If working at MS, where to live? How bad, really, are clouds? (Seattle: houses, neighborhoods)

[jenlion]

AllForCats, Wow, thanks for the great info! I knew about some of the other sites but not sea.mlsonline or the classifieds link. And, yes, the weather outside the windows still affects us inside. I'll be out drizzle or no, even if my husband doesn't like to get wet. And while he is working inside in comfortable conditions, he does travel to and from work and does see the outside from the window. Low, flat, gray skies are the worst. High puffy clouds are better than that for him, and sun is best of all -- even if the sunshine isn't on your shoulders, it's still *there*.

Glad to hear that people like to walk. Down here, people think you're kind of nutty if you get out of your SUV to go half a mile, unless you've donned the appropriate jogging outfit and mp3 player and are in "exercise" mode. (I think THEY are kind of nutty... but I'm the minority... another reason to get the heck outta this part of the country).

Sean, we are definitely looking at the sunset times. Looks like you're going to be dark by around 4:30!! It's the same in Boston, and we spent a few days there a couple of weeks ago exploring the area we'd be in if we moved there. Definitely tough. Thanks for qualifying the light -- he's a serious amateur photogropher and goes nuts over that kind of light, so he'd enjoy that at least.

Allforcats, I hadn't been sure that a simple proximity search would be "good enough", since in most cities you can cross some random boundary and suddenly be in a place maybe you didn't think you were in. But, it sounds like maybe this area isn't like that.

Thanks all for the plugs for Redmond, good to hear that it sounds like a decent place to be. Bellevue is looking good too.

Anyone have thoughts on Kirkland? Looks like it might be less expensive there, is there a reason for that?

Does anyone have a feel for what housing prices are like right now? I think I read that Seattle, like Dallas, has mostly escaped the roller-coaster of the past few years and has been on a slower, steady increase for awhile now. Does that sound right, or are you seeing changes?

Thanks all for the input. I really appreciate it. We started considering this much more seriously today (and part of that is the description of the clouds as "puffy" and "not full-time every day"). Sir, thanks for your honest opinion too, we need to know both sides of that issue.

[scirocco22]

No, Kirkland is generally higher than Redmond as far as price when buying a house. Realtors have told me that it's mostly location. Central Kirkland and Houghton for example are very conveniently located to Seattle, Bellevue, and Microsoft locations. Also, the closer to the shores of Lake Washington you are in Kirkland, the more expensive the property values tend to be.

[allforcats]

Jenlion, about housing prices -- the listing prices seen on MLSonline seems accurately instructive, and at the moment in the Bellevue-Redmond-Issaquah area most final sales prices are probably within 3% lower than the listing prices. As you know, that all depends on each seller's and buyer's circumstances.

Hey, I just had a thought: if your husband DOES choose to sign on at MS, think of the boost that might give his resume in some circles! If his expertise has anything to do with software, hardware, marketing, etc., having MS in his background can be quite a feather in his cap for the future. Also, as an employee, at some point in the near future he will have access to stock options, a yellow brick road to children's college funds! :-)

[allforcats]

I hadn't been sure that a simple proximity search would be "good enough", since in most cities you can cross some random boundary and suddenly be in a place maybe you didn't think you were in. But, it sounds like maybe this area isn't like that.

Right. It's all trees, and walking trails, and condos, and single-family homes, and very light business, and small upscale malls, and more trees and more trees and more trees. The only random boundaries anywhere near MS are the unknowable boundaries between Kirkland, Redmond, Bellevue and Issaquah. "Unknowable" because it all looks and is pretty much the same -- trees!!! :-) Middle- and upper-middle class and a bit of wealthy here and there. And more trees.

[jenlion]

Allforcats, sounds nice... too good to be true, really. What's the catch? You live next door to Baldy?
We're going to try to get up there in a week or so and explore. I've been trying to visit all 50 states, but so far I'm short North Dakota, Alaska, Washington, and Oregon. Guess it's time to pick up two more! Hubby is actually in Vancouver all of next week, so he'll have a nice dose of PNW if we turn right around and go to Seattle.

Guess the Kirkland prices are a fluke of how I'm doing my searches (3-4 bed, 2 bath, 2-car garage, price ascending), because they *look* lower than what's available in Redmond. Good to hear that it's not because of some kind of disaster. (We are also considering the Boston one and one town near the others had lower prices for some reason we couldn't figure out at first. Turns out it's on an old Superfund site and they still sometimes have problems with the water there. So, have to ask!!).

