relocating to Houstion possibly, where to live? - Page 2

[alegna]

Originally Posted by almadianna

I am curious why you think that shopping at WF means that you dont have to worry about pesticides? They have conventional stuff too it isnt all organic.

:

I won't buy any produce at WF as a rule- most is conventional and even that is way more expensive than anywhere else.

-Angela

[ShwarmaQueen]

I worked downtown before DS was born and it took me 30 min from my driveway to my parking garage at work most days. I live in Kingwood. There's not a WF here but there is an HEB that carries a huge selection of organic produce and lots of playgroups (some crunchy, most mainstream) and lots of trails (called Green Belts) that go through the neighborhoods. It's a lovely, peaceful place to live.

[buksnbootz]

This is exactly the thread I was looking for! We are preparing to move from the San Francisco Bay Area to Houston. DH will be working in downtown Houston. We were so disappointed to learn that the Houston chapter of Holistic Moms Network disbanded, as that is definitely my tribe here in the Bay Area.

One of you mentioned in a post that you live in a high concentration of crunchy mamas. Where is that?

I don't want to venture into the Whole Foods debate, but I am definitely going to miss my local Trader Joe's here. Are organic foods pretty mainstream in the Houston area? What about local produce? Are there organic farms offering CSA shares? And hormone-free/organic meats?

For schools, we are probably going to go the Montessori route. When I Google "Montessori Houston" I get lots of results. Do any of you in Houston have more specific feedback? My girls are 3 and 1, so I'm concerned about Kindergarten and early elementary in the next few years.

We have been considering living inside the loop if we can find a nice home with space (we really want a good sized yard, like 1/2 acre), or else up the direction of Spring. DH will be permitted to work from home a lot and make a schedule that will allow him to miss the worst of rush hour, but living within 20 minutes still sounds like a dream. So we are really unsure about whether to stick to inside the loop or venture further out. The housing prices seem rock bottom to us after struggling with the concept of buying in California for the last few years (and ultimately deciding not to), but part of the purpose of the move is to live more within our means so we don't want to splurge on housing either. I'd say we'd like to stay under $350,000.

TIA!

[AndrewsMother]

Originally Posted by almadianna

I am curious why you think that shopping at WF means that you dont have to worry about pesticides? They have conventional stuff too it isnt all organic.

My grocery list basically consists of all organic fruits and veggies, very little packaged stuff except for eggs, yogurt, and other dairy stuff. I dont get any personal care stuff because I get everything through frontier co-op so maybe that is a huge difference. I also get my meat through Paidom so maybe WF has a better meat selection.

I have actually compared the HEB on bunker hill and the WF's (even the big kirby one) and have found that the HEB has much more variety of organics when even WF does, especially for packaged stuff. Even the detergent that I use (Biokleen) has more varieties at HEB. At WF they just had the premium plus which has stuff that I dont want in it for my cloth diapers, and at HEB they had the regular good old fashioned one.

Going back to the OP though, years ago I was so happy to be close to a WF because I could not get anything that I wanted to buy except for there and now I go once every 6 weeks or so when I get a craving for anything 365.

I was referring to the organic selections. At least we are loyal to our stores!

Originally Posted by buksnbootz

This is exactly the thread I was looking for! We are preparing to move from the San Francisco Bay Area to Houston. DH will be working in downtown Houston. We were so disappointed to learn that the Houston chapter of Holistic Moms Network disbanded, as that is definitely my tribe here in the Bay Area.

One of you mentioned in a post that you live in a high concentration of crunchy mamas. Where is that?

I don't want to venture into the Whole Foods debate, but I am definitely going to miss my local Trader Joe's here. Are organic foods pretty mainstream in the Houston area? What about local produce? Are there organic farms offering CSA shares? And hormone-free/organic meats?

For schools, we are probably going to go the Montessori route. When I Google "Montessori Houston" I get lots of results. Do any of you in Houston have more specific feedback? My girls are 3 and 1, so I'm concerned about Kindergarten and early elementary in the next few years.


TIA!

Montessori-
Most of the schools that you Google are not "real" Montessori schools. I have friends that attend schools that are Montessori in name only. The Post Oak School (AMI) and School of The Woods (AMS) are the only two that I can recommend in good conscious, and even I prefer The Post Oak School greatly. The tuition is reasonable, similar at both schools and comparable to other private schools in the city.

[buksnbootz]

School of the Woods sounds amazing, and I love that it goes through high school. Is that in the Spring Branch neighborhood? What is the neighborhood like? Ideally I'd like to live within a couple miles of my children's school. This would also be relatively close to DH's work in downtown.

[alegna]

Originally Posted by AndrewsMother

Montessori-
Most of the schools that you Google are not "real" Montessori schools. I have friends that attend schools that are Montessori in name only. The Post Oak School (AMI) and School of The Woods (AMS) are the only two that I can recommend in good conscious, and even I prefer The Post Oak School greatly. The tuition is reasonable, similar at both schools and comparable to other private schools in the city.

"reasonable" tuition is of course objective. Most families I know find Post Oak tuition to be completely out of reach to ever consider.

Originally Posted by buksnbootz

School of the Woods sounds amazing, and I love that it goes through high school. Is that in the Spring Branch neighborhood? What is the neighborhood like? Ideally I'd like to live within a couple miles of my children's school. This would also be relatively close to DH's work in downtown.

School of the Woods is in the Spring Branch area. There are ALL sorts of different neighborhoods in the area- from a little run down to oh-my-gosh mansions.

-Angela

[AndrewsMother]

Originally Posted by buksnbootz

School of the Woods sounds amazing, and I love that it goes through high school. Is that in the Spring Branch neighborhood? What is the neighborhood like? Ideally I'd like to live within a couple miles of my children's school. This would also be relatively close to DH's work in downtown.

Choosing a school that goes through High School was important to me too. We applied to two schools for my son, The Post Oak School and a school that is PK3-12th grade. He was accepted to both, and choosing was an agonizing experience. I love Montessori, but I was deterred by the fact that the school did not extend beyond the 8th grade. Private school competition is fierce, and I was worried about my son not gaining admission to a good private school, so we chose the non Montessori route.

My son's school is on the fringe of Spring Branch, and I can reach downtown in about 15 minutes.

[almadianna]

Originally Posted by AndrewsMother

The Post Oak School (AMI) and School of The Woods (AMS) are the only two that I can recommend in good conscious, and even I prefer The Post Oak School greatly. The tuition is reasonable, similar at both schools and comparable to other private schools in the city.

I think the Post Oak school is a lot more expensive, like 20% more if I recall. I guess reasonable depends on what you are comparing too. But for my family they are not reasonable at all.

[AndrewsMother]

Originally Posted by almadianna

I think the Post Oak school is a lot more expensive, like 20% more if I recall. I guess reasonable depends on what you are comparing too. But for my family they are not reasonable at all.

You are right, there is a difference in price. In my mind that there is not that much of a difference between $13,000 and $16,000. I would not base my final decision on a difference of $3000 if I like the philosophy of one school over the other.

[wills_mom]

Originally Posted by buksnbootz

This is exactly the thread I was looking for! We are preparing to move from the San Francisco Bay Area to Houston. DH will be working in downtown Houston. We were so disappointed to learn that the Houston chapter of Holistic Moms Network disbanded, as that is definitely my tribe here in the Bay Area.

We are moving from the SF Bay area to Houston this Winter too. We have been looking in the Woodlands/Spring area as well. I will be imploring family to ship me some of my favorite TJ items.