need GOOD HONEST advice about relocating (Boise, Meridian: homes, school district, college)

[junglemom]

ok. we need some good help. We have 2 daughters who don't sweat and can't produce enough moisture internally to keep them well and healthy living in Texas. After a near-death experience with my oldest teenager due to this disease, we are leaving Texas(finally!) and moving N to a cooler climate. But we can't be in too cold of one or they'd have to be indoors and would get sick all over again due to the heat being on. Hope that makes sense on such a short description of their illness (its called HED).

Anyway, I am from Colorado so we are looking there, too, but want to look in Idaho, maybe Oregon, or Washington state.
All seem mild enough but yet not freezing cold.

We are wanting an area friendly to homeschoolers (the county we are in now is NOT, even though TX itself is really laid back about it) as they will never attend school in a building.(well, one has already graduated so she doesn't count, the other is in high school)

But we also want an area that is affordable to live in! My husband has just lost his job (18 1/2 yrs same design industry) and so has just started his own commercial art company(he does package design and has awards for it, as well as being the fastest production artist in the business) that we can take anywhere, but it isn't a lot of money right now while he builds it.

Currently we have a 10 acre place but in TX that is quite inexpensive to come by so I know we won't be getting the same up N. LOL
But we'd still like to have some country as my girls have horses and sheep and need to be outdoors to be healthy. Oh- we need a rural place with high speed internet access or his company won't go very far.

What are some good areas to look in where my teens can still get jobs but be kinda rural? We can commute but don't want it to be more than 30 mn if possible. We do 1 hr to town right now and it is just too much. Jobs for teens don't pay enough to warrant the gas to drive that far.

Um, I can't think of anything else to ask at the moment, but I am sure I can give more details to narrow it down if I think about it.

I was thinking of Coeur D'Alene as it's weather seemed great year round.
But will look at other areas, too.

We have no idea where to go or how to go about making sure we get a good area. We are "calvary chapel" christians if that makes a difference where to move. (not purpose driven, not emergent, not catholic, not ecumenical, not mystical, etc) But we wouldn't mind a non-mutant Messianic congregation, too. (so many are waaay off the deep end-it's scary!)

This is a scary thing to uproot and go far from family and all we've known for our entire married life(the cheap cost of living in TX is phenomenal and their homeschool laws rock!), but we must do it for our daughters to live a happy and healthy life.

thanks for any advice!!

(sorry for any typos- I can spell superbly, I just can't type at all!)

[pacalady]

Junglemom:
I live in Post Falls, which is between Coeur d'Alene and Spokane (about 25 minutes to either place; and about 7 minutes north of the town of Post Falls. We have ten acres, and although we are so close to all the amenities, we are rural.

I have friends who home school, and I am told that it is much easier in Idaho than in Wash (my kids are grown and married, so I don't know much about it).

Winters typically are fairly mild, although we can get a week or so in Jan when the weather is at 0 degrees or below ....it never lasts too long though. The summers are typically sunny and in the 80's and low 90's. There isn't a lot of humidity here, which you can look on this website to get weather statistics.

Good luck on your adventure! Let me know if I can answer any questions for you!

PacaLady

[stingraynm]

Hmmm... that's quite the contingency. Kudos to you and your family for contending with that circumstance.

I don't have kids myself, so I actually have never looked into homeschooling politics in any area.

I'll stick to my area of experience, which is climate and demographics. Looking at your post, I'm going to work with the impression that you don't mind wet climates but are averse to arid. You also want a fairly mild change in temperature b/w summer and winter.

If by "rural" you mean that you want farms, then I can't think of an area that doesn't get a hot summer and cold winter. If you just don't want to be smack dab in an urban area, there are lots of good areas south of Portland that are definitely separate from the urban area. The Pacific maintains a wet climate, for sure. For some reason, the Pacific also maintains a fairly mild fluctuation in temperature, relative to areas farther inland. Still, winters may get cold enough to require heating.

Aside from the home schooling and religion, I'd recommend N. California for a moderate year-round temperature and rural scape.

North Idaho and Washington will definitely get cold enough to require heating during the winter, not to mention in the 90s/100s during the peak of summer. A great deal of Eastern WA and OR is also arid desert.