What about mold? Seems with it being so damp there, you'd have lots of it. I read in another forum that some people have it growing anywhere they didn't move things much, like behind the couch, but that it can be mitigated if you have central heat & air moving the air around better. Is that right?

[allforcats]

Hi Jenlion. Your last post generated a lot of ideas!

As for your journey, do you know Weather.com? Here’s the link which will give you the 10-day forecast for Bellevue, WA (forecast is generally the same for most of northwestern mainland WA). To change to Bismark or anywhere else, there’s a little window at the very top of the page. To get the 10-day forecast for anywhere, scroll down about half a page and you’ll see a 10-Day clickable link.
http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/98004?from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_business

In a few places, like here, weather forecasts are magnificently unreliable, as they’re just best guesses. I grew up in NYC, where forecasts were true. That was because the weather came from only two places, Ontario and New Jersey. Here in the Seattle area the weather comes from any number of places. And the weather from the Pacific Ocean is split by the Olympic Mountains into two weather paths -- this location is called a “convergence zone” where those two paths meet up again sort of flowing into or crashing into each other -- and weather from any random combination of directions can happen at any time, and then change at any time to any other random combination. It’s such fun! :-) So forecasts are cute and comforting and give one an idea of possibilities for the day, but they’re at best good guesses because more precise knowledge simply isn’t possible. (Which is why the federal agency NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, has a large presence here, constantly trying to learn from that which is so ephemeral.) Looking out the window is anyone’s best information about the weather for the next 10 minutes :-) Could be 10 hours, could be 10 days, and only the weather gods know :-) One of the lovely ways the PNW has enhanced my being is by showing me that control of exterior conditions is impossible and so the happiest life is achieved by my choice of my own emotions and reactions. Thank you, weather gods!! :-) So maybe the unpredictability of the uncontrollable is a “drawback”? That’s a personal choice, isn’t it? :-)

I lived in Montana for two years; in my experience, North Dakota is lots more of eastern Montana -- flat vistas of plains where in the summer you can see all the way to Cleveland it seemed, wind, dryness, extreme snow in the autumn-winter-spring and extreme hot dust in the summer. Fascinating, but I wouldn’t want to live there because there just wasn’t enough greenery, visual beauty or employment.

Alaska, another of my haunts. Beautiful Alaska is only politically another state, but in reality is quite a different world -- in terms of weather, resources, schools, access to anywhere, prices of everything (as everything has to be shipped or trucked in to everywhere in Alaska because the growing season is only two months long (and the roots of growing things can’t go down far into the ground because of permafrost) and there is little manufacturing there). Alaska is a glorious desire for many; those who love it love darkness, aloneness, and self-sufficiency. And unparalleled, breathtaking beauty. And zillions of mosquitoes. :-) The Alaska forum here in City-Data is deeply informative.

Two Fairbanks webcams which will show you weather, light vs. darkness, and the Aurora Borealis!! are:
http://arcticcam.com/cam/ which is in a window of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner building in the dead-center of town facing south, one block north of the Chena River at Cushman and Terminal (if you want to mapquest it), and each time you mouseclick the picture, it will change, so it’s almost a “live” camera. Note the temperatures posted under the picture...
and -- SALMON:live:Aurora Web Camera which is located 30 miles north of Fairbanks and points north and up, where you can watch the stars, the moon and the northern lights every night. Yummmmmm :-) Please be a bit patient with this Aurora cam: it seems to go sick every now and then and it takes a few hours for someone to come in and feed it chicken soup.


Google Alaska webcams to find others around the state; there are many.

Western Oregon is similar to western WA; eastern OR is similar to eastern WA -- in terms of weather although Oregon is usually a few to several degrees warmer than WA especially in July and August, topography, history, employment, etc. I lived in Portland for a year and enjoyed it -- soooooo green, so quaint in many areas, so kind of small town, so many homeless people. Smaller by quite a bit than Seattle. Seattle and environs are quite a bit more liberal politically than Portland and environs. Inspiring sight of Mt. Hood every morning in the Portland area; Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Mt. Index and lots of other Cascades peaks in the Seattle area. I read some years ago that Portland, Oregon has the highest suicide rate in the U.S. The article drew the conclusion that the long, dark, wet winter was the cause. So, why then isn't Seattle the suicide capital, since we're at a higher latitude and are thus darker? Beats me.

