Relocation to Austin from the UK! (Houston, Round Rock: houses, schools, to live in)

[ukgirl]

Hi everyone - I've found this site to be invaluable in giving me some good insight into Austin, which seems to be a friendly, vibrant community. I am naturally concerned about heat, humidity, storms & mosquitoes, but coming from cold and drizzle (Suffolk in August) I feel nothing can be worse. I'd be very interested to hear from other UK ex-pats about their experiences.

My so (American, raised Cincinatti, Ohio) and I are coming over for a look at properties in October. We're lookig for a house, not on an estate, pref with a pool, either by a lake or in Austin - it certainly seems like outside Austin gives better value, but the traffic appears to be a concern. We're not worried about schools or daily commute however. I would welcome any info

[Neil]

Hi ukgirl. I'm a UK ex-pat who moved here from Yorkshire in 2000. I was born in Cambridgeshire, but had RAF Dad so moved around alot and ended up in Sherburn, between York and Leeds.

[Spookmeister]

Formerly of West Drayton and Hounslow East, now in Round Rock. Nothing to fear as far as any of the issues you've raised.

Heat- AC is the law in TX.
Humidity- I'm pretty sure that CenTex is less humid than Suffolk.
Storms- Over-rated and over-hyped by overzealous, idle media people. A passing cloud is now reason enough to interrupt programming to inform us there's a possibility of rain in our area.
Mosquitoes- We do have DOOM here too.
It really wouldn't matter where you choose to live in the Austin area given that you'll be in shock at NOT having to live in those little shoe boxes called houses in the UK at a fraction of the price.

I bet you'll be sending out relocation invitation postcards within three months of moving here. No one will believe your pictures. They'll thinkyou've photo-shopped them to make it appear grander than it actually is.

[bumpy_1954]

I've been here since June from Houston, one of the great mosquito capitals of the world! There's a drought going on, but Hill Country (west & north) is pretty dry - have yet to see a mosquito. Had to get an exterminator for ants, tho.

Storms? Let me tell you about storms - I'm an Alicia survivor (Houston 1983, I think) ant that was cat. 1 or 2, I believe. Not too scary but I was young back then! We drove HERE to escape Rita last year. For 6 hours, I swear, my husband and I thought we were going to die - I felt like I was stuck in a corny sci-fi movie. Our only consolation was that our 2 children & grandchild were in Austin - out of (major) harm's way. The TV at 3am was showing people stuck on Houston freeways for 10+ hours not moving, gas nowhere to be found, the computerized graphics of the storm surge put all of Galveston & half of the city under 10ft plus of water, and they talked about 175 mile an hour winds 50 miles inland! By thursday daytime, temps reached 100+ degrees, killing at least 35 (mostly old and newborn) people stuckin their cars (not including that terrific bus fire killing 25 nursing home residents fleeing Houston). Finally, It looked like Rita was moving east - every mile made us breath a little easier. Then they made contra lanes of all the major freeways, and we got to Austin to my son's house that friday morning. We saw mile after mile of cars and people stuck in the middle of nowhere on I-10 west. Thousands were huddled about empty gas stations every 5 miles or so. We watched as we wizzed by, knowing we couldn't help any of them, knowing we would have been one of them if we had tried to escape the day before. I have to say that Rita really put my life in perspective, and my husband and I (23 years) rarely get in stupid fights anymore - we learned through Rita how to let the little things go!

If Austin ever gets a storm like that, it will probably be the end of the world anyway - I'm so happy to never have to face that paricular fear again!

I plan to live here the rest of my life. I'm from Sleepy Hollow, NY - very beautiful but I hate cold and love summer - I love it here! How's that for a 'quick reply'?!