at Ft. Sill. Lawton really does everything they can to support the military community. Ft. Sill has won army post of the year several times. In addition to being a pretty good place to raise kids, there is also a lot to do. We have the Wichita Mountain's Wildlife Refuge (WMWR) where you can spend almost every weekend swimming, hiking, sightseeing, watching the buffalo, the prairie dog town. The WMWR is also home to the annual Easter Pageant/ Passion Play. People from all over the USA come to watch the midnight show. You are only 2 hours & 45 minutes from the Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) area and 1 hour from OKC (which by the way is going to be the new home of the Seattle Sonics NBA team). The state fair is a huge deal in Oklahoma and is held in OKC & is well worth the effort to go to. OKC also has an area known as Bricktown (?) I believe, which is very much like the Riverwalk in San Antonio or the West End in Dallas.

As far as living in Lawton goes... If you're not going to be living on base then you probably want to look at either the far west side or the far east. If you are interested in the central area of Lawton, which is where the older homes are, then you want to avoid the southern edge (south of Gore Blvd.) or the northern portion (North of Cache Rd.) By the way "Cache Road" is pronounced "cash". But if you choose the west (west of 38th street) or east side east of 2nd street) then you should be fine almost anywhere in those areas. No matter where you live you won't be further than 15-20 minutes, at the most, from the base. The housing lots there are good size for the most part. If you really want more land then you will probably want to look out in the country, ie...Cache, Elgin, Fletcher, Walters. There should be plenty of rentals in the city limits or in one of the small towns I mentioned.

As far as elementary schools, Crosby Park, Edison, Woodland Hills, Hugh Bish are all good ones on the west side. I have been gone for 8 years so some of that info is subject to change. I'm a west side gal and went to Edison, Eisenhower Junior High & Eisenhower High School. So I'm probably a bit biased toward the west side.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

[surfergirl602]

Originally Posted by 2Blonde

Surfergirl,
I grew up in Lawton/Ft. Sill. You will find it a wonderful community to live in with a reasonable cost of living. I married an Army officer who I met while he was stationed at Ft. Sill. Lawton really does everything they can to support the military community. Ft. Sill has won army post of the year several times. In addition to being a pretty good place to raise kids, there is also a lot to do. We have the Wichita Mountain's Wildlife Refuge (WMWR) where you can spend almost every weekend swimming, hiking, sightseeing, watching the buffalo, the prairie dog town. The WMWR is also home to the annual Easter Pageant/ Passion Play. People from all over the USA come to watch the midnight show. You are only 2 hours & 45 minutes from the Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) area and 1 hour from OKC (which by the way is going to be the new home of the Seattle Sonics NBA team). The state fair is a huge deal in Oklahoma and is held in OKC & is well worth the effort to go to. OKC also has an area known as Bricktown (?) I believe, which is very much like the Riverwalk in San Antonio or the West End in Dallas.

As far as living in Lawton goes... If you're not going to be living on base then you probably want to look at either the far west side or the far east. If you are interested in the central area of Lawton, which is where the older homes are, then you want to avoid the southern edge (south of Gore Blvd.) or the northern portion (North of Cache Rd.) By the way "Cache Road" is pronounced "cash". But if you choose the west (west of 38th street) or east side east of 2nd street) then you should be fine almost anywhere in those areas. No matter where you live you won't be further than 15-20 minutes, at the most, from the base. The housing lots there are good size for the most part. If you really want more land then you will probably want to look out in the country, ie...Cache, Elgin, Fletcher, Walters. There should be plenty of rentals in the city limits or in one of the small towns I mentioned.

As far as elementary schools, Crosby Park, Edison, Woodland Hills, Hugh Bish are all good ones on the west side. I have been gone for 8 years so some of that info is subject to change. I'm a west side gal and went to Edison, Eisenhower Junior High & Eisenhower High School. So I'm probably a bit biased toward the west side.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

Thank you soooo soooo much for your info!!! I've already sent it all to my hubby. It's so nice to know which areas to avoid. We'll want to rent, and this is good info to tell a realtor. (know and good ones?) We have three dogs, a cat, and three kids, so we always need something on a larger scale. Land is nice, because our dogs like to run. (what dog doesn't?) Cooping them up in a little place just doesn't seem fair.
melissa

[LadyRobyn]

Hi surfergirl.

We detoured through the Elgin area awhile back and I posted up some pictures... if you would like to get an idea of what the area looks like.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/3871551-post5.html

From this thread:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/oklah...trip-pics.html

Welcome to the forum AND Oklahoma!