Interested in moving to Washington, looking for the right place. (Seattle: neighborhoods, tornadoes)

[madicarus2000]

Kathleenh54, Lynnwood is a pretty nice little city. I have a grandmother who lives there and we visit all the time. There is a line about Sequim, that is is inhabited by old people and their grandparents. We were there this summer and I must say there were a lot of retirees there. Plus a well known seafood place was not as good as one would think. However we stayed at a friends cabin in Port Townshend and it was a beautiful area.

[scirocco22]

Lynnwood is probably okay. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just have her take the ordinary precautions and she should be fine. But 19?? She should have the smarts already.

Yeah, Sequim is located in a rain shadow out there on the Olympic Peninsula. Gets very little rain compared to other parts of Western Washington.

Okay, more later.

--'rocco

[scirocco22]

oops, sorry madicarus. Didn't see your post until I posted.

Yeah, lots of retirees there in Sequim.


Okay, more later.

--'rocco

[ShadowXOR]

I can't wait to give my opinion on Washington when I arrive. Sadly I have bills to pay off before I make the move so I'm looking at about six months but I now know exactly where I'm going so that in a few months I can start looking for a job/house. I'm going to request information packets from those four cities and visit them as well. It will be a fun time.

[ShadowXOR]

Now I need to take my move to the next step. How many months before I move should I begin looking? Obviously homes and jobs are filled in a reasonably timely manner so I'm assuming about a month before I move? How long before I move should I visit? I was thinking of doing it right when I could go up for an interview/check out some houses/apartments. Besides the obvious changing of my address and getting a new drivers license/registration, is there anything else I need to do? Anything I'm missing or general suggestions? Do any jobs give phone interviews if I can't make it down? Thanks!

[compltlyme]

Originally Posted by ShadowXOR

Now I need to take my move to the next step. How many months before I move should I begin looking? Obviously homes and jobs are filled in a reasonably timely manner so I'm assuming about a month before I move? How long before I move should I visit? I was thinking of doing it right when I could go up for an interview/check out some houses/apartments. Besides the obvious changing of my address and getting a new drivers license/registration, is there anything else I need to do? Anything I'm missing or general suggestions? Do any jobs give phone interviews if I can't make it down? Thanks!

I guess it depends on how picky you need to be. We had specific things we were looking for in a house and area. I started about 7 months ahead of time and but really got serious about talking to people about 3 months ahead of time. I also worked with a realtor/rental agent. Working with the agent was needed in our case. She would send pics and I would say yes or no... We didn't have a deadline to move or jobs to get because we have our own business and work out of home. So that made things a bit easier. We wanted at least a 2 year lease so that we could decide if we wanted to stay up here and to get to know the area well enough to know where we wanted to buy. I am not sure about the job change but I think I would look in that area first and that should give you a time table about moving and how quickly you have to find a place.

[ShadowXOR]

I see the Seattle area is getting pounded by dangerous storms right now, is that common? Anything to be worried about? The news may be making it sound worse than it is, does anyone know how bad it really is? 700,000 people without power is a lot though, that's more than the population of Seattle.

[scirocco22]

No, Shadow, take a look at my comments on the thread I started. This storm is very unusual. I only remember two others even close to this magnitude (actually, the Columbus Day Storm was the worst in state history). The power outages could come close to the Inaugural day storm of 1993 where, as I've said, I lost half my roof. That's the only time I've ever sustained damage to any place that I've lived up there in a storm.

I remember as a kid there was a storm that was worse. It was called the Columbus day storm and I can remember the winds just howling. I'll give my age away if I tell you what year that was *winks* but you can look it up.

Okay, more later.

--'rocco

[scirocco22]

Just another note, Shadow, one of the reasons the western Washington sustains such power outages in a wind storm is that it has so many trees. Wind storms usually occur in the winter when the ground is soft from the rains and trees easily become uprooted in the wind and fall on power lines. The branches of evergreen trees also will fall on power lines as they are so close together in places and often times go untrimmed. Puget Power has a maintenance policy where they try to keep trees trimmed in the areas where their trunk lines exist. This maintenance is usually done in the summer as a precaution so that when the winter winds come, there will be less of a chance of trees falling on lines but there are so many trees that they can't get to all of them, obviously.

But if strong winds were blowing, say where I live in the desert, the damage and the power outages wouldn't be anywhere near what happens in western Washington because of the lack of trees.

Okay, more later.

--'rocco

[ShadowXOR]

Well that can't be helped then, part of the reason I'm going up there is the beautiful trees!