Anyone else in Washington? (Seattle, Tacoma: employment, high school, taxes)

[klpeake]

I agree that it is great to read the "I would never go back" posts. We have been looking for a house in the Vancouver/Battleground/Camas area for the past 6mo's. I've done so much data that I have a binder 3" thick on WA and Clark County! Every couple of months I start to get cold feet and wonder if we are going to be making a mistake. We live in Silicon Valley right now. I know that my 4 boys will have the time of their lives living in WA though. Thanks to everyone that has encouraging words for those of us that are making one of the biggest decisions of our lives! :-)

Karol

[KidBlue]

This is a response to Domesengr.

You sound like me! I also live in the CA foothills (Shingle Springs) and just got a chance to visit WA last week for the first time. I was checking out the Vancouver, Montesano, and Rainier areas. I'm looking for a home on about 5 acres in a small town. My husband and I loved Montesano and Elma but are afraid it might be more rain than we can handle, but it's still on our list. Montesano had lots of evergreens (like everywhere!!!) and was a very cute little town. No major shopping, but it did have some small shops. If you want to be within 15 minutes of shopping, you might want to check out Elma. We liked Elma almost as much as Montesano and it's closer to Olympia. If you want to be close to shopping in Montesano, you would probably need to shop in Aberdeen. Not sure how you feel about older port cities, I found it hard to drive in and pretty old--but a nice Safeway!

Rainier was great too. Reminds me of Shingle Springs minus the Mcmansions and replacing oaks with evergreens.

[klpeake]

Originally Posted by KidBlue

This is a response to Domesengr.

You sound like me! I also live in the CA foothills (Shingle Springs) and just got a chance to visit WA last week for the first time. I was checking out the Vancouver, Montesano, and Rainier areas. I'm looking for a home on about 5 acres in a small town. My husband and I loved Montesano and Elma but are afraid it might be more rain than we can handle, but it's still on our list. Montesano had lots of evergreens (like everywhere!!!) and was a very cute little town. No major shopping, but it did have some small shops. If you want to be within 15 minutes of shopping, you might want to check out Elma.

Actually, on one of the other topics in this forum, they brought up the issue of the tectonics plates off of the coast of WA. I've been researching them for 3 days and I am definately not interested in the Northwest coast of WA anymore. I have already been through the Loma Prieta quake in '89 which was centered right near my house and I'm not really looking forward to the trouble that another quake that size or larger will cause again.

[rainbird]

Originally Posted by Desertdweller

My ideal would be to live in Washington in the summer, then live some place else from November to March. Gotta win that Lotto first tho!

Absolutely agree with that. I've lived in the seattle area for 25 years now and it didn't bother me so much at first but man those winters are bleak and the days are short. I had to buy a couple of sunlamps last winter. Even so, when it's nice here there is no better place IMHO.

I'm working on that lotto thing too

[LMB]

Originally Posted by klpeake

Actually, on one of the other topics in this forum, they brought up the issue of the tectonics plates off of the coast of WA. I've been researching them for 3 days and I am definately not interested in the Northwest coast of WA anymore. I have already been through the Loma Prieta quake in '89 which was centered right near my house and I'm not really looking forward to the trouble that another quake that size or larger will cause again.

Karol, did your recent earthquake research change your mind about moving to WA in general, or just the coastal areas? Are you still interested in the Vancouver area? By the way, check your private messages when you get a chance.

LMB

[JayPea]

I live in Colfax, WA, population 2900. It's in the southeastern part of the state, an hour south of Spokane and 15 miles from Washington State University in Pullman. I've lived in this area all my life. I'm too used to the sun and the small amount of traffic to want to live on the west side of the state but it's a beautiful area over there and I do love to visit there.

[suburbiancat]

I live in Bothell. Woodinville is a really nice place. Blaine is right on the border of Canada. Two very different areas. Woodinville is very rural suburbia-Blaine is farm land.

[klpeake]

Originally Posted by LMB

Karol, did your recent earthquake research change your mind about moving to WA in general, or just the coastal areas? Are you still interested in the Vancouver area? By the way, check your private messages when you get a chance.

LMB

No, it hasn't changed my mind, but it has made me nix a few areas off of my search like Ridgefield and western Vancouver. What I found out after lots of digging is that the fault is shaped sort of like a banana with the curved part facing the shore. If you imagine that the banana is divided lengthwise and that the part that is further away from shore is in a "locked" status with the Northern Continental plate. The Juan De Fuca plate subducts under the NCP at a shallow angle in this locked zone. But then when it gets to the lenghtwise dividing line, it enters a transitional zone where the JDF plate actually dives or dips down under; the angle of subduction changes from 5 degrees to 12 degrees. This transitional zone starts 35 km offshore and goes inland to approx. 75km to the east of the coastline. As the fault dips lower, it becomes hotter and more molten, it eventually loses the ability to store mechanical stress and generate earthquakes. The measured end of the fault is over 26 miles away from the area that I have been looking, so I feel o.k. now that even though I might be there when there is a "big one", that it will be more of a matter of inconvenience for me due to the roads closing, power outages, water, gas, etc. But having grown up in CA, "on top of" the San Andreas fault, I've been through many earthquakes and if you are prepared, they are very survivable.


Karol

[KidBlue]

Karol,

Can you share some of the sites you used to do your research on faults? I'm interested in the Yelm/Rainier/Tenino area. So far the few sites I've read have led me to believe that this area would be similar to where you are looking (now, after your research) that would be more of an inconvience in the case of a large quake. I currently live in the foothills outside of Sacramento and this is the case here too (although you can never be 100% sure). So, although I'm not really scared of quakes, I wouldn't want to unknowingly move to an area more dangerous than where I am now. At least western WA will greatly reduce our number one danger--wild fires.

Thanks for any research you can share.

Kidd

[nwraider]

Been up here for two years, and yes, I am a transplanted Southern Californian. Lived the Riverside area all my life and after 35 years it was time to get the f out. My wife grew up in OC (Fullerton) and we both just wanted to go. Now have a nice house here in Milton, good jobs and our 8 yr old daughter loves it. Although we have family still down in SoCal, we'll NEVER go back, except to visit. We decided during a visit to the Portland area (Dad lives there) in 1999 that we were moving up here, and waiting till my step-daughter graduated in '04 to bail. She stayed behind (living in Fullerton with her dad) and we were gone within two months of her graduation.

And the rain and overcast does not bug me at all, I actually prefer non-sunny/partly cloudy days and cooler weather. 110 degree days in the Inland Empire just got real old, real fast. Even the severe rain we got last winter didn't deter me at all. And hell, even if we wanted to go back, who can afford $400-500K for a house in Riverside? And that's in the crappy parts of town