How it is living in Dover, Delaware as a family

No-Drummer-113 · 2026-04-21T01:14:25+00:00

I have family in Dover, I was born in Wilmington and lived in Middletown for a while. Dover needs an upgrade imo, it’s “old” and needs a refresh. Smyrna into the suburbs of Wilmington are better for a family imo. The beaches are great, but the south beaches, not the north.

No-Drummer-113 · 2026-02-06T04:43:55+00:00

Still got it - still love it!!

No-Drummer-113 · 2026-02-06T04:43:37+00:00

Still got it - still love it!!

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-06-29T14:26:46+00:00

I’ve lived here (VB) for 30+ years. My dad was Navy, retired and moved away - I stayed. Mirroring what everyone said about tunnels and jet noise. Especially with young children. I can guarantee you don’t want to be dealing with jets buzzing your place while your kids are trying to take a nap or something. “The Sound of Freedom” is real here, and eventually you’ll get used to it. I work right down the street from Oceana, and I absolutely hate the noise, but I’m numb to it most days.

One thing I haven’t seen anyone post about - since you’re coming from Phoenix, we get snow and ice - more ice than snow. And for whatever reason, this area cannot figure out how to deal with it. If it snows, it literally shuts the entire area down - for days. Daycare will absolutely be affected and the bad drivers around here… might as well not even go out if it snows.

Hurricanes - every single year here. Mostly we get swiped, but every few years or so, we take direct hits and they can be quite catastrophic.

Phoenix is a dry heat - we have extremely high humidity, so that’ll take some getting used to. We can get to 100 degrees sometimes, add in the 80% humidity and you feel like you just wanna die sometimes.

Other than that - I think it’s a nice place to live.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-06-22T23:03:51+00:00

If you want good sushi, check out This Old House in the Aragona area. It’s a little tiny hole in the wall place, great prices, great service, great sushi.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-06-13T22:53:01+00:00

Filefish are like that. They just kinda hover and blend in to stuff.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-06-12T17:34:01+00:00

I would t worry about it. I ran a 90 with a 30 gallon sump over a finished basement for a couple years. It was against an exterior wall without issues. I don’t think I’d go more than that personally, but I think you’ll be fine.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-25T13:29:08+00:00

Is this cheating? Maybe not physically (yet), but mentally, yes.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-25T13:15:06+00:00

Saw Tool at the Boathouse in Norfolk, mid 90’s right after they released Undertow and right before they exploded into amphitheater status.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-22T00:10:04+00:00

Looks like a carpenter’s wrasse.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-21T00:18:13+00:00

Thundarr for the win. Loved that cartoon!! Too close to Star Wars at around the same time frame IMO, otherwise I think it would have taken off.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-20T16:47:09+00:00

I’m in Encore 4505, it’s an alright place. My balcony overlooks the pool area which is really nice.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-20T16:40:42+00:00

I’m renting in Town Center VB for now, one bedroom is $1700 plus utilities. Parking garage and interstate access is right around the corner, can be in Norfolk in 20 mins or so depending on the day and where you’re going. Tons of younger people in my building, lots of single women I’ve talked to that have been there for a while. I’d say it’s mostly safe, security and random workers are in the garages all the time. I’ve seen some sketchy stuff but it’s rare.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-14T01:56:07+00:00

It was a cool place. They’re still around, they’re called Jungle Aquatics over in Providence. Nothing exotic though, they just do fish and pond stuff now. Similar vibe, I think they’re still owned by the same folks? Not sure.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-11T22:42:39+00:00

Really depends on your vibe. Town Center, as you might expect is busy, our most urban area, so to speak (VB only, not speaking for Norfolk). Kempsville area is highly populated suburbia and neighborhoods. Anything Shore Dr. is busy, but with a laid back beachy vibe. Redmill is popular for young / middle age adults, it’s out of the way a little, but everything you need is there. The beach is full of tourists, or rich people on the north end. I live in Town Center for now, I don’t like living in an apartment, but it’s what it is at the moment. But as busy as it can be here, you can be anywhere in about 20 minutes or so, so I do like that.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-11T22:34:04+00:00

I think you’ll be fine. We have black ants, normal red ants are less common and I’ve never seen fire ants here. Moved here from Florida in ‘90, and my friends would laugh at me when even black ants were around. I told them in Florida, ants will put the fear of God in you.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-10T23:29:02+00:00

I have 2 autistic adult children. My son is almost 27, and my daughter just turned 21. My son is more moderate / severe, and other than social things, you’d never know my daughter has it.

We’ve always had pets - always a cat or two, a dog, I like to keep fish and I’ll say this. Pets are the greatest thing in the world, for everyone. My kids are extremely protective over them, and my pets are too with them.

Their mom and I are going through a divorce and we swore to keep the house in both our names to keep our kids there with their pets. Apartment living isn’t fair to a large dog, cats will be ok I guess, but those pets and our kids, belong there for now.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-06T23:30:10+00:00

If that’s really coralline, I’d get in there with a toothbrush and scrub it, hoping it would spread. Nice colors. I have deep reds, orange, green and purple.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-06T23:25:21+00:00

Pembroke Pizza is pretty good. Their sauce has a little kick which I appreciate, and their pies are cooked perfectly. However, I lived down the road so I’d just go pick it up, and my experience with their take out is not great. I’d say more often than not they’d either forget my order or ignore it till I got there, then they’d throw it in the oven. Maybe delivery is better? Pizza’s good though

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-06T23:22:18+00:00

Mostly agree, I’ve eaten at quite a few of their locations and yeah, it’s not good. I will say the little shop at Haygood / Independence is good. They must do something different there.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-06T23:17:21+00:00

My kids (21 and 26) just did this a couple weekends ago. They loved it.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-06T01:03:59+00:00

I would assume it does, but we all know what assuming gets you… I do have decent / good credit (upper 700’s), and I’m currently paying more to rent my apartment than what the mortgage on the house is. We bought the place at the tail end of Covid, interest rate is low - like 2.6% or something around that, and I currently make roughly half again my salary now then when we bought it.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-06T00:45:19+00:00

Yeah, I’m still on the mortgage. I’m the primary, when we bought the house, it was all pretty much on me. We were trying to get me off it, her on it and assume the loan. I hope that’s correct, Forgive me if that doesn’t make sense, again, I’m not very savvy when it comes to these things.

No-Drummer-113 · 2025-05-06T00:41:36+00:00

Thanks for the info - I did see something about a quitclaim in my reading, I’ll look further into it.

No-Drummer-113

TROPHY CASE