Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Being relocated to Marble Falls area by the end of July
Oh boy, where to begin.
I have a 7th grader and a good small school is essential. She is in a small school now and has no desire to attend a large school.
We are horribly upsidedown in our house and so a short sale may be our only option. This means we will need to rent for a year or 2. We are going to try and sell it, we have 6 months but I am not holding my breath.
We currently live in a 1800 sq ft house. Would want something in the 1400-1800 sq ft range. 3 bedrooms. Our son will stay behind for another year until he finishes college. We have 3 cats and would like to keep the rent at or under $1500. How does one go about finding rentals?
I have no desire to commute an hour each way, I currently commute 6-8 minutes and want to stay at under 1/2 hour. We have no desire to live in Austin, too big, to much traffic and frankly too far away. We are looking to stay within 1/2 hour of Marble Falls.
A newer house with good AC is a must. We are coming from a high desert and the thought of the humidity scares the bejeezus out of me but a huge power bill won't do either.
We visited the Austin area 4 years ago for a family vacation. We spent 10 days at Schlitterbahn and while we loved it we were miserably hot the entire time.
Do people have de-humidifiers in their homes?
So, any suggestions on where to live? How to go about finding rental homes and getting a good handle on a school system? When we arrive DD will be heading towards 8th grade.
Also, can you all tell me a bit of the culture we will be moving into?
Religion - my DD wants to know if "everyone" goes to church?
Schools? The TX rating system is confusing to some degree, what else should I be looking at?
Friendly to newcomers?
Bugs? Do you have bugs, what kind and what do you do about them?
How about alcohol?
Acceptable?
Can you buy it in the grocery store etc. When we were there on vacation, we went to the SaltLick in Driftwood and learned what a dry county was
I am sure I will come up with a gazillion more questions, but these are some of the bigger ones that come to mind
Thanks a bunch, I see lots of informative posts here and so I'm tossing this out to you all
I personally would contact a realtor to find a home that you want to rent, let them do the legwork for you. They will send you pictures of homes inside and out giving you a good idea, they will show you information on schools in that area, etc. Its no cost to you the owner is the one paying -- to get their home rented.
You can go to any search engine and type in rentals in marble falls and a realtor will pop up with their listings and you can look at them. You can search marble falls schools and the info will come up. The Official Site of Marble Falls, Texas | Texas Hill Country is the home page for Marble Falls, it looks very beautiful. And welcome to Texas.
I forgot bugs...the one thing I hate here is the ants, they bite ,, it hurts! It doesn't seem like you can totally get rid of them either, they just seem to come back and love biting me LOL I don't think I will ever get use to them but you can use products on their nests to get rid of them for awhile. We get small spiders off and on. Mosquitos off and on, I rarely see them where i live, 1st year we had some standing water then we had them alot it seemed. Flies once in awhile. We do have scorpions I saw one once. We do get snakes, most are harmless. I thought I would panic and move if I saw one now they don't bother me. Others I am sure will come and tell you more but this is all I have seem...
Also, can you all tell me a bit of the culture we will be moving into?
Religion - my DD wants to know if "everyone" goes to church?
Schools? The TX rating system is confusing to some degree, what else should I be looking at?
Friendly to newcomers?
Bugs? Do you have bugs, what kind and what do you do about them?
How about alcohol?
Acceptable?
Can you buy it in the grocery store etc. When we were there on vacation, we went to the SaltLick in Driftwood and learned what a dry county was
1 - No, not everyone goes to church, but specific areas may have more or less people that do. I can't speak for MF specifically, since I do live in Austin, but it has never been a subject at all in my neighborhood conversations, so maybe they all DO go to church and I just don't know it.
2 - IMHO, just look for a recommended or exemplary school and try not over-analyze it. You child's home life and own nature will be a much larger factor than trying to fine-tune your location to a specific school.
3 - Not sure in MF, but most people are either friendly or just ambivalent. Despite the occasional rhetoric on this forum, you just do not see it in real life. I have yet to actually know or meet someone who gets bent out of shape over 'new comers'.
