NW WA Meet / BS Thread

Only used it once so far since winter came. Its now off the truck. Excited for spring/summer this season though!

 

Man, you guys aren't making it easy for Rob to decide if he should relocate from NY.

All I'll say right now is it doesn't even make sense to start looking for a place to live until you know exactly where you'll need to live. Seattle and Tacoma are only ~40 miles apart, but it's a two hour trip each way if you have to commute. I grew up in Tacoma, and it's not nearly to cesspool people seem to think it is. Except the east side of Tacoma, that area sucks. But the north end, University Place, and Northeast Tacoma are all great areas.

 

Ha! I know right. Frankly tacoma seems on paper similar to the neighborhood that I reside in now. Seems like it’s actaully on the way back up. I still don’t know where this territory would be but I really appreciate all the comments trying to help me get a feel for someone looking to completely uproot.

Now that I have a young family we are constantly trying to camp, hike and be outside together as much as possible. However NY can get old really really quick. Seems like the next logical place (PNW) being close to Vancouver BC with a large amount of national forests and places to explore. Complete 180° from here

 

The gangs like it! Oh, and organized crime too!

 

Agreed. Lived in the northend before moving to Fircrest 8 years ago. Tacoma is a pretty cool place to live, and University Place has great schools. Fircrest is a town of about 6,000 people who look out for each other and you WILL get a ticket if you drive over 25mph down the main road. Not to mention home values an Pierce County grew by 11%, while Fircrest grew 18%.

But I do work in downtown Seattle and the commute is no joke. Work 10 hour days (when I'm not stuck there working more) and it's a 14 hour day from leaving to getting home. Really start to dislike society after 15 years of doing it.

 

I know those feels. Out by 7 home by 7. Stalled trains, cancelled trains. Nyc careers are that way. If I can avoid this though I will 100%

 

Maple valley Covington has a single 2 lane running NS and one running EW to get all 50 thousand or so people in and out. At 18/512 and 18/164 junctions commute is nasty. Covington maple valley rd is a weapons grade cluster fuck.

 

Its because they dont have goddamn income taxes and get it all from regular homeowners and not the people who make millions of dollars a year and dont own property.

 

Houses are still relatively cheap there and was thinking of moving there to get into the Tahoma school district. I work remotely 50% of the time, and wife works 90% remotely, but yeah, Maple Valley and Covington are only going to get bigger without upgrading the main road to get people in and out. I think I'll stay where I'm at for now...

 

Where are you trying to work and how important is the school district for you?

Price ranges on houses or rental cost?

If you are working in either Seattle or Bellevue I would highly recommend not living as far south as Tacoma if you are commuting. It's an easy 2 hour commute depending on traffic.

 

Yup, it's the last affordable place with a good school district (Tahoma). I work from home 50% of the time and my wife works almost 100% from home, so it's tempting since we won't really be dealing with the commute.

 

Wife was just showing me some props in Coupeville and island county. pretty nice

 

My sister and brother-in-law bought a house down and across the street from their original house just to change school districts from Kent to tahoma.

 

Coupeville is nice, you can catch a ferry instead of driving all the way around to get to Seattle metro area.

 

I really liked the Bonney lake area, but hated the commute to Seattle. Now we live on the boarder of Maple Valley, Black Diamond, and Covington (in unincorporated King county) and like it a lot better here. No RTA tax is an added bonus when car tabs are due.

We're about 5 minutes from two smaller lakes where I can take the kids fishing in the summer. And it's a short drive to Chinook pass or the I-90 corridor for hiking, backpacking, and camping.

I would prefer to live in the east side of the Cascades, or even the North Bend area. I have some coworkers that live in Cle Elum and carpool in to Seattle. You're right on I-90, so it's not as bad as it seems. But you are at the mercy of Snoqualmie pass closing in the winter.

So to summarize, don't come here - it's crowded and there's nothing fun to do. Check out Oregon instead.

 

What’s the deal with being east of Seattle. Everyone is saying the same thing.

 

More job opportunities in Washington though.

 

It's more conservative, drier, more open spaces to explore, less people, lower cost of living.

 

Don't confuse "the East side" (East of lake Washington - Bellevue etc.) with "Eastern Washington" (East of the Cascades).

I like more remote and larger property, so that's why Eastern Wa appeals to me. The East side is where the yuppies live in overpriced McMansions.

 

Gotcha.

I see