Our housing offers came in!

We received our housing offers! Here's how it worked: We attended the housing brief on Monday morning. We learned what type of floor plan we "rank," based on his rank. Ha. They also have a "live where you work" policy; so, they will try to place you as close to work as possible. The majority of places here in Okinawa are 3 bedrooms. When I was back in the states researching the type of housing we would be getting it was so hard to find the info! I don't understand why; it's so basic!! Well, I can only speak from my personal experience. Again, Mike is an 0-3 in the Marine Corps working on Camp Foster. We do not have any kids or pets (yet), however, it seems that even if we had two kids we would be getting the same house. Here is a chart of the housing you will be offered (as of this writing and in our situation). They have this displayed in the housing office.

They had everyone fill out the housing application at the brief. Mike is very diligent and he completed our paperwork back in February, which was a waste of time. There's no priority list if you do the paperwork early, so don't worry about it. So at the housing brief, we sat there and watched people fill out their apps. Yay. Then they told everyone that they have a new automatic system that generates housing offers for you, based on your entitlements. You MUST choose one of these offers. If you don't, then you will not receive housing allowance. People with pets get so scared, but they seem to take care of them. She said even if the system generates a place that does not allow pets (only the towers above the 2nd floor don't allow pets) then you can request an un-renovated house. Either way, you will get to be with your little guy.

So…we got our call on Thursday to come pick up the keys for our two offers. Once you pick up the keys, you have 24 hours to choose your house! One of our offers was the 6th floor of the towers and one offer was a house in "The Plaza."

The Towers:

The hallway outside the elevator/the front door 

The kitchen is right off the entrance

Living/dining

 Kitchen off the living room

 Kitchen

Nice view from the living room

Bedroom 1 - Bedroom 2 is the same (not pictured)

Closet in bedroom 1 - There were tons of storage closets!

Bathroom

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

Master walk-in closet

The Plaza house:

It's very "industrial" housing in Okinawa - to withstand quakes and typhoons!

The entrance

Living/dining

Window off living room

Storage closet - this is what I make my husband do for my entertainment! Haha.

Back door, kitchen to right, laundry room

Kitchen

Another pantry, laundry to right, bathroom to left

Guest bathroom

Laundry room

Out the back door we go!

Patio to the right

Patio to the left

The friend we found in the coat closet! We've heard horror stories of giant spiders and meal worms in the houses. This little guy will keep them away!

Bedroom 1 - same as bedroom 2 (not pictured)

Bedroom 1/2 closet

Bathroom - notice the "industrialness" and the super high tub

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

Shower

Closet - huge walk-in. I told Mike I like my new closet and asked him where he was planning on putting his clothes. Haha ;)

We chose the plaza house (the second one pictured above)! It's off-base and in a really cute neighborhood. The only cons are that we heard that the traffic getting to/from base can get pretty bad and there is no commissary or other stores here - you have to go to either Camp Foster or Kadena Air Force base to go shopping, which is fine because it will allow me to explore even more! We have an appointment on Monday to set-up our move-in date and find out when all of our housing goods will be delivered! I can't wait to start nesting!!

P.S. If you are PCSing to Okinawa and have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them! And, if you haven't done so already, you can check out the website Okinawa Hai: http://okinawahai.com. It has some good resources for military living. It's kind of confusing to look through at first, but gets easier once you are here and start learning the area.