house hunters: wichita??

Well, Dean and I may not have been HGTV but it really felt like we were lost in Oz this past week:( the house hunting started....poorly, and then it continued...even worse, so we accepted a house on base. This was both the answer and the beginning to our NEW problems. Dean was told by several (SEVERAL) co-workers that we NEED to live off base. "Don't do it," they said. "You'll hate it," they warned. I, having lived on a military instillation my entire life had a hard time believing that it was any different than I remembered but Dean, ooohhh sweet Dean was scared to death that his co-workers were right and we would be stuck in a housing area that was awful. SOOOOOOOOOO.....since we hadn't picked up keys or signed the official "acceptance" letter yet we decided to use Dean's last couple days of TDY to search a little more. We looked at EVERYTHING!!! I even (to appease my lovely husband) agreed to look at places without basements. Let me tell you problem NUMERO UNO with the housing in Wichita: it is poorly kept/maintained/updated. I don't know if we looked at a single house that didn't have dark brown trim, old steel windows, and smelly carpet. I'm assuming from the smell of these places that the pet population in KS however is very high. It's also an anomaly to find a single family home in the Wichita-metro area with a basement!! If its a single family home it doesn't have a basement. If it has a basement it's $1,700 a month (I'm probably UNDER exaggerating). If it has a basement, its a duplex or townhome. NOTHING makes sense in this housing market. We were told by one realtor, after seeing a window that was cracked and held together by duct-tape: "well, the landlord really doesn't want to fix this because the windows are old and pricey and this is just a rental." Dean couldn't keep up with me as I RAN out of this place. After looking at probably every rental property (house, apartment, townhome) in the southeast side of Wichita (which is where we were told by many many friends to look) we ventured to the Northeast side of town. THIS IS HOME! (we thought) it reminded us very much of Lexington with all the restaurants and shops and NEW (yeah i said it!) real estate! We found a couple options (apartment options, the homes are OUTRAGEOUS! and rightfully so) but none would be available any sooner than base housing. We were back at square one:( where are we going to live for the next 28-ish days??!!We put the house hunting on hold for the weekend, got our thoughts together and decided to go church shopping instead. Any excuse to go shopping right:) I found a couple churches (through my love, google) that offered contemporary services so we picked one and left. Luckily i had google-ed several churches that morning because before Dean and I even sat down in the pews we knew this was not the church for us! Not that there was anything wrong with the church what-so-ever, it was just very very traditional and came with an older, traditional crowd. SO as embarrassing as it is to admit, Dean and I snuck out the side entrance and drive about 1/2 mile up the road to Central Christian Church. We pulled in and I could tell immediately that this would be a better fit, thank God (seriously, I was thanking him!). The crowd was younger, the worship band was lively and very talented, and the lead minister (we found out later) is from LEXINGTON! We couldn't have felt more at home! Well....that's a blatant lie. We could have felt more at home, at home:( but my gypsy soul was pleased and I could tell Dean was relieved to be able to talk a little UK bball. That afternoon Dean got a call from his friend Jerry. Jerry went to tech school with Dean in Texas and was the ONLY other poor soul who got stationed with him at McConnell. He had good news for us! Jerry's long-time girlfriend Gina has a good family friend who just so happens to be a realtor in Derby, a town very close to base. Jerry goes on to tell  us that Kathy (the realtor) has a house for us to look at for a great price that meets all our needs. PRAISE JESUS!!! (seriously, I was praising!) So, long story short we set up the  meeting and had a look at what (hopefully) will be our new home!! Dean has to work out some kinks with our paperwork on base and we're praying that the housing office doesn't make this difficult for us, as they can. But the place is about as perfect as we could hope for! Full finished basement, 2 car garage, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, small deck, GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD, and not more than our monthly salary in rent:) So send your prayers our way! If we get to move in we'll have plenty of room for visitors too! and I  know you're all just dying to visit the wheat fields of Kansas. LOL