Snoqualmie Ridge...What's You Opinion? May possibly move and make it home. (Seattle: daycare, new house)

[raindrop32]

My family and I are moving from Montesano, WA for my husband to take a new job in the Seattle area. We are seriously looking at moving to Snoqualmie Ridge. We visited shortly a few weekends ago and loved how family freindly it is. We have a few qusestions though and thought maybe someone with an "insiders" perspective could help us. Whate are the schools like, primarily Cascade View? Is the cost of living somewhat cheaper tan Issaquah/Sammamish/Redmond? Traffic...is it pretty easy just hitting I-90 from Seattle? Pre-schools, are they as competitive as they are in the city? Is the planned community working? We really liked how it felt like a small town sine we are moving from one. Any commnts or opinions we welcome...thanks!

[allforcats]

Snoqualmie Ridge is pretty new, so you might not get a lot of informative replies. But I found some threads on C-D with useful info. I hope these help. BTW, I love the Montesano area.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/seatt...noqualmie.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/seatt...lder-home.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/seatt...0-405-red.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/seatt...urbs-help.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/4879306-post25.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/seatt...sammamish.html

[jenlion]

We have a friend that lives there and works for Microsoft. He does not like living up there and regrets having bought a home that he basically cannot sell (because he'd be competing with the brand-new homes they are still building). The commute is doable, but after a couple of years, he's very tired of it.

As far as the small-town feel, keep this in mind: it's artificial and new. The people that live there are there because they wanted a shiny new house, planned community, etc; it's not like a small town that came together naturally over time. If you want that, I'd think more in terms of Duvall or Carnation (others on the board will know other "small towns" that are actual small towns).

I-90 does get busy at rush hour, of course, but it's not as bad as a major artery is in a lot of cities. If you're going all the way in to Seattle, it'll take quite a while.

If you've got to have a new house and this is your budget, it's do-able. If you are working in Seattle and want the new house/planned community and have a little more cash, I'd suggest looking at Issaquah Highlands as well: also on I-90 and closer to everything. Another planned community.

We nixed Snoqualmie Ridge when looking up here last year because it was noticably colder than the regular "east side" areas (we drove up to the falls and froze our butts off in the sweatshirts that did fine in Bellevue in December). We also were worried about possible competition with the builder in the event the job didn't work out and we wanted to mvoe. And, the planned new communities just don't appeal to me at all. So, that was that.

Good luck with your move and your husband's new job!

[Prple]

Here are some of my observations about Snoqualmie Ridge, (I used to live there.)
-It is very windy, with more severe weather than Issaquah etc.
-Most of the neighborhood attends Cascade View Elementary, however, as far as I know, any new construction that was built within the past two years or so goes to Snoqualmie Elementary in downtown Snoqualmie.
-The commute from Snoqualmie to downtown Seattle is only about 30 minutes with minimal traffic (usually), and no traffic between Snoqualmie and Issaquah.
-Walkable, lots of trails, parks etc. On Halloween, the neighborhood near the Elementary school is very active, feastive and fun.
-Lots of families, with young children. Very small amount of senior citizens and teenagers.
-A lot of kids attend daycare during the day and/or have a nanny.

Hope this helps!

[obsidian97]

Last winter (and I heard it once over the summer too) Snoqualmie Ridge was playing the following radio tag line in their ads:

It's like the Truman Show: Everything's Perfect!

Nevermind Truman was trying to get out of an artificial construct bent on controlling his entire life for someone else's benefit.

Three other things to consider:

1. There's not much in Snoqualmie Ridge that you can't get elsewhere in the Seattle/Eastside area in terms of community elsewhere, so look around at a couple more options. The one thing you can get there is a bigger house a lot cheaper, but you know the old adage.

2. If I'm not mistaken, I believe a lot of the homes in Snoqualmie Ridge are built by Quadrant. Quadrant is owned by Weyerhauser Lumber. Their sole purpose in life is to sell lumber, and not to build a strong reputation for quality homes or innovative architecture.

