is VA for us??

[Spazkat9696]

Yep the info is on the link I posted. Just remove any damp areas from around the outside of your house. You'll want to do this anyway due to misquotes. Make sure you've caulked around any gaps between your base boards and floors. I think peppermint or spearmint oil will get rid of them to. We've never had an issue in our house, and we live not to far from a swamp. You won't have to worry about them in the winter anyway.

I understand what you mean about the cold thing. No matter how hot I have a sweatshirt for restaurants and the movies. I usually have to take a hot shower when I get really cold.

I personally like it here, and have found it's a great place to live raise a family. Even before we had our son we always had plenty of fun stuff to do. There is usually a festival of some sort every weekend spring - fall. Plus we have friends to hang out with. No it's not NYC, but it's got everything I need & want.

[ghostcrabs]

Have you considered other coasts? Like Houston - only 1 hour from the gulf coast. Or Austin, which is 3 hours from some of the Gulf Coast beaches - way more affordable, better schools, job market fairing better then other areas, and no cockroaches. Or Sacramento - it's about 140 miles to Santa Cruz which has beautiful beaches and less bugs. I'm not sure about the schools, but the housing market has totally tanked there so I'm guessing there are also more affordable rents if your intention is to increase savings.

The Hampton Roads area has okay schools and there are definately **** roaches around.

[averageperson]

JACKSONVILLE Florida real estate is so cheap, you would be shocked.
But, its not a liberal city.

[averageperson]

Jacksonville, Fl real estate so so cheap. Hard to believe

[lhartsell89]

The thing about the Hampton Roads Area is that there are good areas and there are bad areas but they are so close together it's sometimes hard to know the difference. I grew up in Virginia Beach and my husband and I find it very expensive. We are thinking about moving away. The cost of a two-bedroom apartment here (in a somewhat decent area) is above 800 dollars. You can get way more for your money somewhere else. If money isn't an issue then you can find really nice areas in the more rural parts of the area (Hickory, Pungo, Red Mill, Great Bridge, etc). I would definitely stay out of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Newport News. That's where most of the crime happens. Recently though Virginia Beach has been on the news a lot for crime too.

Like I said before, there are really nice areas and really bad areas. If you do move here make sure you research the area you are moving too.