4 - Bugs, lots of em. The 'infamous' ones are fire ants, scorpions, brown recluse, and (not sure if you are including them as 'bugs'), snakes. I don't think about them at all really, but they freak some people out. The only one that is everywhere, it seems, is fire ants.
5 - Is alcohol acceptable? Umm..yeah . The dry county thing really isn't about acceptability, imho, but about who got to make the money back in the day. It is kind of a relic. Hays (where the Salt Lick is located), is a 'damp' county - sales are dependent within the county. I think the Salt Lick doesn't sell alcohol because they did not obtain a liquor license or want the liability. A list of truly 'dry' counties (from TABC web site):
1. Andrews
2. Armstrong
3. Bailey
4. Borden
5. Collingsworth
6. Crosby
7. Delta
8. Fisher
9. Franklin
10. Gaines
11. Hemphill
12. Kent
13. Lynn
14. Martin
15. Ochiltree
16. Panola
17. Parmer
18. Roberts
19. Sherman
20. Sterling
21. Throckmorton
22. Yoakum
MF is in Burnet County, so the liquor laws will vary a bit by location within the county (Burnet is neither dry or wet, do it is 'damp', as well). I have never been in a grocery store in Hays or Travis County (both 'damp' counties) that did not sell beer and wine. Liquor can ONLY be sold in a liquor store in Texas, and those stores MUST close a 9 pm.
As far as schools go, Marble Falls ISD is OK to good. But they are a smaller school district and the campuses are not so large.
Depending on your tolerance for driving, you could choose to live in Lake Travis ISD and make an easy rural highway drive to Marble Falls for work. But LTISD schools are larger. BTW - what is a small school to you? Total campus size? Or classroom size? Your child is less than two years from high school. And Marble Falls HS enrollment is in the 1100 student range.
I forgot bugs...the one thing I hate here is the ants, they bite ,, it hurts! It doesn't seem like you can totally get rid of them either, they just seem to come back and love biting me LOL I don't think I will ever get use to them but you can use products on their nests to get rid of them for awhile. We get small spiders off and on. Mosquitos off and on, I rarely see them where i live, 1st year we had some standing water then we had them alot it seemed. Flies once in awhile. We do have scorpions I saw one once. We do get snakes, most are harmless. I thought I would panic and move if I saw one now they don't bother me. Others I am sure will come and tell you more but this is all I have seem...
Ants are extremely easy to get rid of. Pour some amdro flakes on the mound and the whole mound is dead in 2-3 days. The mounds take a long time to form so we rarely have to do it more than once a year or so.
Being relocated to Marble Falls area by the end of July
Oh boy, where to begin.
I have a 7th grader and a good small school is essential. She is in a small school now and has no desire to attend a large school.
We are horribly upsidedown in our house and so a short sale may be our only option. This means we will need to rent for a year or 2. We are going to try and sell it, we have 6 months but I am not holding my breath.
We currently live in a 1800 sq ft house. Would want something in the 1400-1800 sq ft range. 3 bedrooms. Our son will stay behind for another year until he finishes college. We have 3 cats and would like to keep the rent at or under $1500. How does one go about finding rentals?
I have no desire to commute an hour each way, I currently commute 6-8 minutes and want to stay at under 1/2 hour. We have no desire to live in Austin, too big, to much traffic and frankly too far away. We are looking to stay within 1/2 hour of Marble Falls.
A newer house with good AC is a must. We are coming from a high desert and the thought of the humidity scares the bejeezus out of me but a huge power bill won't do either.
We visited the Austin area 4 years ago for a family vacation. We spent 10 days at Schlitterbahn and while we loved it we were miserably hot the entire time.
Do people have de-humidifiers in their homes?
So, any suggestions on where to live? How to go about finding rental homes and getting a good handle on a school system? When we arrive DD will be heading towards 8th grade.
Also, can you all tell me a bit of the culture we will be moving into?
Religion - my DD wants to know if "everyone" goes to church?
Schools? The TX rating system is confusing to some degree, what else should I be looking at?
