When we had the house fire back in January, insurance gave us the option to move into a rental anywhere we wanted. We were seriously looking at buying a house with some acreage out in Great Bridge, so we saw this as an opportunity to find a rental out there and see how we liked it. We found a house only a few minutes off the bypass. That meant it was pretty easy to get places, and it would just add 10 or 15 minutes to most of our trips. We went for it and signed a 5 month lease.
Our first impression was positive. We could get to our Antioch house in 15 minutes. Downtown Norfolk was close. Other than a little bit of jet noise, the neighborhood was quiet. Great Bridge has a more laid back feel. It retains some of the relaxed nature of its rural roots. We could go a half mile and be in the country. It was nice. Then, within a couple of weeks of moving, I got stuck in traffic multiple times. Once, it was an accident on the high rise bridge that backed up I-64 and blocked every alternative route for me to get home. Instead of 30 minutes, it took 55 minutes. This happened over and over within a short time frame. What made it worse was that every single trip I passed the exit to our house on Antioch on the way to Great Bridge. I thought of that sign on the apartments off Military Highway. “If you lived here, you’d be home by now.”
Right about this same time, the house we were looking at in Great Bridge went on the market, but they were asking significantly more than we expected. The house was built in the 1960s, and it had a lot of original equipment, including the septic system. We considered the cost, the distance, and the fact that we were going to have a brand new house at Antioch, and decided that it wasn’t the right time to make a move. When we made the decision I felt an incredible rush of relief. It was like dreading a major public speaking assignment in school only to find out it got cancelled. My lightened load served as confirmation for our decision.
We then learned that our house wouldn’t be done until December, but our lease was up in July. We had another choice to make. We looked around and decided to move back to Kempsville. We’re going to spend the next four months at the new 525 Kempsville apartments near the corner of Princess Anne and Kempsville Rd. We are excited to get back to our ‘hood, and to try out apartment living for the first time.
The pending move made me wonder if I could quantify the cost of living in Great Bridge. Our intuition tells us qualitatively that we are spending more time in the car, but what does that mean in real numbers? I did some back of the napkin calculations based on the five months we lived in Great Bridge and came up with these figures. For some, it is probably worth it to live further away from the city. Home prices are cheaper, and maybe others have more connections in the Great Bridge area than we do. For us, it is simply not worth it in terms of either time or money.
These numbers represent the difference between living in Great Bridge and living in our home on Antioch Street over five months.
- The five of us spent an additional 562 hours in the car. Over 23 days altogether.
- Between me, Lianne, and Jaron, we drove an extra 16,200 miles.
- That’s roughly $2,090 in gas.
Those figures don’t even account for the mental wear and tear, the vehicle maintenance, the environmental impact, and the danger of being on the road. Our intuition is borne out by the numbers. That’s a high price to pay.