Some idiot took the police on a high speed car chase up I-45 yesterday, ramming the back of a cop car and flipping it over before trying the same trick with much less success on a cop SUV. He ended up wrecked, dragged out of the car, and thrown roughly on the concrete. Apparently the chase started in the apartment complex right across from the JSC credit union — a complex where many of my friends have lived in the past.
I swear, we really have some wack jobs down here in Clear Lake.
Hopefully the craziness is not due to something in the water, or a consequence of suburban life, because the house search continues for Jose and me, and everything we’re looking at is even more suburban than my current apartment. We’re coming to a conclusion on which neighborhood and which builder we feel most comfortable with, and it’s actually a little scary how quickly we were able to narrow it down once we started really looking.
Our favorite neighborhood is Magnolia Creek, a golf course community on the west side of I-45 in League City. It’s the neighborhood farthest away from work and the commute would be about a half hour, which is about as much as I’m willing to do. It’s been there for 5-6 years, so part of the area is established, but they’re still building in one section. There will be more sections opened up in the future, so overall the development is probably 50-60% complete.
Coventry and David Weekley are the two builders in that area. Both are more expensive than other builders in this area, but I think part of that is simply the location. Both are similar in price, but we like the Coventry floor plans much better than the Weekley options. We’ve been back to Coventry three times now, and haven’t been anywhere else more than once, so it seems that the decision has been made. By the end of the month we might be building a house. Crazy.
In fact, it’s sort of insane to think about how many major decisions we’ve made in the past few months — marriage, wedding, to-leave-Houston-or-not-to-leave, and buying a house.
Related to another one of those major decisions is this — Jose is starting his new job today! He is moving to the engineering directorate, where he will be working on more technical projects and helping design the next NASA vehicle. He’s pretty excited, and I know he’s going to be much happier over there, but the transition is going to be weird. Many of you already know this, but in case you don’t: back in 2006, after only 6 months of dating, Jose and I applied for and got spots in the rendezvous flight control office. So we have not only worked in the same group for the past 2+ years, but we’ve also been in the same office. Our desks were only about 6 feet from each other. (There are four other people in the same big room as well.)
So after two years of spending literally every moment of the day together, he’s now in another building. Although working in such close proximity was never really a problem, I know that the move is definitely for the best…I mean, it can’t be healthy to spend that much time together, and it’s better to have a married couple working in separate locations. But it’s weird to look at his desk now and know that he’s not ever going to be there again.
If anyone has experience with Coventry homes as a builder, I’m all ears.
Coventry is a good choice for a builder.
Jaclyn and I looked at Magnolia Creek (we lived in Friendswood at the time), but getting in and out and over to I-45 was just too much madness, although they are supposedly working on it.
We really liked Westover Park (West side of 45 off of FM 518), but I think they are on close out right now.
Really? I don’t see any problems with married people working together… or spending a lot of time together either. Maybe I’m the weird one though? Honestly after 12 years of working with Arthur I am not tired of him…
Magnolia Creek is nice… hate the commute. I don’t know what used to be there before that subdivision came in but on certain days it really stinks over there… like you are driving through a landfill stink. BLAH! Nice golf course though, maybe you could take up golf? 🙂
Yeah, the traffic getting to 45 from Magnolia Creek may be an issue, but there is a lot of construction at the highway interchange that is pretty far along. I bet it will be close to complete by the time we’d move at the end of summer. And the NASA bypass actually does make it easier to get over to the space center. We know someone that lives there now and he says it’s half hour to work, so we’re basing it on his data point.
And Tracy, I honestly don’t see many problems either, at least with us — we got along just fine despite being together all the time. I’m going to miss having him here. I’m just glad he’s still on-site so we can have lunch together, etc.
Even if the construction is going on the interchange that is supposed to make it better, beware! As a transportation planner I am compelled to inform you of the phenomenon of “induced demand” which means in simple language if you build more highways they get filled up. Also, you and how many others are moving into that area?? All the new houses result in many more cars so a 30 minute commute can grow as the area builds out.
After having a long commute by car and now by train, I would do anything to have a shorter commute. 30 minutes doesn’t seem long, but day after day after day it definitely adds up. I was doing about 30-45 minutes driving to Chapel Hill from Burlington and it gets old fast, and that was with no congestion. So, I don’t know my Houston/Clear Lake geography at all but if there is something closer I’d take a second look.
I don’t know much about Coventry, but the hubby and I do like their floorplans. I know of Weekley, because in my Trendmaker days they were one of our main competitors. They do make a good home, but we couldn’t find the perfect floorplan with them.
Maybe you can get up really early one morning drive to the neighborhood of choice at approximately the time you think you’d be leaving and then drive the commute to see how it really is. I’m sure you’re also doing this when you’re comparing, but look at cost per sf which helps compare apples to apples.
Katie is right about induced demand, if you build it they will come. On the other hand, if you’re in a golf course community you can take up the sport and K&J will have a place to play when they visit. Plus, if you walk it’s a decent workout especially if you carry your clubs, about a 4-5 mile walk picking the clubs up and down everyshot.
Oh yeah! With the new stimulus plan passed today you get an $8,000 tax credit which isn’t recaptured unless you sell within 3 years. You may want to check the income limits, but I think they’re pretty high for married couples which may be an incentive to wait until after the wedding (or figure out how taxes will work afterwards).