Friendly to newcomers?
Bugs? Do you have bugs, what kind and what do you do about them?
How about alcohol?
Acceptable?
Can you buy it in the grocery store etc. When we were there on vacation, we went to the SaltLick in Driftwood and learned what a dry county was
I am sure I will come up with a gazillion more questions, but these are some of the bigger ones that come to mind
Thanks a bunch, I see lots of informative posts here and so I'm tossing this out to you all
MamaCatNV (soon to be MamaCatTX)
Get a realtor, but supplement with Trulia. It uses a map based search that makes it much easier to see where things are at. Overlay with google maps etc to get a feel for distances to amenities.
In austin you can rent a house for about $1/sq ft easily. I would think prices would be lower in marble falls.
AC's dehumidify down to 55% or so. It is really dry in the winter. Right now my skin is really dry and my lips are cracking. I dont know anyone with dehumidifiers. You will acclimate - when I go to the desert it is very uncomfortable because my skin completely dries out and cracks.
4 years ago was actually a cool year, it is much hotter
Many many people go to church. It is possible that you could end up with a very churchy street, but it varies even by street, not necessarily by a whole city.
Friendly to newcomers will vary by street. Overall people here are like people everywhere. Most good, some bad.
You can buy beer and wine at grocery stores, liquor at liquor stores.
As far as schools go, Marble Falls ISD is OK to good. But they are a smaller school district and the campuses are not so large.
Depending on your tolerance for driving, you could choose to live in Lake Travis ISD and make an easy rural highway drive to Marble Falls for work. But LTISD schools are larger. BTW - what is a small school to you? Total campus size? Or classroom size? Your child is less than two years from high school. And Marble Falls HS enrollment is in the 1100 student range.
My Daughter is currently in a small Charter School with a high academic bar. The schools overall in NV are lousy, we are excited to be able to put her into better schools. Her Charter is rated the 2nd in the state out of all schools but again, given the bar, that's probably not saying a whole lot.
Marble Falls high school is appealing at 1100 - schools with 2-3K are not appealing. Her current campus has about 800 7-12th grade so MF will seem like a big school to her but from what I read the teacher student ratios are good.
She's not into athletics but enjoys art.
Lake Travis schools from what I have read are growing at a pretty rapid rate where as MF and the surrounding areas seem to be a bit more stable in their numbers. I live in a small community now and would prefer to stay somewhat rural opposed to a big city or a congested suburb of a city.
Get a realtor, but supplement with Trulia. It uses a map based search that makes it much easier to see where things are at. Overlay with google maps etc to get a feel for distances to amenities.
In austin you can rent a house for about $1/sq ft easily. I would think prices would be lower in marble falls.
AC's dehumidify down to 55% or so. It is really dry in the winter. Right now my skin is really dry and my lips are cracking. I dont know anyone with dehumidifiers. You will acclimate - when I go to the desert it is very uncomfortable because my skin completely dries out and cracks.
4 years ago was actually a cool year, it is much hotter
Many many people go to church. It is possible that you could end up with a very churchy street, but it varies even by street, not necessarily by a whole city.
Friendly to newcomers will vary by street. Overall people here are like people everywhere. Most good, some bad.
You can buy beer and wine at grocery stores, liquor at liquor stores.
I vaguely remember that. I know it was the summer of epic rainfall and everywhere we went people were telling us how unseasonably cool it was all the while we were melting I actually don't remember the heat being as big a factor as feeling like we could not breath. I know it is something we will get used to, we just have no clue how to live in a humid place.
Example:
Food storage - my bread, chips, cookies, spices & dry goods stay good for what seems like forever without a lot of thought or effort on my part.
I can put dishes/pans away wet and they dry very quickly
My clothes dry in our dryer in a very short amount of time
Mold is almost unheard of
Towels dry on the hooks in the bathroom within an hour or 2 after using
Thanks for all the replies, I really do appreciate it
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I actually don't remember the heat being as big a factor as feeling like we could not breath. I know it is something we will get used to, we just have no clue how to live in a humid place. 
