Houston DINKS, where do you live; how do you connect? (Sugar Land: home, living in)

[QueeensBeans]

Originally Posted by Lowexpectations

Different strokes but I would agree. 4000 is a lot of space for two people with no thought of having kids let alone a lot of kids

We both work from home=2 separate home offices.
We have one elderly parent up north that spends 4 winter months with us=extra guestroom
And yes, game room and theater rooms mentioned by someone else.
Also, we are family central; EVERYONE comes to our house for Christmas and a summer vacation week Candada Day/July 4th.

[Lowexpectations]

Originally Posted by QueeensBeans

We both work from home=2 separate home offices.
We have one elderly parent up north that spends 4 winter months with us=extra guestroom
And yes, game room and theater rooms mentioned by someone else.
Also, we are family central; EVERYONE comes to our house for Christmas and a summer vacation week Candada Day/July 4th.

You aren't living in the heights unless it's a teardown or your budget moves to 600-800k+

[QueeensBeans]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

The OP said they enjoyed entertaining. A decent sized movie room can quickly gobble up 600 sq ft. Thrown in a game room that will comfortably hold a pool table and a shuffle board table along with seating and a bar, and you're down another 600 sq ft. or more.

Exactly. And we've found suburban houses are kind of already set up for that and the requisite 4/5 bedrooms.

[kaelti12]

Originally Posted by QueeensBeans

We both work from home=2 separate home offices.
We have one elderly parent up north that spends 4 winter months with us=extra guestroom
And yes, game room and theater rooms mentioned by someone else.
Also, we are family central; EVERYONE comes to our house for Christmas and a summer vacation week Candada Day/July 4th.

Well unless you plan to live outside Houston in some of the suburban neighborhoods, or in a master planned community outside of Houston. 400k will not get you 4000sq ft in a nice part of of town. It just isn't going too.
Most people live outside of Houston for the school systems, communities etc, so you are going to places be in with lots of families, not other DINKS.

Good luck.

[QueeensBeans]

Originally Posted by kaelti12

Well unless you plan to live outside Houston in some of the suburban neighborhoods, or in a master planned community outside of Houston. 400k will not get you 4000sq ft in a nice part of of town. .

Yes, this is understood; therefore started a thread asking other DINKS where they live, how they connect with friends with similar lifestyles, and whether they find their location really impacts their social lives or not.

[haudi]

We live in Cypress and we grew up out here. Most of my close friends are either in Cypress or Katy/Richmond. We all own cars, and share several of the same interests so we hop into cars and go wherever we feel we want to go be social. Living in the burbs has never impacted our social life since we're willing to drive wherever we want to be. Some of our friends have kids, some don't. Either way, it's never stopped us from having a great social life.

Originally Posted by QueeensBeans

Yes, this is understood; therefore started a thread asking other DINKS where they live, how they connect with friends with similar lifestyles, and whether they find their location really impacts their social lives or not.

[mkwensky]

Originally Posted by QueeensBeans

Yes, this is understood; therefore started a thread asking other DINKS where they live, how they connect with friends with similar lifestyles, and whether they find their location really impacts their social lives or not.

Like another poster mentioned a lot of this depends on your age. If you're under 35 then being inside the loop is better for your social life. That probably has more to do with age than childlessness.
If you're older however then you're likely to be the odd one out anywhere so it doesn't matter as much where you live. You will have to drive to gatherings anyway. I suppose it helps to be more centrally located so the drive is not as bad.
I believe there is a meetup group specifically for childless people. That should get you started as far as building a social life is concerned.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by Lowexpectations

It's still a really large house. The one we just put under contract is just over 2800 with a gameroom that you cold fit with the pool table and shuffle board or make it a media room(seems like having all of them would be an odd requirement for entertaining) and the living/dining/kitchen all large enough to host lots of people

Some people prefer more dedicated rooms. They don't want a game room/movie room, they want a game room and a movie room. They don't want a guest room/office, they want a guest room and an office, or in some cases multiples of both.

Originally Posted by kaelti12

Well unless you plan to live outside Houston in some of the suburban neighborhoods, or in a master planned community outside of Houston. 400k will not get you 4000sq ft in a nice part of of town. It just isn't going too.
Most people live outside of Houston for the school systems, communities etc, so you are going to places be in with lots of families, not other DINKS.

Good luck.

The OP realizes this and started this thread to address those concerns.

Originally Posted by mkwensky

Like another poster mentioned a lot of this depends on your age. If you're under 35 then being inside the loop is better for your social life. That probably has more to do with age than childlessness.
If you're older however then you're likely to be the odd one out anywhere so it doesn't matter as much where you live. You will have to drive to gatherings anyway. I suppose it helps to be more centrally located so the drive is not as bad.
I believe there is a meetup group specifically for childless people. That should get you started as far as building a social life is concerned.

With Houston having a metro population of over 6 million ( Greater Houston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ), there are going to be tens of thousands of younger (below 35) dinks living outside of the loop.

I think anybody living outside of the loop can find plenty of friends, even younger DINKS, if they are active in pursuing them. Sure, it will take more effort in the burbs; however, there is probably less of a chance of losing them once they have kids and decide to move to the burbs, lol.

[pkflyers]

We were DINKS for a while but are now expecting (oh how life will change!) We are both in our mid 30's and when we moved to Houston we rented in the loop for a while but just couldn't justifying buying there. We were just like you, wanted more space, more house, we have parents/family who stay for extended periods, and while the Heights looked good, I couldn't justify what we would have to spend to get a house we wanted - and the plots were not the size we wanted either. We fell in love with the Champion Forest area as soon as we drove through and bought up here pretty shortly after.

We were able to make friends with our neighbors, younger couples like us with kids, other DINKs though various places like the gym, Raveneaux CC, just chatting with people at restaurants or events. We did get quite a few people asking us how many kids we had, but none were condescending or stand-offish about it.

Overall we love living up here, we got a great house with a yard and pool in a great community for what we wouldn't have gotten a 2,000sq ft or smaller townhouse for in other parts of town. Plus we are in a good ISD which is always a bonus.

We also love the location - easy to hop on the beltway to get to City Center or Downtown. Quick trip north to the Woodlands or Conroe. And with the Grand Parkway coming in we will be close enough to use it, but not hear it in our back yard or even know it is there. We went to a concert downtown last Tuesday night and were home in under 30 mins with no traffic at 10pm. If you are working from home than even better! My husbands commute downtown is usually about 45 mins.

Finally, we haven't lost touch with our friends who still live in the loop. Sure we see them less, but we just have great parties at our place, we have extra rooms for people to spend the night. And everyone is always commenting on how they need to get to the burbs because we are so happy up here!

So that's my 2 cents! Hope it is even a little helpful

[Lowexpectations]

Originally Posted by pkflyers

We did get quite a few people asking us how many kids we had, but none were condescending or stand-offish about it.

My wife got questions about kids from multiple people in the neighborhood and a few inquired why we would move/live in champion forest. One lady asked why she worked if we didn't have kids eh not a big deal but still strange.


We did move from the heights to champion forest and now back. The additional housing cost to us is worth it to reduce the commute to the galleria. We have a pool too but never use it so its a pita to keep it clean and pay for it without using it. I do really like the area though