Longbranch / Key Peninsula Area (Seattle, Olympia: house, buying, contractor)

[Beernik]

Anyone know about the Longbranch or Key Peninsula area? My wife and I are looking at a house there.

[Diana Holbrook]

It’s a beautiful area of timber and mountain views. Very rural with a few small towns. Pretty quiet.

Is that what you are looking for? If so you can probably find it there.

[elkotronics]

It’s a beautiful area of timber and mountain views. Very rural with a few small towns. Pretty quiet.

Is that what you are looking for? If so you can probably find it there.

Sounds delicious, actually.

[Beernik]

It is what we are looking for. This specific house doesn’t have views, but it has 1.5 acres of forrest on 3 acres of land. I’m concerned about whether it is good-rural or bad-rural or both. Am I going to have to worry about the safety of my brown wife & child?

It still leaves me with a long-ass commute but I could do it ferry-free. After 3 years on Lopez, that has a lot of appeal.

I also like it because my job is currently project-specific. In 2023, when the project is over, my job may be over too. This place would keep the Olympia - Seattle - Bremerton triangle all inside a 70 mile radius and make my future job prospects more flexible.

I’m not worried about bad commutes into Seattle. Once I made the move, I’d be starting work at 6am and miss the worst of it. Doing 9 or 10 hour days, though, means the afternoon commute would be really bad and I might be tempted into using the Fauntleroy - Southworth ferry.

[Diana Holbrook]

Well, as we continue to drill down further on what you mean by 'good-rural or bad-rural or both' - I'll say there well may be a little of both. As I have said on many threads here on this forum... there are two kinds of people who live in the country: Half of them love the peace and quiet (and beauty) of it, and the other half would not be tolerated in town.

So you will find some places and people who are real nice, and some that are junky, some who are friendly and some who are not. Since you mention your wife, I don't think you will find any organized or widespread racism, expressed or otherwise, in these parts. There is always possibility for exceptions, but it's not part of the rural culture. There aren't many minorities in some of these parts, but I don't think it's because of any plan.

There are long stretches of drive on that Peninsula where you will see nothing but trees for miles. It's actually interesting forest out there, because it's almost all private forest, not state, with many parts marked by signs to educate the public about our forestry industry with planting and harvest dates... and there's a lot of test plantings of unusual species growing... Rather than just the usual Douglas fir, you will see some White fir, some Hemlock, and a few stretches of long needle and Ponderosa pines. Lots of variety, relatively speaking. You maybe have to be something of a timber and logging junkie to notice, but that's me.

As for other dangers... you may find your commute hampered by winter out there, I would not expect plowed roads the first morning after heavy snowfalls... you might find yourself stuck for awhile or with power out, after winter snow, wind or ice storms. You're in the sticks and have to battle elements on your own... be prepared.

And you might have to be alert and prepared for wild animals... you will have the possibility of coyotes, bear, and cougar... Deer, elk, other smaller varmints. Good and bad, wanted and unwanted. All part of the fun.

Feel free to ask something more specific if there's more you want to know about any particular area. We drive that area a lot.

[CrazyDonkey]

Key Peninsula has an interesting history:

https://www.thenewstribune.com/enter...e25869265.html

[Beernik]

The snow isn’t a concern for me. If it’s snowing, my contractor won’t be working and I can justify some telecommuting days. As for ‘random unexplained power outages,’ that’s San Juan County’s motto. My first day on San Juan island I was stuck in the elevator for my storage unit for an hour.

The only thing that worries me about the weather and this place is they didn’t finish the driveway from the property line to the house. It’s steep and I’m sure when it’s raining, it is a muddy mess. The two biggies that might keep me from buying this place are the geotech report for slope stability and having to dump $20k of my down payment into finishing the driveway. And I haven’t figured out if finishing the driveway will make me have to do a storm water report & analysis for Pierce County. I mean I can do all the civil engineering & stormwater BMP stuff myself & save some money but it’s a pain in the ass to have to do it.

By bad country, I specifically mean racists/separatists/militias. I have them in my extended family and have removed them from my life. I have no patience for them in my family, I have even less for them outside of it.

I’m also not saying that stuff doesn’t doesn’t exist in cities, because it does. But it’s offset by increased diversity and tolerance as well. And while I enjoy working in cities, I hate living in them.

[elkotronics]

By bad country, I specifically mean racists/separatists/militias. I have them in my extended family and have removed them from my life. I have no patience for them in my family, I have even less for them outside of it.

I’m also not saying that stuff doesn’t doesn’t exist in cities, because it does. But it’s offset by increased diversity and tolerance as well. And while I enjoy working in cities, I hate living in them.

There was a time these people hung out in Coeur d' Alene, ID - I'm gonna say the 80's - 90's era. They are gone from Idaho now, we're told by the news, but, vestages of those "types" remain there. They're just not organized nor on any kind of warpath anymore. Idaho had the 'Ruby Ridge' shooting in its past history, too, dealing with the Fed's.

We have a friend who lives in Kalispell, MT, and there apparently, according to a few different news stories, is a group that wants to foment hatred towards a particular race over there. Making bombing threats and all. That was about 3 years ago that we read about that and saw the TV news show on it. Have not heard anything else since then.

I have not heard of such groups in Washington state, but, in Forks, WA, there was in incident in which a logger stuck a dead spotted owl to a tree in Forks to protest logging stoppages due to the need to protect the spotted owl. Never heard of an uprising down south the coast of Washington and inland at all, though.

[Beernik]

That’s good to hear.

It looks like the first place isn’t working out because they don’t seen to have a copy of the geotechnical report for the site and I’m not willing to risk having the back slope end up in the kitchen.

But I’ll be driving out tomorrow evening to look at another place. The downside is it’s smaller, the upside is I won’t have to spend money on a new driveway.

[Beernik]

Final update: they couldn’t ever get me the geotechnical report for the slopes on the property. I ended up making an offer on a place on camano instead.