3. I-90 is a much better commute than SR-520 in general. You can get to Seattle without too much hassle up I-90 most of the time, but you're really out there. You're going to be driving a lot to get to anything other than what's in the local strip mall. If that bothers you, you might consider other options.

It might be a great fit for you, and you'll love it forever. It might not. I'd look at other areas before you get too sold on the marketing. Seattle has lots of great places to live and Snoqualmie Ridge really doesn't have a monopoly on that.

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by obsidian97

Last winter (and I heard it once over the summer too) Snoqualmie Ridge was playing the following radio tag line in their ads:

It's like the Truman Show: Everything's Perfect!

Nevermind Truman was trying to get out of an artificial construct bent on controlling his entire life for someone else's benefit.

That's a seriously unfortunate choice for an advertising campaign! Funny, though...

[Chest Rockwell]

We looked into Snoqualmie Ridge before moving to Issaquah instead. The area was super clean, but had the feel of a movie set (I totally get the Truman Show reference). One of the strangest things was the grocery store, which had only about 40% of its shelves stocked. Also the major park in the area had no children's playground, only a sign that read "Community center coming soon." I had the feeling that it would take a couple years, maybe longer before it felt like a real town.

[texastrigirl]

We moved here last year from Texas to Sammamish. One of my BF's from college lives on "the Ridge" and even though the two houses across the street from her were on the market, she and her husband advised us against it and said if they could, they'd live in Issaquah, Sammamish or Kirkland. Reasons were: too much new building to get much appreciation on their house (and they have been there 7 years in a Buchan home - good builder), schools beyond elementary are not comparable to Lake Washington or Issaquah (they would like to move for that reason eventually) and weather is much more severe up there in terms of wind, clouds and cold...also hotter in the summer. I live about 8 miles from her and we are shocked when we compare weather some days. They do enjoy the family feel and walking to the downtown (I enjoy that too when visiting) and they do not mind the commute but they work odd hours. They feel like it adds an extra 10 minutes one way into downtown from where we live in North Issaquah/South Sammamish. Personally I love the mulched running trails and hiking in Sno Ridge. They do complain about the closeness a bit...everyone knows everyone's business. Though I liked the neighborhood, we looked at it from a financial standpoint of investing in a house. There is too much competition from new builders for years to come and also inadequate school planning (as they keep voting down bonds for new schools as they are lumped with the town of Snoqualmie who seems to vote against the Ridge). Commute to downtown was not helpful either. Have you looked in Klahanie or South Cove in Issaquah? We live in an older neighborhood (80's) right off Pine Lake and love it. If you are going to commute on 90 to downtown, stick to Issaquah or the south end of the Plateau (Klahanie, Trossachs, Highlands, Pine Lake, Beaver Lake, Pine Lake Estates, Autumn Meadow, Pembrooke to name a few). Good luck!

[raindrop32]

thankseveryone for your responses. one of my main concerns was the schooling in the area and alsoif pre-schools are as competitive as they are in Redmod/Issaquah. One other question...what are the best swimming facilities in the area? We hava great YMCA near Montesano in Aberdeen that we are members of and they have great swim lessons and even free daycareto members. Is there anything similar to this or are all YMCA's equivalent?

[obsidian97]

Originally Posted by raindrop32

thankseveryone for your responses. one of my main concerns was the schooling in the area and alsoif pre-schools are as competitive as they are in Redmod/Issaquah. One other question...what are the best swimming facilities in the area? We hava great YMCA near Montesano in Aberdeen that we are members of and they have great swim lessons and even free daycareto members. Is there anything similar to this or are all YMCA's equivalent?

ProClub in Redmond/Bellevue (can't remember which) area offers this and has four pools (the place is crazy). I think some of the other gyms in the area offer this as well.

Daycare in general is a bit of a pain in this area. It's expensive, in short supply, and not so great (generally).