Dallas Suburbs to Vancouver area :)

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by TheOrca

You will want to be in South East Vancouver period.

South East vancouver has the lowest crime, best neighborhoods, best food, best internet, etc, etc and closest to PDX.

East Vancouver between I-205 and (including) Camas does have a lot more shopping and restaurants. We live in the west edge of Camas and probably have 10 grocery stores and 100+ restaurants within about a 10 minute drive. Nothing like that in the north Vancouver suburban areas like Felida, Salmon Creek, and Ridgefield. But the neighborhoods are all pretty much made by the same builders so are basically indistinguishable. You can't really tell a subdivision in Felida or Ridgefield from one in Camas. They look the same. And I haven't seen any evidence that the comparable suburban parts of North Vancouver have any worse crime than the suburban parts of East Vancouver.

[wilsonthedog]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Having moved from TX to WA I can provide some insight.

It's basically the same big builders here and in the TX suburbs (Lennar, DR Horton, etc.) along with a few smaller local and more high-end builders like Pahlisch Homes. But the construction is different:

Rather than slab foundations, most or all homes out here are on pier and beam foundations with crawl spaces or daylight basements if built on a slope. That adds time and cost.

Rather than one-story homes on larger lots, it's mostly 2-story homes on smaller lots due to less available and more expensive land.

Rather than the masonry and stone siding preferred in central and north Texas it is mostly painted wood and hard-plank siding out here. That's probably mostly regional style preferences and traditions. They are still all just stick homes built with 2x6 framing, only the siding is different. Where you do see some brick and stone out here it is mostly just for trim. I actually much preferred the all-brick exterior house we had in TX. No painting to do ever, just pressure wash the mildew and wasps nests every year or so.

Winters are darker out here and summers are much shorter. The sun is also lower in the sky most of the year due to the higher latitude. So the preference is for more Scandinavian style lighter woods and interior finishes to lighten things up and bring in more daylight. In TX the sun is so brutally oppressive for half the year that styles preferences are for more dark woods and such to tone down the brutal sun. There was a period in the 70s and 80s that natural woods were really a thing out here so you'll see lots of pine paneling and stained oak cabinetry and wood grain everywhere on houses from that era. But today it's more of a lighter Scandinavian modern style like Ikea. Texans also seem to be more "country" in their taste which means more rustic wood surfaces and kitschy stuff like big rusted metal stars and things made out of barbed wire. Maybe that's more Waco where we lived than the Dallas area though. But every Waco home I was ever in had lots of dark wood and a bit TX star hanging somewhere along with something longhorn and prints or paintings of bluebonnets.

Carpeting? It is probably more popular due to the longer colder winters than the tile and hardwood more prevalent in TX homes. Solid surfaces like hardwood and tile are probably double the cost of carpet which is another reason why folks stick with carpet. We'd like to rip the carpet out of hour house and put in nice hardwood but that would make it a $50,000 job rather than a $20,000 job to just put in all new carpet. Out here we don't have big crews of Mexican tile and stone guys who can blast out your house with new tile in 2 days like they have in TX.

Insight provided indeed!!!

Don't remind me about the stars lol.