Housing on Kelley Barracks

If you are a military family moving to Stuttgart, this post will be helpful. If you’re not, you might just be curious as to how this all works and how things have gone for us so far.

One of our first priorities when we arrived in Stuttgart was to figure out where we were going to live. I mean, the kids were loving the hotel life…for a minute. Living out of a suitcase and eating out for every meal gets old pretty quick. Our hotel — the Marriott in Sindelfingen — was really nice, but we were missing some of the amenities that would have made it easier. For example, the pool was closed while we were there and there wasn’t a free breakfast like we had hoped. I did love the sauna and the fitness room, the hotel design and adjoining rooms, and the location was pretty central to where we needed to be. It was great that it had a dedicated laundry room for people moving to the area (there is a constant flow of them), but we kept finding that someone would take our fully wet clothes out of the washer mid cycle so they could put theirs in. And the condenser dryers (common in Europe) never dry clothes very well anyway. Our hotel room ended up being lined with wet clothes hanging to dry for a few days. The hotel had a great PCS package (for those moving and staying a long time) that includes breakfast, the laundry room, parking and pet fees that are all additional costs, but the rates only applied to stays longer than 30 days. We were really hoping to get out of there sooner, so we didn’t have the benefits of the PCS package for the 9 days we were there.

Just 9 days! We were expecting closer to 60, so this was a welcome surprise.

Let’s talk about the housing situation here. The housing office requires you to give them 60 days to offer you an apartment on post and we were ready to wait, kind of hoping we would get a nonavailability letter so we could live off post. On the flip side, civilian government employees and contractors can only live off post. Currently, all active duty military is required to live in housing provided across Panzer, Patch, Kelley, or Robinson barracks. We would have loved to have lived off post, but it wouldn’t be an option for us unless no apartments were available.

Both on and off post have their own benefits and draw backs. Living off post can mean you and your children are more isolated. Unless you speak German, you may not have much connection with your neighbors, and all of your children’s friends will be spread across the city and the post so it takes a lot of effort to get friends together and have your kids be happy. There is frequently a lot of traffic here and the cost of gas is very high, even with our gas ration card.

Living off post also means you get to experience a cool, European house and it would be easier to have a more immersive experience. Lots of things are different! Think tiny kitchens, dorm-size refrigerators, spiral staircases, no closets or carpet. But also amazing windows, a garden or yard, maybe beautiful views. Rents in this area are high, utilities can run up to and over $1000/month, and a parking spot or garage space can be an extra monthly cost so there are additional factors to consider.

Living on post means your kids have instant friends everywhere you’re a part of a tight-knit and trusting community. Everyone is in the same boat making the most of a unique living situation. You also have the benefit of dual electrical outlets so you’re not 100% relying on transformers and adapters. *You will still need some European appliances as things with motors, like microwaves, vacuums and hair dryers will not work on the American outlets or work well with transformers because the Hz is not dual.

All housing on the barracks, unless you are a General, is stairwell apartments. Each of the barracks has their own look and feel in the housing area. Some are more drab than others on the exterior, and some areas seem to be generally better taken care of, whether that’s because of the current residents or the base facilities maintenance, I don’t know. Honestly, some parts we drove around looked pretty rough with old outdoor grills and furniture piled up, and others you could tell the residents were making it a beautiful space as much as possible. The actual apartments have the same finishes on the inside, but there are different floor plans, square footage and community areas to each barracks.

Matt attended the required housing briefing while I went to the housing office with the spouse of our sponsor. She was amazing to have by my side because she knew all the questions to ask! Matt will be working with her husband and they have been here with their three children for three years so they really know the place. They are civilian, however, so they didn’t know how living on post would work.

We were immediately offered an apartment on Kelley barracks and were given two different keys to see a different floor plan and floor. Kelley barracks is the place for bigger families (anyone that has 3-4+ children). These apartment buildings have an A wing, B middle, and C wing. A and C have the same floor plans at about 2400 sq ft, and B is a bit different with out 300 sq ft less. I knew I wanted to be on an end unit for the extra windows so I was given a second floor key and a fourth floor key to the A side. I was also given a key to see a 4-bedroom apartment on Patch for comparison.

