Looking for the perfect town in western Washington (Seattle, Bellingham: co-op, houses)

[Rosefolly]

My DH and I are seriously considering retiring in the PNW. After a couple years of research I'm having trouble identifying the town or smaller city that meets our requirements.

We are ardent gardeners, so we want an area with 30" - 40" annual rainfall or even a bit more, but not so much rain as we'd get out on the Olympic peninsula. We want to live in a town with an attractive, viable, walkable downtown. We love old houses of the Craftsman era (roughly 1900-1935) and prefer to find such a neighborhood within a mile of that downtown, or in a larger city, of a neighborhood downtown. We love to walk, and like the idea of strolling out of our front door and walking to get a cup of coffee, a newspaper, or do a little light shopping. Since I am an ardent fan of lifelong learning, I would be delighted to find a town with a community college or even a university. I must have a good library. Public transportation would be a plus; walkability is a requirement.

While we could find much of what we want in certain neighborhoods of Seattle, we find the size of that city and definitely its traffic to be more than a bit overwhelming. A smaller city or sizable town with a lively, healthy neighborhood downtown center would suit us better. We want to avoid either automobile-dependent suburbia or high-rise, landless urbia (yes, I made that word up). Surely somewhere these qualities can still be found together! We cannot be the only people who value them.

[LMB]

Perfect is different for everyone, but we found our perfect town three years ago...and it's pretty close to what you described. Check out Poulsbo, particularly the oldtown neighborhood which is surrounding the quaint Norwegian-influenced downtown. I think most of the houses around this area were built in 1920s-1950s, and there are some beautiful Craftsman homes. My husband & I walk downtown several times a week, as well as to our weekly farmer's market, library, parks, waterfront walking trail, etc. There is a community college located in Poulsbo as well as an art college. The people here have been very friendly and welcoming. I'm an avid gardener also--our yard/roof garden is basically a mini-farm!

Good luck finding your perfect place! A few other towns we liked during our five-year search: Anacortes, Langley and Coupeville (both on Whidbey Island), and Port Townsend. There are so many other possibilities and I'm sure others here will offer good suggestions too.

Lynn

[AzDreamer]

Sorry that I can't recommend a perfect town, but one thing about gardening out here you may not know. Summers are very dry and the 40 inches of rain that falls the rest of the year is only a memory in August.

[Ira500]

I just spent the last few days on Whidbey Island, and it's awfully nice. I'd add Freeland to the mix of Langley and Coupeville. Langley is the most charming of the three, I think. But they're all fairly small towns, and on an island, so none of these places are exactly lively. .....Langley also has some of the best pizza in the Pacific Northwest.

Lynn's suggestion of Poulsbo is a really good one. It's got some great views. Poulsbo has really transformed in the last 30 years. 30 years ago it was still pretty, but the downtown area was pretty dead. Now it's been revitalized. When you look up "quaint" in the dictionary, it should be illustrated with a picture of Poulsbo. What used to be a mostly boring place has transformed into a cool place. Maybe because it has been the beneficiary of Bainbridge becoming insanely expensive.
There are other places also worth investigating:

Olympia: It's the state capitol, the home of the Evergreen State College, has some fabulous neighborhoods with leafy streets and Craftsman homes...A fun downtown, and an interesting mix of folks. More "urban" than those Whidbey towns or Poulsbo, but big enough to see panhandlers. Great farmers market, and nice walkable downtown.

Bellingham: Another college town,Bellingham is also up there in natural beauty. another " larger" city ( not a big city by any means, but like Olympia, it has major stores and malls but also a food co-op and lots of great places to eat and shop. Parts of downtown Bellingham are kind of art-deco charming.

Burien:

If you wanted to be closer to the Seattle area or to the airport, Burien could make an interesting choice.
The downtown area, known as " Old Burien" has seen lots of improvement and revitalization in recent years and is really fun to hang out in. Walkable, interesting, and vibrant. There aren't a ton of Craftsman homes in Burien, but there's a great park there, great views and access to Puget Sound.
Not far south of Burien is Des Moines, which also has a nice waterfront and charming old downtown.
I showed a house there a couple of weeks ago that was built in 1921, with an expansive water view, and within walking distance of the downtown waterfront are a fair number of cool old houses.

Edmonds is another fairly close to Seattle town, about a 30 minute ride on the Sounder Train, also with a fairly vibrant downtown and on the water.

