Best place to move with arthritis (Phoenix, Chandler: find a job, school district, living)

[xsliberty]

Hi I live in Pittsburgh Pa and I iam looking to move to Az in the nere future.Can any one suguest a place thats alaways dry and not humid, but agood place to raise a family.I do automotive restoration for a living and need to find a job also.I dont know where to start.I should also say that Iam moving because of arthritis and cant take the wheather here thanks

[homesweetazhome]

I also moved from Pa to Az. I don't miss the rain at all. The Phoenix valley has 330 days of sunshine per year. The East Valley has good schools, in particular Kyrene School District and Chandler School District. Check Craigslist Phoenix for job postings. I would definitely try and line up a job as the first order of business. Good luck!

[drb85650]

2 places come to mind...Lake Havasu and Yuma. Both extremely hot. Read that again....extremely hot.
Now...
Lake Havasu has a fairly active(for the size of community)car culture, cruises from Cali and such every year. You may find a job at least in a body shop.
Yuma isn't quite as active gearhead wise. BUT...you're just a 1/2 day drive from San Diego, then onto L.A. . So you know what mecca of car guys they harbor.
It's not unusual for resto work and gearheads to hop back and forth between the L.A. area and Phoenix either.
As a fellow gearhead, remember that while we've no rust repair to speak of, all the interior and rubber products are absolutely shot on projects out here. Be prepared to replace every bit of rubber in even cars less than 20 years old if they've sat in the sun much. Imagine weatherstripping hard as rock and plastic,vinyl pieces looking like they went thru a fire.
There are alot of shops that do resto work in the Phoenix area, lots of cars squirreled away in garages. The big auctions you see on TV are just the tip of the collectors, the really rich guys. Check out Desert Valley Auto Parts site for fun. Also, try some specialized web sites from this area. I'm into VW's, look at AZBAJA.com or DAILYDRIVENDUBZ, or LOWLIFEVW"S. Just this microscopic look will tell you what kind of nuts we have here and the great pickings of project cars. It's a good car culture place, Arizona,that is,it was until the economy dumped. Everything is iffy now, so be prepared.
If you work from home, realize the garage will be too hot to work in from April thru September/October without a/c or at least swamp cooler. Your winter cold issues are our summer heat issues. And, no it isn't going to cool off in the garage after the sun goes down, unless you consider 112' down to 95' cooling off. And if you're not familiar with "swamp coolers", imagine a fan blowing thru a water fall. Cool air also introduces humidity which during our monsoon(that season where we may get rain. usually around July thru mid August or so)becomes just wet warm air.
Good luck and welcome to the desert.

[spriegel]

Hi XSLiberty,

My mother also had arthritis, they moved to Green Valley, Arizona.

You can check out www.greenvalleyrental.net for some photos.

Regards,
Chris

[xsliberty]

Hi drb85650,If you had to pick a place for the gearhead to live and work out of 3 places yuma,lake havasu,or mesa which would it be?I did nothing but vws for 9yrs then got into strickly muscle cars.I checked out dvap, seems unreal.You would not believe the rusted cars i have restored.I lived in houston tx for 2 yrs i wonder how the heat and humidity compares.The more i hear the more i cant wait to move.I tried a swamp cooler in my shop but with humidity so high here it was terrible