I think if there’s a drawback to western Washington, for some people it would be the cloudiness, which in some people seems to generate psychosis, wouldn’t you say? But others of us love it, and feel enveloped and hugged and cozy and warm-n-fuzzy in the cloudiness, and of course the frequent drizzles keep western WA and western OR green most of the year, except in the dry hot summer days when all grass turns a luscious beige. Do you know that crocuses bloom in early January here? Imagine that! :-) Over the years I’ve had many colleagues here who mount light boxes in their offices or on their desks to counteract the cloudiness and they stay happy, so the darkness of the sky here doesn’t seem to be as affective as the darkness of the heart can be.

I’m wondering about what you said about the prices of Kirkland homes being lower than Bel-Red-Isq. Part of Kirkland, as Scirocco said, are lake properties or lakeview properties, or walk-to-the-lake properties, or close-to-the-lake properties, and as such can be more expensive than most places in Bel-Red-Isq. But the postal address “Kirkland” spreads pretty far north for some miles into Kingsgate (which is part of Kirkland) and all the way north to the Bothell city line and east to the Woodinville line, so I’d guess that the better-priced homes you’re seeing might be north of Kirkland-proper and could result in a 30-minute commute to MS if your husband does NOT take the 405 highway; on 405 it’ll probably take longer as 405 is a parking lot during commuter hours. Kirkland is kind of artsy and fun, lots of galleries, natural food places, superb and pricey seafood restaurants, and touristy shops, along with standard supermarkets, hardware stores, etc.

[allforcats]

Sorry -- forgot about mold. Sure, mold thrives in damp climates, if people don't have heating and don't houseclean. (I can't see how just moving a piece of furniture from one place to another would eliminate mold.) Here I think it amounts to keeping one's entire home heated all winter (I don't mean hot; just the fairly constant presence of heat reaching all the rooms) including the wettest places, the kitchen and bathrooms. Housecleaning is a swell solution too. Isn't that why the universe invented vacuum cleaners?? I lived in one home in the trees in Bellevue for 15 years and never saw a scrap of mold.

You don't need central air conditioning here to prevent mold, as mold can't thrive in the dry, hot weather of July and August. Anyway, the only way you can get a home with central air conditioning here is if you either build it yourself or are gloriously wealthy. Even most mansions don't have central air conditioning; folks feel there aren't enough really hot days here to warrant the cost.

[allforcats]

Scirocco, re Jenlion's finding that prices of homes "in Kirkland" are lower than in Redmond: Kirkland houses are older in general, aren't they? Redmond has been in the process of being built up (out of forests and farms) only in the, what?, past 20 years or so, whereas Kirkland close-ish to downtown is quite a bit older, like Snohomish, no?

[allforcats]

Suicide: I was wrong about Portland. I just researched this, and several sources say Nevada is the state with the highest rate. The CDC says: 10 of the 13 western states are in the highest 25% of the suicides in the nation and Nevada, specifically Las Vegas, has the highest rate in the nation. Scirocco, you were right in another thread - thanks for the clue. Here's the CDC's link:
Regional Variations in Suicide Rates -- United States, 1990-1994

[Idunn]

You'd probably be happy with Redmond initially, if no other reason simply the ease of commuting. My understanding that Woodinville and vicinity favored by Microsoft employees. In possible ease of commute and beauty, if not cost, I'd favor a property along Lake Sammamish. You really have a lot of choices.

Once on the ground, however, you'll quickly discover that all is not equal when it comes to traffic. For one thing, I'd rule out Issaquah, beautiful, but too long a commute. In some respects it is not so much the distance involved but the traffic patterns. If avoiding the major arteries and finding the less traveled roads you might creatively expand possible areas reasonable in commute for a home. But then don't forget daily shopping, school, and what entailed in accessing them.

Weather may be more problematic. Maybe no way to know for sure until you've tried it. My brief experience in the midst of winter was generally cloudy, grey skies with frequent drizzle often punctuated by broken clouds, patches of blue, and occasional rays of sunlight across the verdantly green landscape. One clear day was remarkable with the distant snow capped Cascades accented in alpenglow.

In other words, you may adjust, but nowhere the amount of sun in winter that one becomes accustomed to anywhere in the southwest. I kind of liked it, but it wasn't for an entire winter either.

Then also, of course, culturally Seattle and environs are definitely West Coast. However one may view that, in many respects a long ways from Dallas.

All best of luck.