Decisions, Decisions (Houston, Pasadena, Sugar Land: rentals, neighborhood, high school)

[Poltracker]

Originally Posted by ThaBigCheese

How long did it take you to go from Sugarland to Deer Park on an average day?

You seriously do NOT want to do that commute. It would be at least an hour in a good traffic day (non-major hours) and to do that you would be paying at least $8.00 in toll road fees each day on top of the gas. It is a distance of 40 miles from the Deer Park area (35 from N Pasadena) only counting highway miles. You would be much happier in Clear Lake or some place like Summerwood, possibly even Deer Park or the part of south Pasadena zoned to Deer Park schools.

[chris_ut]

Originally Posted by ThaBigCheese

Ok Chris, I want to know who you're using for your electric company! I most certainly don't want my salary increase being eaten up by that kind of electric bill! How warm/cool do you keep your house? I'm looking at a rental for a while and i want to do what I can to keep it as comfortable and efficient as possible!

I use Entergy, they are slightly higher than some of the new companies but very reliable. I keep the house on 77 during the day and run the fans if it starts to feel hot, at night we run it at 71.

Also I wanted to second that living in Sugar Land and commuting to Pasadena would be a bad idea, better to concentrate on Cleark Lake or Kingwood

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by chris_ut

I use Entergy, they are slightly higher than some of the new companies but very reliable. I keep the house on 77 during the day and run the fans if it starts to feel hot, at night we run it at 71.

OK, hearing that convinces me to call a AC service person. We keep our temperatures warmer than Chris does and we still had the first bill be $425.

[chris_ut]

Thats a good idea, we had a $140 bill a few months ago and when we called the AC guy he found a leak and after he fixed that the bill dropped back down to normal.

[icon7]

I actually did the drive today via the toll road@ 8:15am. 37 miles in 45.5 minutes. Traffic was almost non-existent. However, I do not do this drive every day. once every few months. A few years ago I did this drive everyday..I just got used to it...but Gas was $1.2x then. another route to avoid toll is, if you leave early, take 59 to 610 to 225. It saves 7 miles.

However, you can't go wrong with Clear Lake city if you wanted to be closer.

Originally Posted by ThaBigCheese

How long did it take you to go from Sugarland to Deer Park on an average day?

[Topaz]

ThaBigCheese, if you do decide to do a commute involving tolls, get the EZ Tag and then you can sail through without stopping. Since my husband has two toll stops each way between Sugar Land and Clear Lake, he is a big fan of the EZ Tag program.

Also, ThaBigCheese, since you are going to be new in town, you might not know yet about the Houston Transtar Web site where you can monitor Houston traffic. We love this Web site because you can clearly see by watching the traffic flow that it isn't just distance that determines how bad a commute will be, but traffic patterns also. We try to stick to routes that are normally green.

[Premont]

Don't rule out Friendswood. It wouldn't be too bad a commute and they have top rated schools.

[ThaBigCheese]

Originally Posted by icon7

I actually did the drive today via the toll road@ 8:15am. 37 miles in 45.5 minutes. Traffic was almost non-existent. However, I do not do this drive every day. once every few months. A few years ago I did this drive everyday..I just got used to it...but Gas was $1.2x then. another route to avoid toll is, if you leave early, take 59 to 610 to 225. It saves 7 miles.

However, you can't go wrong with Clear Lake city if you wanted to be closer.

What are the toll roads? I just did a Mapquest and Google Earth and it took me 59 to 45 to 610 to 225. Around a 34 mile trip and 45 minutes, of course not taking traffic into consideration.

[ThaBigCheese]

Originally Posted by Premont

Don't rule out Friendswood. It wouldn't be too bad a commute and they have top rated schools.

Thanks, are they in the Clear Creek ISD? I thought that they were. When I look on har.com I just do a search in that school district when I want to look in that area. Is that covering enough of Friendswood?

[ThaBigCheese]

Originally Posted by Topaz

ThaBigCheese, if you do decide to do a commute involving tolls, get the EZ Tag and then you can sail through without stopping. Since my husband has two toll stops each way between Sugar Land and Clear Lake, he is a big fan of the EZ Tag program.

Also, ThaBigCheese, since you are going to be new in town, you might not know yet about the Houston Transtar Web site where you can monitor Houston traffic. We love this Web site because you can clearly see by watching the traffic flow that it isn't just distance that determines how bad a commute will be, but traffic patterns also. We try to stick to routes that are normally green.

Topaz does your husband drive the beltway 8 to Clear Lake? I know when I was there last week that was the road that had the toll on it, but I was getting off at Deer Park so I only went through one toll.