Liberals in Round Rock (Austin, Spring: rent, HOA, teaching jobs) - Texas (TX) - Page 6 - City-Data Forum

sadinpgh · 03-19-2015, 08:57 AM

haha eeyore's birthday looks awesome! My daughter is addicted to whinnie the pooh, so that'll be an event. We'd love to get really into the local scene, but also take great pleasure in random travel and road trips so this all sounds awesome.

As far as the pay, thanks for the info!
Raises aren't high, but starting salaries in austin beat the hell out of $24,000 a year I make here at PPS. Currently working two full time jobs in pittsburgh to make ends meet because my teaching job doesn't pay at all and my wife can't find work. Teach 7 am to 330 and work waiting tables 4 - midnight. Ready to get to one job and enjoy life again. Trying to stay optimistic.

centralaustinite · 03-19-2015, 09:00 AM

And dude, you are making all sorts of unfounded assumptions! Museums? Zoos? We are not a long-established east coast city where the wealthy city elders invested in those types of things in the 1880-1929 period. Austin was a tiny teeny town then and the only industry was state government and the university.

The Austin Zoo is a lovely, small zoo outside of town that is about 20 years old. Its focus is primarily rescue animals (including big cats which are kept legally as pets in Texas). If you want a "big" zoo founded in the 1920, you have to go to San Antonio or Houston. Waco also has a nice zoo.

Museums are they same. No wealthy industrial patrons to fund them 100 years ago. We have a nice Texas History Museum that is really first rate but only about 10 years old and still getting its centerpiece exhibit up. UT has the Blanton Art Museum, also less than a decade old, and there are smaller art museums in Austin but emphasis is on small. Again, if you want big city amenities, you have to go to a big city. Houston and Ft. Worth have world class museums.

Plan a visit first!

sadinpgh · 03-19-2015, 09:07 AM

We don't really need, or want, big and bold. Just somewhere to spend an afternoon

. Honestly, east coast museums and such kind of suck in my opinion. We've looked into the rescue zoo and that seems awesome, really looking forward seeing it. We both love rescuing animals and think that zoo would be super awesome. As far as museums and such, I was really just speaking generally about attractions that we could visit for an hour or two to spend some quality time in a place other than our neighborhood. We like to get out and about as much as often. Really, nature is our big thing and outdoors is where we are most comfortable. Before PGH we most recently lived in Alaska and spent every possible moment outdoors.... even at 30 below zero!

Jimmyp25 · 03-19-2015, 10:11 AM

I moved my company to austin from chicago. So it was a big change. We love it here.. Everyone is super friendly, conservative or not... It may take some adjusting ...but don't expect it to be all roses and sunshine when you get here... right now I'm renting a house east of 35 and I cannot wait to move.. We are buying our house more towards parmer...avoid 35 at all costs...GL

sadinpgh · 03-19-2015, 10:50 AM

now that we've tackled several key issues I suppose I'll keep going with my inquiries. The next being the heat. At least I'm not going into this assuming it's not going to be all hot all the time, because I'm sure the heat can be crippling at times. But how do Austinites get by? Does the whole city turn recluse between the hours of 10 and 4 in the summer? Is it very humid (compared to the northeast, because 95 and humid is a bit rough is PGH but our humidity hovers above 90% in the summer.) What are some tactics to make it though your first summer?

mark311 · 03-19-2015, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadinpgh

Does the whole city turn recluse between the hours of 10 and 4 in the summer? What are some tactics to make it though your first summer?

More like 9:30 to 7:00, but your body can get accustomed to it fairly quickly if you want it to. It can be humid at times, but it's much less humid than a lot of other places. There is AC everywhere here so that's nice. Coming from coastal CA, if it got into the 90's or 100's there, everyone would be miserable and old people would die because any house that wasn't recently built didn't have central air.

Here you get out of your car with AC and walk into your house or work building with AC. It does get frustrating at times when it's relentlessly 100 degrees every day, but after being here for 9 summers, it can definitely vary each year. Some summers are pretty mild and others are day after day of relentless heat. But, if your central AC unit in your house isn't working for more than a day, you'll probably want to check into a hotel because you won't be able to sleep or function in a house without a working AC unit. I think that you said you have kids so you'll just want to plan a lot of outings to the splash pads and go swimming a lot depending on their ages.

centralaustinite · 03-19-2015, 11:14 AM

The five o'clock hour is probably the worst for heat. One of the toughest things is that we don't cool down at night. I regularly walk my dog in August after 9 pm and the temps are still the mid-90s. The lows (of about 77 in July and August) don't arrive until the hour before dawn.

Hydrate, have the windows of your car tinted as dark as legally allowed, swim often, wear sunscreen religiously, change the filters on your AC, avoid homes and apartments with extensive western exposure to the sun.

Some summers, like 2014 are pretty mild and easy to get through, others are relentless and it feels just like battling winter up north. The summer of 2000 springs to mind.

The heat can also make commute hard, having a short commute that limits your time in a hot car can really add to your quality of life.

sadinpgh · 03-19-2015, 11:16 AM

By the time we move they will be ages 2 and 5. We would like to get a yard large enough for an above ground pool, which in the burbs seems very doable. We are just super addicted to the outdoors. It was almost the same in Alaska, where in the winter you could be outside and you wouldn't die if you had the right gear, but by March ... enough was enough. By my third winter there it just seemed normal though. I'm hoping it will be a similar acclimation experience with the heat.

sadinpgh · 03-19-2015, 11:19 AM

All things to keep in mind. When it comes to quality of life I guess you take the good with the not so good. Hey, at least it's sunny haha. Pittsburgh, similar to Seattle, literally goes from Halloween until the middle of April with maybe 10 sunny days. It's just 7 to 8 months of endless clouds and vitamin D deficiency. Some people love that ... I like sunshine

10scoachrick · 03-19-2015, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadinpgh

By the time we move they will be ages 2 and 5. We would like to get a yard large enough for an above ground pool, which in the burbs seems very doable. We are just super addicted to the outdoors. It was almost the same in Alaska, where in the winter you could be outside and you wouldn't die if you had the right gear, but by March ... enough was enough. By my third winter there it just seemed normal though. I'm hoping it will be a similar acclimation experience with the heat.

Need to check with the HOAs...some don't allow above ground pools.