Moved to Gilbert, AZ 4 weeks ago...here's what I think. (Phoenix: car insurance, house)
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Moved to Gilbert, AZ 4 weeks ago...here's what I think.
So, we arrived in Gilbert on July 1st after a 3 day drive from Chicago. 4 weeks later we feel like this is home...and we absolutely love it!
#1 thing I like about AZ - Nice people!
Shortly after arriving on our first day we realized that we didn't have any water. I had called the Town of Gilbert about 3 weeks prior to get service set up in our name and to start on July 1st. So I called and spoke to a very nice girl who had me check a couple of things, and then said someone would be out to turn it on within 2 hours. I was thrilled! Coming from Chicago (or the Chicago suburbs anyway), things just never work like that. An hour later we had water and a friendly "Welcome to Arizona" from the water guy. In fact everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) that I've met, whether it be a stranger in the grocery store, a server at a restaurant, a clerk at a retail store, the women handling registration at the schools, the ups driver, the guy who serviced our misters, the furniture delivery guys, and everyone we encountered at the MVD....have been soooo nice! I really just can't believe it. Everyone has stopped what they're doing just to talk! People in Chicago are in general, just kind of crabby. I was probably even kind of crabby there. Who wouldn't be....it's a miserable place to live. Anyway, that's one of the things I love about Arizona so far.
Second great thing...no traffic (at least for me!)
Now I've read a lot of complaints from people in various threads about traffic. Now granted, we work from home so we don't have a daily commute across town...or across many towns during rush hours, BUT, I have done a lot of driving since we've been here. This week I've been taking my son to skate camp every morning at 8:15 and then I pick him up at 4pm. I have not had to deal with any sort of traffic (or at least the kind of traffic I'm used to). Yesterday I did see some traffic though...heading north on Greenfield I came up to 60 and I could see that it looked pretty bad up there. In four weeks though, that's the only bad traffic I saw. During rush hour in the Chicago area there is no good road to take. Every road is congested....every stop light it takes you at least 2 lights to make it through. I have never sat through more than one light here. When I encounter construction, everyone moves right through it. In Chicago construction creates parking lots! You can easily sit through 6 or 7 lights when construction is involved. Again, I don't drive into Phoenix during rush hour or anything, but I am thrilled at the whole traffic flow situation around here.
Third thing I love (actually this should have been #1) - THE WEATHER!!!
I had lived in Chicago my whole 38 years, and I always knew I was meant to be somewhere warm. Boy is this the place for me! Seeing as how we arrived on July 1st and it's been crazy hot ever since (except for a couple of kind of cloudy days) and I have no complaints. People will say to me "it's not usually this humid" and I'm like "what humidity?" This is nothin compared to Chicago. I admit...it's tough when you have to work outside in the sun, but I'll take that over 7 ft of snow and sub-zero temps anyday. I've learned to look for shady parking spots as climbing into a scalding hot car is probably one of my less favorite things. I do look forward to coming outside from a freezing cold grocery store or restaurant and feeling this "whoosh" of hot air hit my skin. Pure heaven! I do enjoy the cloudy days too, or watching a storm roll in (which has been happening a lot lately, although they never seem to really hit us where we are).
There are so many other things I love but this post is starting to resemble a book. Just to balance it out though, here's a couple things I don't like (or just don't understand).
-Why people don't put carts in the cart returns?!? I don't get it...it's not that hot outside.
-Scorpions. I wish I could walk around barefoot more. We've encountered 6 I think since moving in. We had the whole yard and house sprayed now.
-Our car insurance costs going up.
The pro's definitely outweigh the cons...and I didn't even list all the pros.
Location: Sunny Phoenix Arizona...wishing for a beach.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BeckyfromIL
So, we arrived in Gilbert on July 1st after a 3 day drive from Chicago. 4 weeks later we feel like this is home...and we absolutely love it!
#1 thing I like about AZ - Nice people!
Shortly after arriving on our first day we realized that we didn't have any water. I had called the Town of Gilbert about 3 weeks prior to get service set up in our name and to start on July 1st. So I called and spoke to a very nice girl who had me check a couple of things, and then said someone would be out to turn it on within 2 hours. I was thrilled! Coming from Chicago (or the Chicago suburbs anyway), things just never work like that. An hour later we had water and a friendly "Welcome to Arizona" from the water guy. In fact everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) that I've met, whether it be a stranger in the grocery store, a server at a restaurant, a clerk at a retail store, the women handling registration at the schools, the ups driver, the guy who serviced our misters, the furniture delivery guys, and everyone we encountered at the MVD....have been soooo nice! I really just can't believe it. Everyone has stopped what they're doing just to talk! People in Chicago are in general, just kind of crabby. I was probably even kind of crabby there. Who wouldn't be....it's a miserable place to live. Anyway, that's one of the things I love about Arizona so far.
Second great thing...no traffic (at least for me!)
Now I've read a lot of complaints from people in various threads about traffic. Now granted, we work from home so we don't have a daily commute across town...or across many towns during rush hours, BUT, I have done a lot of driving since we've been here. This week I've been taking my son to skate camp every morning at 8:15 and then I pick him up at 4pm. I have not had to deal with any sort of traffic (or at least the kind of traffic I'm used to). Yesterday I did see some traffic though...heading north on Greenfield I came up to 60 and I could see that it looked pretty bad up there. In four weeks though, that's the only bad traffic I saw. During rush hour in the Chicago area there is no good road to take. Every road is congested....every stop light it takes you at least 2 lights to make it through. I have never sat through more than one light here. When I encounter construction, everyone moves right through it. In Chicago construction creates parking lots! You can easily sit through 6 or 7 lights when construction is involved. Again, I don't drive into Phoenix during rush hour or anything, but I am thrilled at the whole traffic flow situation around here.
