muskeetoes? ticks? humidity? (Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland: housing, rental, travel)

[marianne1952]

I used to live on the east coast (ME and MA and MD) and it was hot humid and muskeetoe and tick and flee invested. Not nice with 4 dogs!!!
Now we are moving to WA near (Bellevue)I would love to know .......are there many muskeetoes/ticks /flees (since there are so many trees) in WA?

[the dufferz]

Humidity is 80% or so, but not overwhelming. Mosquitoes are a fact of life, but not like a swampthing scenario. An electonic bug zapper usually takes care of those critters. I don't have dogs, and I am sure that there are cases of ticks, but probably not really bad. Hopefully others with dogs in Bellevue can add to this.

[marianne1952]

You don;t have dogs?? You don;t know what you are missing!

[silverfox]

OH..... I know what I am missing allrite. All of our friends have dogs.....We walk in a park everyday where there are more dogs than people.....and we just came from a State Park nearby where we saw a truck with a trailer set up for a Doggie Bread and Breakfast senario.
When we go to the super market to shop, we end up behind somebody with 50 cans of 10 different types of dog food besides all their groceries, and at 11:59P.M. at nite I can hear the results of all of this.
Don't get me wrong.....I love all creatures, but too many people have gone off the deep end with their pets.
Now if we could just get everyone to watch the "DOG WHISPERER" Cezar Milan on T.V. I wouldn't be so negative on most of what I see.

As for your concern about insects in the Bellevue area...other than a few mesquitos now and then, and an occasional flee depending on where you let your animals go, you shouldn't be overly concerned. The Bug Zapper idea is a good one for your patio or such. Yellow jacket bee's can be a problem in certain areas if not controlled. Just hang a piece of fresh fish on a string, and put a 5 gallon bucket beneath it with 2 gallons of water and some liguid detergent in it. The bees will eat until they fall into the bucket and drowned.

High Humidity, enough to bother you.....Not a big problem. Only some once in a while.

Have you given up on commuting from the eastern Washington side ??
If so then you should be able to find many nice areas not to far from Bellevue depending on your budget. Homes are pricey anywhere near this area.

If you could deal with it, I would try to rent something to give yourself a little time to look the whole area over, and also if you get lucky you could possibly enjoy some price depreciation in the next year or so.
We recently sold our home in Seattle and are renting a nice place with the goal of waiting this crazy housing bubble out for a fantastic deal somewhere ahead. I'd love to save $50 to $150,000 or more.

Good luck with your tough decisions,

Silverfox

[Mark S.]

We moved to Washington from eastern New Mexico. Western Washington is almost bug-free compared to the Southwest. We get a few flies in the house on occasion, but they are very few. Mosquitoes aren't bad at all unless you are off in the woods by standing water. We have a large dog who spends a lot of time in the yard, and we've never had any problem with fleas or ticks.

The one thing western Washington does have a lot of are spiders. There are spiders everywhere --- inside and outside. You can't really get rid of them, so you learn to live with them. Unless you have a severe allergy, there are none in western Washington that are dangerous to humans. Black widows are EXTREMELY rare (do a google search), and the brown recluse is non-existent west of the Cascades.

But whoever said the state flower is mildew was right on. Mold and mildew grow in places that I didn't know could grow mold and mildew. You also have to de-moss your roof every couple of years, or moss will set in and destroy your shingles.

I think it is simply too temperate and too wet for about 9 months out of the year for most pesky bugs to flourish. That has drawbacks in other ways though.

[Mark S.]

Oh, yeah. The humidity. It's definitely higher than the southwest or Rocky Mountain states, but nothing like back east. In fact, southeast Texas is far more humid than it is here.

[marianne1952]

Thanks Silverfox and Marc for the comments. Mark I do watch the dog wisperer religiously (I send the above picture to him) "Hail Cesar"...my dogs salluting him! I always make sure my neighbors are not bothered by them Have 3 very good dogs. The 4th one (the white one street dog from Puerto Rico) is a barker but I am trying Cesar's way to improve on that. They are never out before 7 or after 10 and only when I am at home and the minute "Alby" barks she is coming in .

[marianne1952]

Oh and Siverfox......re renting...that will be a little hard with 4 dogs! We can afford up to 600.000 for a house. We are still pondering the east/west thing but I am afraid my husband is going to fall off the mountain in the winter..despite his car (BMW 325 XIt1) one of the safest around!

[silverfox]

Well.......Maybe you could place a refundable deposit of adequare size to ensure the landlord they would be covered if there was damage, and maybe you could consider a rental home rather than a townhouse or apartment style living unit. This would stop the others in the building from complaining if your dogs did a little barking now and then. Maybe you could convince the landlord to be lienient based on the fact you watch "The Dog Whisperer" and take an extra effort to love and control them.
It was just a thought.

In the Belleve/Kirkland area you will need $600,000 if you want a nice place.
However...Nice is in the eye of the beholder. One of the problems I see if you just come and buy a house right away is, if you find your not happy with your choice a year later and the market softens, you might find it hard to sell and end up taking an unexceptable loss to make a move.
On the other hand maybe you can find that just right place on the first try.

As for having a safe auto......that is very prudent....but your largest danger in my opinion on the passes will come from the other drivers and natural occurances, not your husbands abilities. If he will be traveling on the weekends he may encounter many skiiers, and some think they are already on the slopes as they head for the pass.

Your doing the right thing by trying to get a jump on your moving schedule.
It is never easy to pull up your roots and transplant your family.

Hoping you get all the answers you need for a comfortable decision.

Silverfox

[marianne1952]

"some think they are already on the slopes as they head for the pass".

very funny!! HAHA! Glad to see the Washingtonians have a sence of humor despite the rain!!
We found a really nice home (on paper and google earth anyway) in Woodinville on 21ave NE 545.000 1 acre 2000 sq feet rambler. Think we'll go that route. Really do not want my husband to meet those enthousiastic skiers!!!! If we have to sell it in 2 years because I am totally light deprived and take a loss so be it. We are still selling our house here so by the time that is done that house will be gone but glad to see there are still homes there in our price range with an acre or so to be had.
Thanks for all your info Silverfox you have been very helpfull!!!!
See you around in WA!