We have been allocated MQs at last! Please come and explain some stuff for me?

[BonnieJoon]

We have a house

wooohooo

So they have given us a date to move in and do the inspection and all that. I know that the previous "tennants" are marching out 4 weeks before our move in date, because DE are going to redecorate.

Will I be able to go into the house before our move in date and measure for curtains and stuff?

You might be able to if you sweet talk someone at DHE.

Alternatively you could ask a neighbour if you could measure her windows? Presuming the houses are the same!

If they are redecorating, you might, might get a chance to choose the new curtains (if they're up for replacement) yourself. Worth asking the question and saves you buying or putting your own up. They do have some nice fabrics now!

Hate to disilluion you bonnie joon, dh works for dhe and atm the budget is shocking and the demand is high, it is unlikely that the house will be redocated unless it really needs it... didn't want you to have expectations and feel horribly let down on your move in,

The current tennants may still move out 4 weeks prior but the allocations team when they allocate take into account previous tennants overstaying (for whatever reason) and urgent repairs rather than redocoration.

On the positive side, when we lived in married quarters (I was navy) accepting less than perfect condiion at move in meant that we didn't have the same charges at move out!!

Good luck with your move, oh and the dhe often don't get the keys until a couple of days before as up til that point the house is "owned" by the contractors as DHE don't actually own the housing stock anymore.

And if the curtains are due for renewal you can choose, but expect a bit of a wait as the orders seem to take an age to come through and again budgets are limited..

Dh really loves his job .....NOT

He wants to help people and gets told off by managers for authorising unnecessary stuff!

Hey great news!

I am whinging today because after finally unpacking all our boxes they are replacing our kitchen lino which means I can't use the kitchen for 24 hours. All my white goods are stacked in my hall!!! The house had been empty for months before we moved in grrrrr!! Never mind this time tomorrow I will have a new kitchen floor

You can ask for a pre march in visit. I was able to do this twice here (as they changed the quarter allocation). The staff were lovely.

So when are you moving? If I can help let me know

I know we are due for new curtains, but my DH is not pushy enough - I keep nagging reminding him about this. He says it is no big deal. I remind him that I work from home and the amount of valium and gin it will take for me to cope with these curtains day in and day out is not worth him not following it up!

my preious MQ hadn't been redecorated for 9 years before we moved in. They told us during our march in. They had the cheek to try and force us to re-paint the lounge before we moved out. They said it looked too , and I quote, "lived in"!!!!
They might run round with a "tester pot" touching up any cracks. lol

Glad you have a house tho hun.
I'm having a right 'mare with Our MQ in NI at the mo, its falling apart around me!!! lol

X

Oh - they might provide curtains? I presumed we would have to provide them.

Doris - I don't mind if they don't redecorate tbh - but they said that they were decorating. He even asked if we could waive the decorating for a quicker move, but they said no.

McD - 9th March the house is available. We are on a patch a few miles from base. I have a place at Halton school, but other schools might be closer now.

I finish work on Friday, so will have more time to mn sort stuff out.

Thank you all - will see if I can sweetalk DHE person for a pre march in visit.

They will provide curtains! So one less thing to worry about, however, they might be chinzy and flowery, which might be your bag
So far we've been lucky and had pale green carpets or brown, with plain coloured curtains with tiny diamonds on them. So not too bad, certainly not bad enough that I'm movtivated to change them. [lazy emoticon]

We have different patterned curtains in every room. Sends me mental. 'The man' is coming around on Thursday to assess if we need new curtains. I am willing to leave what we have downstairs, but I will be demanding new ones in the bedrooms - what we have doesn't block out the light, which is a pain for us at the moment since we then have street-lamp light in our room all night, and will be a big problem come spring in the four year old's room! Bugger an assessment, give me my curtains!

Oh right I didn't realise there was a patch further away from the base. Offer still stands though - if I can be of any help.....

herbie - oh, I plan on putting in blackout blinds come summer, but I am talking the palest of pale yellow thin curtains in bedrooms! The pity is I have thick curtains from my son's room in Australia coming on the ship with everything else,but they are long and either I have to cut them and hem them, or give up on the idea. But that is my last resort for his room if it comes to that. The carpets we have are relatively new, but the colours upstairs are rose and salmon pink - doesn't go with anything I own! (including said curtains)

I want to buy my own curtains but my DH thinks it is a waste, and what if the next place has different sized windows??? I said it is not that big a drama, but what do I know

I have all my own curtains - they (more or less!) seem to have fitted the last 8 houses!

McDreamy are you in teh UK now then? I must have missed that bit!

OK - will stop fretting about curtains - I just had visions of moving in and having no way to hide the chaos from the neighbours.

So just the trivial stuff like schools and moving to sort out.

Oh - and a new job.

I might need to pick your brains McD. I have a job interview on 11th (in London) and am going to try to combine that with a couple of days visit. Need to find a BnB (will google) and find something for the kids to do round aylesbury while I am gone (my 20 yr old can look after the other two, despite his protests)

I am going to pay for CAT opn Friday so will email you.

Thank you all for your help - it's daft but I have been with DH for 11+ years, but never done the living in MQs thing. I feel like a fish out of water, not knowing all these policies etc. But because he isn't a newbe I guess it looks like I should.

Don't forget the 14 day observation form is back so make sure you write down everything that is wrong

Oh - I intend to be completely eagle eyed for anything that is wrong