Third thing I love (actually this should have been #1) - THE WEATHER!!!
I had lived in Chicago my whole 38 years, and I always knew I was meant to be somewhere warm. Boy is this the place for me! Seeing as how we arrived on July 1st and it's been crazy hot ever since (except for a couple of kind of cloudy days) and I have no complaints. People will say to me "it's not usually this humid" and I'm like "what humidity?" This is nothin compared to Chicago. I admit...it's tough when you have to work outside in the sun, but I'll take that over 7 ft of snow and sub-zero temps anyday. I've learned to look for shady parking spots as climbing into a scalding hot car is probably one of my less favorite things. I do look forward to coming outside from a freezing cold grocery store or restaurant and feeling this "whoosh" of hot air hit my skin. Pure heaven! I do enjoy the cloudy days too, or watching a storm roll in (which has been happening a lot lately, although they never seem to really hit us where we are).
There are so many other things I love but this post is starting to resemble a book. Just to balance it out though, here's a couple things I don't like (or just don't understand).
-Why people don't put carts in the cart returns?!? I don't get it...it's not that hot outside.
-Scorpions. I wish I could walk around barefoot more. We've encountered 6 I think since moving in. We had the whole yard and house sprayed now.
-Our car insurance costs going up.
The pro's definitely outweigh the cons...and I didn't even list all the pros.
Well, to sum it up, we're here to stay!
That's Great! Welcome to Gilbert it's a great town in spite of what some say on here.
..... I do look forward to coming outside from a freezing cold grocery store or restaurant and feeling this "whoosh" of hot air hit my skin. Pure heaven!
One of my favorite things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BeckyfromIL
-Why people don't put carts in the cart returns?!? I don't get it...it's not that hot outside.
I know. Someone walks a mile in a store and can't go the extra 30' to put the cart in that nice receptacle. Now some poor kid has to walk around the parking lot getting carts and I have to drive around trying to find a spot that isn't blocked by a cart. how rude!
Glad you are enjoying your new location. Be aware that spraying does NOTHING for scorpions directly. It kills off some of the bugs that are their food source, but it does not kill them.
What a great post for me to wake up to this morning! My husband was offered a position in Chandler this week so we are heading to AZ, August 5th to check out the area before accepting. Gilbert is one of the cities we've been focusing on. We currently live in a suburb of Cleveland (snowbelt) so I can relate to the winter weather you mentioned, but thankfully I experience kindness from people here more than not.
The idea of moving to this area is very exciting but also scarey deciding to move three children ages 5-11 across the country. We just want to make the right decision as I'm sure you experienced.
Thank you again for such a positive post that included the biggest pros and a few cons you've encountered! It's making me feel better about things.
I do look forward to coming outside from a freezing cold grocery store or restaurant and feeling this "whoosh" of hot air hit my skin.
That's funny, my wife always said the same thing. She's perpetually cold though and is quite happy when it's 100 on summer evenings.
As far as the scorpions go- spraying will not kill them, just some of their food source. What worked very well for us was "dusting" for scorpions. The company puts down a sort of dust that basically sucks the moisture out of their bodies and dehydrates them to death. We had it done twice a year at our house in Gilbert and it helped a ton. I think we had 3 scorpions in 5 years.
Glad you are enjoying your new location. Be aware that spraying does NOTHING for scorpions directly. It kills off some of the bugs that are their food source, but it does not kill them.
The first night we went outside on our patio there were bugs EVERYWHERE! Mostly crickets and roaches, but we did see our first scorpion...a baby. The next day we met our landscaper and he recommended a company called Scorpion Tech. They came out and spent about two hours spraying every nook and cranny. The next morning when I went outside the patio (and pool) was littered with dead bugs. I know getting rid of scorpions food source is half the battle. Since then we've encountered 2 dead and 3 dying scorpions. I'm not sure what exactly Scorpion Tech did, but it's working...so I'm happy!
What a great post for me to wake up to this morning! My husband was offered a position in Chandler this week so we are heading to AZ, August 5th to check out the area before accepting. Gilbert is one of the cities we've been focusing on. We currently live in a suburb of Cleveland (snowbelt) so I can relate to the winter weather you mentioned, but thankfully I experience kindness from people here more than not.
The idea of moving to this area is very exciting but also scarey deciding to move three children ages 5-11 across the country. We just want to make the right decision as I'm sure you experienced.
Thank you again for such a positive post that included the biggest pros and a few cons you've encountered! It's making me feel better about things.
You will LOVE it here! I can't imagine how anyone could not. I've got 3 boys...11, 12 and 14 and they like it so far. I know they're excited to start school so they can make some friends. There haven't been a lot of kids playing outside since we arrived, because it's been so hot. Everyone keeps telling me that if I like it now, when it's so miserably hot, I'm going to love it the rest of the year.
Thanks for the update! This site helps keep me motivated planning our return to Arizona. I'm glad to hear all is going well. You will definitely love the weather later in the year.
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