Relo From North TX to Brentwood/Discovery Bay Area (San Francisco: sale, house)

[TDKcampers]

I am in the middle of a negotiation to relocate to the Bay area from North Texas. We have a child in first grade and the new office will be in the Livermore area.

What can you tell me about the Brentwood/Discovery Bay areas and the commute to Livermore?

I'd also like any general impressions that I need to consider in the process. Has anyone moved a 3K sq foot household to that area from Texas and what was that cost?

Thanks in advance for any kind information and help in this decision.

[humboldtrat]

Why not live in Livermore where your work will be? Much of Brentwood is a nice area. Discovery Bay is a developement sort of out in the middle of nowhere - nice but a drive to shopping (other than groceries). The road between Brentwood and Livermore (Vasco Rd) is sort of a windy 2-lane country road, with some hills, that occasionaly has accidents due to speeding (they should make this road into a freeway for all the traffic it gets !!)

[cktx0612]

We moved from the Allen area north of DFW. We live in Brentwood and love it! It is very similar to the Allen/Frisco area when the area was really small about 10 years ago. The schools are great. Myself and daughter like them much better than North Dallas. The areas are smaller rural farm areas, it is really nice. We miss the band in Allen, etc, but my kids also like the smaller school too. My daughter is still in band and is no comparison at all to Allen, however, it is nice to be a person rather than being a "number".

Livermore is great too, however the traffic in and around the area is awful, real congested like Allen & Frisco (121/Mall area). Livermore is about a 35-40 minute commute from Brentwood down Vasco road, which is a beautiful drive through the hils. I make that drive 3 times a week (22 miles for me) and it is not bad at all. A have a few friends that commute to Livermore, Pleasonton and Dublin and they say the commute is not a problem. Compared to the commutes of 75 and 635 it's a piece of cake!

We moved ourselves during the summer of 2007 and it cost about 14000, but that was when gas prices were around 2.65-3.25(rural areas of NM & AZ were the highest). That was a 26ft Uhaul (4br, dining, living, den) and SUV packed to the brim. I had a big garage sale and donated a lot of stuff to lighten our load. A moving company is simply outrageous and you have less broken if you do it yourself. I have had moving companies before and never had a good experience, so we decided to do it ourself.

You will not regret the move. If you like hiking, swimming, hunting, etc you will love this area. From Brentwood, Tahoe is 2.5 hours, Sequoias is 4.5 hours, San Francisco is an hour, Napa is about 2 hours, plus so many others. Too many to even begin to list. You will absolutely love it.
Hope this helps and good luck! Welcome to the area!

[tomcatmoving]

Good to hear from a fellow Texan. We moved from Plano in 1997 and have never looked back. We relocated to El Sobrante, CA (between I80 and Hwy 24).....near the San Pablo Dam Resevoir....I love this area too.....NO HEAT, NO COCKROACHES, NO HUMITITY.

Originally Posted by cktx0612

We moved from the Allen area north of DFW. We live in Brentwood and love it! It is very similar to the Allen/Frisco area when the area was really small about 10 years ago. The schools are great. Myself and daughter like them much better than North Dallas. The areas are smaller rural farm areas, it is really nice. We miss the band in Allen, etc, but my kids also like the smaller school too. My daughter is still in band and is no comparison at all to Allen, however, it is nice to be a person rather than being a "number".

Livermore is great too, however the traffic in and around the area is awful, real congested like Allen & Frisco (121/Mall area). Livermore is about a 35-40 minute commute from Brentwood down Vasco road, which is a beautiful drive through the hils. I make that drive 3 times a week (22 miles for me) and it is not bad at all. A have a few friends that commute to Livermore, Pleasonton and Dublin and they say the commute is not a problem. Compared to the commutes of 75 and 635 it's a piece of cake!

We moved ourselves during the summer of 2007 and it cost about 14000, but that was when gas prices were around 2.65-3.25(rural areas of NM & AZ were the highest). That was a 26ft Uhaul (4br, dining, living, den) and SUV packed to the brim. I had a big garage sale and donated a lot of stuff to lighten our load. A moving company is simply outrageous and you have less broken if you do it yourself. I have had moving companies before and never had a good experience, so we decided to do it ourself.

You will not regret the move. If you like hiking, swimming, hunting, etc you will love this area. From Brentwood, Tahoe is 2.5 hours, Sequoias is 4.5 hours, San Francisco is an hour, Napa is about 2 hours, plus so many others. Too many to even begin to list. You will absolutely love it.
Hope this helps and good luck! Welcome to the area!

[cktx0612]

Good to hear from another Texan too! You forgot about the skeeters ha ha. Nice to sit out at night without being eaten alive! And I love that summer bay breeze!

I still have to go back to the DFW area for meetings for my job. I was there in the Plano/Allen area in Feb. I was in TX 5 minutes on a lay over in Houston and was ready to go back. 5 minutes in the Dallas traffic I wanted to go to the next gate that went to CALI ASAP! I had lived in Allen for 10 years and I was really home sick for TX until I went back. Then I realized what I had here. You just can't compare my view of Mt. Diablo every morning to anything in TX! TX just can't compete with weekend trips to Tahoe, the Sequoias or day trips to SF.

By the way, don't know if you have been back lately, but they moved the Court House to the west side of 75, N of Hwy 380 from Mcdonald St. It cost the tax payers millions and has similar features as the state capitol!