Looking in Kettle Falls area (Spokane, South Hill: mortgage, big house, transferring to)

[zkay]

Hello

My wife and I are looking to move to the Kettle Falls area. Currently we live in western Illinois in the Quad Cities area. We are hoping to start a small subsistence farm within a year or two of moving there, so that we can both be at home full time.

Right now I am working a full time retail job @ 12.50/hr. She does not work, and we are both in our mid 20s. She is an atheist, and I am agnostic. I have a small amount of college experience, and she has a Masters. We mostly like to keep to ourselves; when we go out, it's usually for dinner and a movie. We are quite happy with this, and not looking for more in this regard.

I currently commute about 45 minutes to my job during spring/summer/fall, this is sometimes extended as far as 1 hour 15 minutes during bad winter weather. I am planning on transferring to a location in Spokane, and the threads I've read here talking about the commute being so bad seem to be a bit overblown. I was told the same thing about driving on county roads way out where I am now (that are not consistently maintained). At one point during the winter of 2010 I was snowed in for two days. Given this experience, am I too confident in thinking that commuting from Kettle Falls to Spokane is not going to be a whole lot harder? Especially given that the majority of the drive seems to be on a major interstate, whereas now I am driving on back roads all the way to my job (in a 2WD toyota yaris at that).

We are looking to avoid being indebted as much as possible, and so we would like to buy some acreage (preferably 15-20+) and build a "tiny home", leaving the option open to have a big house built later on. Ideally we would like to buy the land for cash and then mortgage whatever the tiny home would cost, to be paid off in full within a small time frame (<10 years). Seeing the prices of lots and home construction in this area, it seems like this is pretty doable. Does anyone else have any experience with a similar situation?

The weather, from what I've read here, is quite marvelous compared to Illinois. I rather like our winters, but we are both looking to escape the unrelenting summer heat. This past summer there were honestly days we both felt we were suffocating, the combination of the heat and humidity was so bad. So we're more than happy to see that there are very few hot days in this area.

Taking these things into account, we also enjoy modern amenities. We would like to have high speed internet (if possible); most other things seem to be well taken care of in the area (power running across lots, wells able to be dug, etc). I realize there are many kickbacks you can receive from the state when using Solar or Wind technology as well. I would love to incorporate this into my home, as a preparedness measure to simply run what's absolutely needed during emergencies. From the other thread, I gather this is more than possible.

With all of that being said, this move probably won't happen for two to three years at a minimum. Just a budding dream at the moment.

Thanks for reading.

-zkay

[Walkaboutcda]

Your drive between Kettle Falls and Spokane would be on 395 a two lane highway. I have never driven this commute 5 days a week, I did drive this highway frequently on weekends between Spokane and Colville.

[OGTSO]

Just to throw this out there.... try Elk or Deer Park. They are both much closer to Spokane with lots of farmland type properties available. I live halfway between Deer Park and Spokane and work in Spokane. I have a fifteen mile commute to work. There are many farm type properties in Deer Park. One of the guys at my work lives in Deer Park on a 40 acre farm. Kettle Falls IMHO is too far to commute to Spokane. Good luck .

[sourdough]

Why not just start out in Spokane. Once you know the area, you'll know where to move.

[WendyK]

I agree with OGTSO - you don't need to go all the way to Kettle Falls to find the rural setting you're looking for, unless you don't need to drive into Spokane daily/weekly. There are plenty of places with acreage within a 20 mile drive of central Spokane.

[Couggirl03]

You're talking about a 2-2.5 hour drive one way from Kettle Falls to Spokane. And that's in good weather. I live in the area and I can attest that you will not have good weather about 7 months out of the year. Some days are so bad in the winter that even firetrucks can't get through on the highway. Also, if you a moving out far enough to afford acreage on minimum wage you will most likely need 4 wheel drive just to get there. There are a lot of long dirt roads that would be impassable in a Yaris.

[Sweetnothing]

Hubby & I are thinking about moving to Spokane Valley. Previously, it was Deer Park , but property taxes are higher there. So I'm thinking that KF prop taxes are lower there also.

[fieldmama]

Yes, too far to commute esp in the winter. The road can be quite dangerous.

Yes lots of farm/ag areas much closer to Spokane. KF and the Onion Creek area of Colville for sure has community though. And a fabulous little natural market. We loved it there

[Yeledaf]

Check out the Marshall area between Spokane and Cheney. It's still relatively rural, and only ten or fifteen minutes to Spokane (depending of course on how far toward Cheney you live). The only downside is the availability of well water in all areas.

[PS90]

Originally Posted by Couggirl03

You're talking about a 2-2.5 hour drive one way from Kettle Falls to Spokane. And that's in good weather. I live in the area and I can attest that you will not have good weather about 7 months out of the year. Some days are so bad in the winter that even firetrucks can't get through on the highway. Also, if you a moving out far enough to afford acreage on minimum wage you will most likely need 4 wheel drive just to get there. There are a lot of long dirt roads that would be impassable in a Yaris.

I see that this is a revived old thread, but I just wanted to make it clear that it definitely is NOT a 2-2.5 commute from Kettle to Spokane. From Colville to Spokane in the summer is roughly 65 minutes to the north end of town. And Kettle to Colville is, at most, 15 minutes. Going through Colville on the truck route is 3 or 4 minutes or less. So, even if you drive slow, you can get there in less than 90 minutes. I agree with others that I wouldn't do it as a daily commute, though.

Maybe, if your destination was the South Hill, going all the way through Division, and you were driving in January, in a snowstorm, then maybe it would stretch to 2.5 hours...

And bad weather seven months per year? Please. This last year, it got cold in late November, we didn't see any real snow until late December, and now here it is, mid-March, and it's 59 degrees and sunny today. Granted, this was an especially mild winter, but even extreme winters have less than six months of poor weather. Of course, bad weather in winter is a relative thing - I would rather have 20 degrees and sunny than 40 degrees and drizzly, but maybe that's just me.

Giving a pessimistic viewpoint is one thing, but you at least need to get your facts straight in order to show any credibility.