There's my attempt at help. You do have quite the quandary. If you've found any physicians who specialize in HED, I'm sure they'd have a custom list for ideal climates, only because it's apparently such a serious concern.

[Sage of Sagle]

North Idaho has quite a few churches you would like. At least in the CDA-Sandpoint area there would be plenty of choices. As you get into less populate areas, it's more straight strict Baptist or Lutheran (all the Scandinavians here) or Methodist.

You'll love homeschooling here. We have it really good. First off, all Idaho requires is that you teach your OWN kids per state code. In other words, they are taking a strict interpretation on who can homeschool whose kids, but there's no requirements that you have a credential or other degree. Then, Lake Pend Oreille School District (Bonner County) is WAY homeschool friendly. Any resident can choose to be involved with any school activities they desire. So my oldest daughter (a junior) is homeschooled with our other kids, but taking AP History and AP English at the public school. And if my other daughters wish, they could do school sports, drama, band, etc.

It's also important to note that this area is pretty free-thinking. We know several people who don't even have birth certificates, and employers here don't require it. And homeschoolers are as common as school kids. On my daughter's sports team, about 1/4 of the kids are homeschooled. So it's a healthy minority and thus the schools accept homeschoolers and accept them into their programs. The only resistance I've seen is classes with number caps (science labs, etc) where they give first priority to full time students there, which I actually have no problem with...

[cleosmom]

Wait a minute, I'm confused or rather ignorant to your situation. Would it be better to live in a humid climate or an arid one? Or does the air moisture factor in at all?

[Torrie]

If I'm understanding your kids condition right, I'm thinking maybe Eugene or Medford, Oregon might be the place for you. There's some rural areas nearby you might find appealing, but more importantly the climate might be better suited for your children's condition. I think anywhere in Idaho might be too cold for you in the winter. Stingraynm made a good suggestion, to ask your doctor what areas he suggests. You might be able to google it??

[stingraynm]

Originally Posted by Torrie

If I'm understanding your kids condition right, I'm thinking maybe Eugene or Medford, Oregon might be the place for you. There's some rural areas nearby you might find appealing, but more importantly the climate might be better suited for your children's condition. I think anywhere in Idaho might be too cold for you in the winter. Stingraynm made a good suggestion, to ask your doctor what areas he suggests. You might be able to google it??

I agree with Torrie as well. Central Oregon places like Eugene and Medford would probably be a good bet for balance as far as climate and population (not urban, but sizeable enough for a steady, sustained economy). Medford might be a bit more up your alley, though. I was a VERY liberal college student and a lot of people who even "out-lefted" me moved to Eugene for its "hip" reputation.

[junglemom]

Sorry, I can't respond quickly. Got a lot of things going on just now as you can imagine. LOL

They need a low- no humidity locale. They feel like they are suffocating in humidity. However, they've only experienced humidity attached to 80 degree+ temps(frequently high 90's to 100's! Yikes!) Don't know if low temps + humidity would still feel bad? Hmm

I have a couple more questions but can't type them now. I'll get back to ya on those. :-)

Thanks for all the help so far!

I know people move across country all the time but it's still scary. *eek* ;-)
(We have so much freedom here and are scared about losing it...wish the climate didn't stink so bad!)

[stingraynm]

I see. Actually, the Meridian and Eagle areas around Boise were pretty rural last time I checked, and the Treasure Valley keeps a low enough humidity that I never felt it.

I'd say Arizona or Nevada to get away from the humidity, but those areas are infamously hot. Really, humidity in the West is NOTHING like humidity in the East. When I visited Disneyworld in Orlando, FL as a kid, it was the first time I'd ever been back East, and the humidity was a real surprise.

[stingraynm]

I'm doing this one on its own because it's that worth your attention. You should look into Kalispel, Montana. Much larger town that some would think, and definitely dry, as it sits right on the Continental Divide where the Rockies meet the Great Plains, but a little more into the Rockies. A lot of high elevation areas keep low humidity, though I don't know how your children would react to the thinner air.

Kalispel is a beautiful area, though. It's not quite a city, but pretty close, and surprisingly big for Montana.

Of course, you would have to heat your home in the winter, so N. Idaho would be the same story.