Does anyone live outside the Manhattan realm? By this, I don't mean JC; I am asking if folks are living out in Clay County, Wakefield, Milford, or perhaps Herington? If so, what are your communities like as far as schools and grocers, etc.? Is it a nice place to live, or is it run down?
Also, do you own or rent?

*Do you get to FR via a back gate? 

I love small towns! I really like Abilene! I wanted to live in Chapman when we first got here, unfortunately it didn't happen, yet! I like the smaller, less crowded schools too. I lived in a small town a few years ago (before going overseas), I really loved living there! I still have friends there and I miss them and that town!

It's not for everyone though! Some don't like the limited shopping or things "to do" feeling they would miss from larger cities. I don't mind if I have to drive to the next town or city to go grocery shopping. Where as some have to have a grocery store near by. As far as rundown goes, that's up to personal opinion.

To each their own! I would live in Small Town USA any day over big cities. 

I am agreeing with Janie, I live in Abilene and love that it's small but yet big enough to have some stores. Yes we are limited somewhat and we do have to drive 35 miles to work one way, it's all worth it. 

I live in herington. Own. Its a wholelot cheaper for housing. I hate the drive. Our grocery store has like double the prices on everything and our tax rate is pretty high. I don't know much about schooling except that its brand new. I don't really think its a terrible place. Some of the houses are run down and some people just have tons of crap, but there's a lot of really nice places. There's a really nice house for rent for 575, so its a whole lot cheaper. I use the back gate to get to class, there's no traffic. 

I definitely prefer small town USA. My spouse and I were just driving home from Early Edition (family restaurant across from CICO Park), traveling south on Kimball, when I saw this massive coyote in the back yard of the big opulent home you pass after the circle. It made me think, I definitely want fencing at my new house! C: 

I live in herington. Own...

When you say back gate, which are you referring to? I have heard there is one by Riley (the city, not post). I know I like two houses in Herington I've seen via the web, but I have heard some not so great things about the city; but, then again, some people are lame and just talk...um, not so nice stuff. I wasn't aware that the schools there were new; that's a plus in my book. 

Susan, all I have to say about Abilene is: bada**. LOL. They dominated the all day wrestling meet this past Saturday and the school's buses rule. 

Our kids do excel in sports, our football team went 9-0 this year. They lost their last game to the #1 team in our division so they should be really proud of themselves. 

Have you seen this place off Wheatridge, Susan? It's been on the market since before I PCSed back over from Germany, but there is no picture gallery. 

What grocers do you have out in Abilene? I tend to favor Ray's Apple Market! C: 

I go around jc on 77 and go in 4 corners gate. I'm really not home a whole ton, but I personally don't think the town is that bad. My neighbors keep to themselves and there aren't any crap houses that I have to look out my front door at. And the school looks really nice. If you don't mind the drive its not bad at all. 

We bought a house in Abilene and moved in mid-October. We love it so far. Hubs works on the airfield, so he goes in the main gate. It takes him about 20 mins to get to work.

Country Mart and Zey's Grocery are in Abilene. I haven't been to Zey's yet, but I get their ad in the shopper and the prices seem decent. Country Mart is a little higher than the commissary, but not too terrible. They have a decent selection, also.

We haven't lived here long so I don't know a lot about the schools or anything, but I really like all the little shops downtown. There are lots of antique shops and home decor type places and gift shops. There are also a ton of museums here. I think it's pretty cool. We can't wait to ride the trolley around town next year and take a ride on the train they have sometime.

We live in a really nice neighborhood here. Most of the town is really beautiful, like old victorian houses. There are a couple of areas that are a little more run down, but it's more like a house here and there rather than a whole area of bad.

We also really like the big park here in town. We are looking forward to the little guy getting a little bigger so we can take him there.

There are lots of restaurants here, also. We have fast food places if we need it and there are some nice small town sit-down restaurants.

We are both from small towns in Iowa and are used to having to drive to get to things. Abilene is 10x bigger than my hometown, lol. I consider it a small city, I guess. Hah! We really prefer small town life. The thought of living in JC and Manhattan gave me the heebie jeebies. 

Wakefield is a nice small town with a K-12 school. There is no grocery store, so the closest would either be JC or Clay Center which has Rays Applemarket and and Keir's. It is 20 minutes to post and when Estes Gate was opened we used that to get on the hill. Now we use either the 4 corners gate or rifle range gate which is open until 9am I believe.
Wakefield has 2 gas stations, a restaurant, and a bar and grill. Library and museum. That's about it. I personally think with a town like Abilene you still have the small town feel without everyone knowing you and being in your business, lol. 

We moved off post in June deciding to buy a house in Abilene. We live on the outskirts of the town since we wanted some land to spread out on after being on post for 6 yrs.
My kids attended school on post for 6 yrs and have been in the schools here in Abilene since August. We really like the schools here. The class sizes are smaller. On post the average class was 26-30 students. Here it's 18-21 students. I also like the way they have the schools broken up here by grade. K-1 go to one school. 2-3 go to another 4-5 to another and they all attend the middle and high schools. I like that they keep the kids seperated as it cuts down on the bullying. My kids also really like it here.
My girls ride the bus this year and they have a great bus driver. He's very quick to take care of any problems that arise or concerns you may have.
We really like the library here, as well as all the museums, shops, etc. and the small town atmosphere.
There is going to be a train ride with Santa on Dec. 10th. Cost is $10/person and I know they are almost full. You can get tickets by calling the Abilene dept. of parks and rec.
They always seem to have some kind of activity going on that kids and families can attend.
My hubby mixes up the way he goes to post. Sometimes going up I-70 to 77and sometimes 18 to 77 depending on his mood and road construction. No more than 35 mins. either way. 