[Sandy Nelson]

You might like Olympia's South Capitol Neighborhood. It's a national historic neighborhood in close proximity to the Capitol Campus and to downtown. Within a 15 minute walk you can visit Olympia's farmer's market, downtown shops, cafes and restaurants, stroll around Capitol Lake or the board walk at Budd Bay.
Here is a link to the South Capitol Neighborhood Association website. It has many photos of local homes: www.southcapitolneighborhood.com
More photos of Olympia can be found here: www.olympiauncovered.com

[greenerpastures79]

Rosefolly: We are looking for the basic same things you're looking for in Western Washington. As for me, I'd want slightly less rain (rain shadow?), but otherwise the very same things. I hate suburbia as well, so I heard Mount Vernon is nice as it is a small town, less expensive, walkable downtown, and a nice scene all over. It's in the rain shadow, so you may not like the 32" per year as i've read it had.

[Rosefolly]

For now at least we've put this off, and decided to stay where we are. We have as many pluses and minuses. Thanks for all the responses. I appreciate the time people took to respond.

[greenerpastures79]

Originally Posted by Rosefolly

For now at least we've put this off, and decided to stay where we are. We have as many pluses and minuses. Thanks for all the responses. I appreciate the time people took to respond.

i have to say the same about me...I've ended my investigations for the PNW. Although beautiful, for me the PNW is too cloudy for most of the year and also too expensive. Not as expensive as LA, SF, NY, or Boston, but expensive enough for us. I'm now investigating the Midwest, particularly Ohio. I also thank every one for all the feedback, as all of those responses contributed toward helping me consider reallistically what it's like in the PNW .

[rainforest338]

You might want to check out Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula. It has lower rainfall than you mentioned, but it also has a well established irrigation system. Believe they turn it on in mid-April and let it run until mid-September. It was unlimited usage for a flat monthly fee--$15 I think. The town has many gardeners including master gardeners and gardening clubs. You can still find houses from the late 1800's, as the area was once loaded with dairy farms. There is less rain and more sun than the rest of the OP, but it is still Western Washington so clouds and drizzle aren't exactly rare.

[ShrikeArghast]

Originally Posted by Rosefolly

My DH and I are seriously considering retiring in the PNW. After a couple years of research I'm having trouble identifying the town or smaller city that meets our requirements.

We are ardent gardeners, so we want an area with 30" - 40" annual rainfall or even a bit more, but not so much rain as we'd get out on the Olympic peninsula. We want to live in a town with an attractive, viable, walkable downtown. We love old houses of the Craftsman era (roughly 1900-1935) and prefer to find such a neighborhood within a mile of that downtown, or in a larger city, of a neighborhood downtown. We love to walk, and like the idea of strolling out of our front door and walking to get a cup of coffee, a newspaper, or do a little light shopping. Since I am an ardent fan of lifelong learning, I would be delighted to find a town with a community college or even a university. I must have a good library. Public transportation would be a plus; walkability is a requirement.

While we could find much of what we want in certain neighborhoods of Seattle, we find the size of that city and definitely its traffic to be more than a bit overwhelming. A smaller city or sizable town with a lively, healthy neighborhood downtown center would suit us better. We want to avoid either automobile-dependent suburbia or high-rise, landless urbia (yes, I made that word up). Surely somewhere these qualities can still be found together! We cannot be the only people who value them.

One of the problems with a lot of the towns around Seattle is they have very nontraditional downtown areas. Well, perhaps 'problem' is too strong a word... but if you're coming to the area from, say, the north or southeast U.S., or from Colorado/Montana etc., you're going to notice that most of the towns don't have mainstreets chalk full of 19th century charm.

The good news, however, is that that isn't universally true. One notable exception is Issaquah, which is a bit east of the city, located on I-90. In addition to an attractive downtown, Issaquah has basically the same climate as Seattle (which should suit your gardening), is closer to the Cascades (nice mountain views -- and some decent views of Rainier depending on where you are in town), good schools, and is fairly compact overall.

The bad news when it comes to Issaquah is that the place's charm isn't lost on the people who visit. As a result, housing costs are high. You pay a price for all those positives.

A couple of other towns you might want to look into are Enumclaw, Monroe and Gold Bar, although they're all three less convenient to Seattle, smaller, and less nice than Issaquah.