Here is the floor plan for an A or C unit on Kelley:

When we arrived on Kelly, I loved how different it looked from Patch and Panzer. The high-pitched scalloped roofs and yellow buildings surrounded by green fields and tall trees seemed more quiet and friendly than the stark WWI-era German buildings on Patch. Housing on Kelley is secluded at the back of the post. We walked through the second floor apartment first, getting a glowing review of the building and the area from a neighbor who is moving out soon as we walked in. My first impression was that it was clean and spacious. The kitchen is very basic, but I expected this as I had seen some pictures before arriving. I was told I wouldn’t have a balcony in this unit so when I saw one that was a plus. It is about 6-8 feet deep and 15 ft long. Many of the other units have flower boxes and have made these balconies really great extra living spaces. One side of the unit has 2 good-sized bedrooms and a full bathroom with a tub. The opposite side of the apartment has 3 large bedrooms (one of them is the master with a bathroom attached) and a laundry room. All of the bedrooms and hallways have built-in cabinets for closets and storage. The concrete basement has a large, private storage area that will be big enough for all of our garage and holiday storage items and give easy access to our bikes.

There were two things I noticed immediately when we looked at the fourth-floor apartment: the temperature was several degrees warmer (there is no A/C here), and the smell. This particular unit had strong smell to it that was an immediate turn off for me. There were also lots of dead bees on the floors and the washer and dryer were a mismatched set. It was easy for me to decide that this wasn’t the unit for us, especially considering my baby grand piano that would have to come up the four flights of stairs, and imagining myself hauling the groceries up, too. Some people have no choice and make the most of the fourth-floor apartments and do just fine. I was glad to have seen the comparison.

Our last apartment to look at was on Patch. This was a 4-bedroom floor plan on the third floor but much smaller, by over 500 sq ft. The kitchen and the living area was half the size of the Kelley apartment. It had a weird smell to it like the other one so you’d think this would be a super easy decision for us, but I was still really stewing over whether to take the Patch apartment or the Kelley apartment. I was torn over how living on Kelley would impact our family life outside of having more space. My husband will be working on Patch and knowing where the schools are between the barracks and the ages of my kids, I was trying to also think about our overall family life and ease of getting to all the places we need to be. What made my decision was a conversation we had with a resident of the building on our way out. We asked if he could tell us how he liked it. He didn’t. He had moved onto Patch purely for the convenience of being close to work and schools for his kids but said that particular building and the post was tough for the drama between residents, the public shaming on Facebook pages, and the cramped quarters. It helped us to make a decision in the end on what would be most important for our family.

You can probably guess — we chose the Kelley apartment on the second floor. As we have settled in with the loaner furniture and borrowed kitchen items, it really doesn’t feel like home yet. We are working to establish routines that give us purpose and things to look forward to, and meeting lots of new people while we wait for our household goods and cars to arrive.

My son took this picture on the day we “moved in” with our suitcases. Housing provides loaner furniture like beds, a couch, table and chairs until our household goods arrive. We also were able to borrow kitchen basics like pots and pans, utensils, plates, an iron and ironing board from the Army Community Services office. We did need bedding, pillows and towels. I asked a member of our church here if we could borrow some. When we moved to England, the base provided them, so not having that was a surprise. I packed bedding and towels in our UB (unaccompanied baggage) shipment which should arrive by the end of the month.

I went down a rabbit hole for about an hour today trying to plan a quick weekend getaway to Paris since it’s only a 3-hour high-speed train ride away, but I realized we are going to want to give Paris more than just two days and that the cost of visiting Paris deserves a longer stay too. Booking the fast train just a few weeks out means higher prices as well. Just to give you an idea — a three-night stay in Paris in a budget hotel for a family of six with very conservative spending is about $3000-$4000. I want to soak it up the right way so we will plan to spend more days when we go this Fall.

This apartment living, and moving so often with the military in general, has helped me to really focus on what actually matters in ways I don’t think I would have learned otherwise. We’ve lived in other places where there is such an emphasis on what your home looks like, how you decorate it, what cars you drive, and how you dress that it’s easy to get caught up in material things that don’t matter. I’m excited for our belongings to arrive so I can make our home a place of comfort for us and a welcoming place for others to come. And mostly so I can sleep on my own bed again!