Excellent responses thus far! Time for a few new question(s)... (:

For those of you who've recently purchased a home, did you get a better deal than VA? Did you have to pay a percentage to a realtor? Did you have to put any money down and/or pay closing costs?

Thanks, helpers!! 

Side note, I having been eyeing some of those gorgeous Abilene Victorians! :0) 

We chose to go VA because we did not have to put anything down. All we had to pay were our closing costs, and inspection fees. You can many times work into the contract that the seller pays all closing costs, but of course the sellers have to agree to that.
One thing I will say is DO NOT USE USAA! We used them and hindsight being 20/20 we would have gone with a local bank. They were a night mare to work with on a home loan. Great for banking and insurance, but horrible for home loans. Google them and you will find all sorts of horror stories.
The biggest thing is to know what you can afford making sure to take into account the cost of utilities, and gas going to and from post. Also if you haven't yet I would recommend you or your spouse or both take the home buyers course they offer on post. It is very informative and free. Good Luck. 

Thanks, Amanda! We have all our ducks in a row, and we are well within our budget, but we are teetering on not using VA. We're going bonkers trying to weigh pros and cons! As for USAA, I've heard things. We recently thought we had a steal with our pre-approved auto loan through them, but the Chevy dealer beat their offer. It pays to be patient and well informed- for sure! C: 

I haven't seen the house that you are asking about but it wouldn't hurt to call one of the realtors in town. My husband and I both work on Camp Funston so we drive to work together, it works out great. There are lots of people who tend to carpool but we make last minute plans all of the time so carpooling isn't convenient for us. 

After fifteen years in, you figure how long deployments run, living a little ways away doesn't phase my gas budget much. Sad, but true. As it stands now, I almost never hit up post; and, my spouse avoids it like the plague on his off days! C: 

When ya'll moved out toward Abilene, was it from post? Did you have to pay a small fortune on movers? A DIY move wouldn't work for our heavy wood furniture; plus, we'll have to pay the piano company a good chunk of change to relocate our 157 year old piano. It took five mover guys to manage the piano coming over from Germany. I wonder how much could be saved by wrapping up my dishware and wall hangings myself, though. 

I actually lived in Enterprise before moving to Abilene. I left a bad relationship and moved pretty much with the help of my 13 year old son and my family. I have a friend who owns a box truck and rents it out fairly cheap. 

If you are moving off post you will have to move yourself, and the army will not reimburse you for any of it. Lots of times you can get guys in the unit to help with the offer of a bbq or cookout after they are done. My husband and I started packing up 3-4 months in advance a little at a time. We had one guy come to help us and we rented a uhaul for the weekend. It took us all Friday evening and all day Saturday to load and unload the truck. 

Yeah, I know the Army isn't paying for me to move into my own house from Manhattan to anywhere USA or worldwide. LOL. I am just cringing at the hefty price I'll likely have to face when I finally take the leap. That leap would be made far more swiftly, if I could only find a replica cottage to the one in The Holiday...and in the right neighborhood! 

We ended up spending about $500 when it was all said and done. Between truck rental for 2 days and gas. We spent as much if not more in gas than on the actual truck rental. My hubby has been in 17yrs and we really like it here so we figured instead of giving our money to Picerne every month we might as well let the Army make our house payment for a few years until he retires. Good Luck finding the house that fits you. We looked at several before we found the one that felt like home when we walked into it and knew it was the house for us. Of course the 6 fruit trees, asparagus patches, rhubarb and huge established garden plot didn't hurt either. LOL 

We went through VA b/c we did not have a downpayment set up. We did our mortgage through First National in JC and we got a 3.75% interest rate. We got our house for $5500 less than asking price and seller paid closing costs, so that saved us another $3000 or so. The only thing we had to pay up front was $500 earnest money, which we got back when we closed.

We were going to go through USAA but were warned against it so we cancelled our pre-approval with them and went to First National. Lynn Devine is the loan person there and she was AWESOME. She's pretty straightforward and gets things done quickly. We closed in less than 30 days from the date of our first offer.

We didn't have to move off post b/c we bought in conjunction with a PCS, so I don't have much input in that department. 

You could always look into hiring a moving company to move only your heavy furniture and do the rest yourself. Might save you some money. 

Oh, and also, as the buyer you never have to pay the realtor's commission. That is all on the seller. We worked with Black & Company in Abilene. I wouldn't advise using the agent we did, she was kind of a ditz. But the broker and owner of the company is great, and they may have some better agents, lol. They donate 20% of their commission to the charity of your choice when you buy or sell a house with them. So we got $500 donated to the charity of our choice and it basically came out of the seller's pockets, not ours. 

JP, you got me laughing, I know about the ditz, lol. We really wanted to move to Abilene when we PCSed back here in September and we made contact with agents there.

Sounds like you got some nice deals :) 

any info on the small town of talmage just north of abilene???