Relocating to Seattle over 40

[Kayela]

My first choice would be Capitol Hill - yes it has its trendy areas, but stay to the North parts and you'll find tree-lined streets, neat old houses, classic apartment buildings, and a nice mix of restaurants, stores, etc. Cap Hill has more bookshops than any other neighborhood I can think of - including Eliot Bay Bookshop. Disclaimer: I live in this neighborhood, and I am pretty much the same demographic as you. Believe me, despite it's reputation as a place for the 'young and hip', this area attracts plenty of people like us for exactly all the reasons you've listed. We just typically live north of the Pike/Pine part of it (actually I'd say north of Olive is where it gets quieter). Also - have your husband inquire about the MS Connector bus. It's a bus service strictly for MS employees. It makes numerous stops along Broadway and also has some on Madison, Bellevue and 19th. Public Transit is also quite good here (the 49 goes to the U-dist) and it's one of the best neighborhoods for car-free living. FWIW I also commute to a certain eastside campus and it's not a bad commute at all.

We lived on the Eastside for years, and while I don't consider it soulless, it does tend to be more family-centered and we constantly found ourselves driving into Seattle because that's where the kind of activities we like tend to be. We also like the older, denser neighborhoods.

Good luck with your adventures!

[Ira500]

Bellevue would be awfully convenient. While downtown Bellevue is a little too glitzy and shiny for my taste, Old Bellevue immediately adjacent is quite pleasant, if a little upscale. And, like usernametaken states, there are lots of neighborhoods within Bellevue with very different feels. And Bellevue will getting light rail. Not for years, but it's growing in anticipation of it.
Redmond's not really conservative, but every place is compared to Seattle itself. Downtown Redmond has a bookstore and an organic restaurant. And it's the home of Mac and Jacks, one of the areas more popular microbrews.
I'll second or third Capitol Hill. Specifically North Capitol Hill. More residential, but still within easy walking distance of a zillion restaurants and stores. The SW part of Capitol Hill, closest to downtown Seattle, is very dense, and is not quiet.
Pike/Pine has become really crazy busy in recent years, but has great eateries and the iconic Elliott Bay Bookstore. ( nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there).
15th Ave E is a great street. The area around Republican/Harrison/Mercer/Roy and further north, and between 15th and around 21st has been one of my favorite neighborhoods for a long time.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by lucy1965

My husband's considering a job at Microsoft. Both of us have friends in Seattle, but I'd like to gather information from as many sources as I can.

We're both in our 40s, child grown and gone. Home ownership was fun for the first couple of years, but after 15 (and all sorts of major renovations) the thrill is gone, so would be looking for an apartment for at least the first year; being able to get along without a car would be a plus, as I don't really need more than a good grocery store and a bookstore (bonus points for a store cat). Politics are progressive; both non-religious; more likely to read or go to a concert than to spend a lot of time outdoors, but we both enjoy walking. Yes, I've thought about the weather: I have a visual impairment that makes very bright light/glare uncomfortable, so being in a place where it's overcast more often than not would be a pleasant change (I'm in Salt Lake City, Utah, right now -- and before anyone asks, no, we aren't LDS and moved out here for work).

Friends have warned us not to expect to stay in this job for more than 4-5 years, and that's fine: our plan is to bank as much cash as we can while finishing our graduate degrees, then either head back to Minneapolis/St. Paul or down to Portland.

Neighborhoods to avoid? I've heard Bellevue called soulless, Redmond too conservative, and Seattle too trendy.

Wouldn't where you live be determined in part by where you go to school? Graduate work? Are you going to the UW in Seattle? There are wonderful neighborhoods in north Seattle where you could rent an apartment or a small house. I don't know what "trendy" means, but it doesn't exist in the north end of town, which is much more laid back. Try the Ravenna neighborhood (beautiful park nearby), Maple Leaf, Victory Heights and Pinehurst. All those have easy access to the UW, easy commute by car or bus. Easy commute to Microsoft from Victory Heights/Pinehurst. Greenlake is also nice, with a nice park and lake for walking, biking, swimming. The Montlake neighborhood just south of the UW is also nice, though commuting from Microsoft from there would involve crossing Lake Washington by bridge, and the traffic is awful.

[lucy1965]

I have friends in Ballard and Kenmore, and my god-daughter and her husband are renovating a cabin on Whitbey Island -- would North Capitol Hill be somewhat easy to reach all of those places from?

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by lucy1965

I have friends in Ballard and Kenmore, and my god-daughter and her husband are renovating a cabin on Whitbey Island -- would North Capitol Hill be somewhat easy to reach all of those places from?

North Capitol Hill to Ballard is a 20 minute drive non rush hour, Kenmore 30 minutes. And Whidbey will be more like 90 minutes, depending on the ferry schedule and where on Whidbey( it's a huge island).
Buses do run from Capitol Hill to Ballard also.