Relocating from Midwest to Washington (Seattle, Vancouver: home, employment, schools)

[AMeredith61385]

My family currently lives in Central IL. We have 3 kids: 2 months, 9 years, and 12 years as well as 4 pets: 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 lizard.

My husband has worked in manufacturing for over 12 years. Welder, fabricator, robot technician, maintenance, electric work (not certified), forklift and scissor lift operation, non-certified plumbing experience, warehouse and inventory experience, and small engine/vehicle repair experience. His last job was for a company that built parts for CAT and John Deere. Those two companies, especially CAT, have had such horrible years recently that layoffs on a weekly basis are commonplace and my husband was one of them. Due to a local plant closure (Mitsubishi car plant), manufacturing jobs are scarce, even as experienced as he is. Coupled with ridiculous taxes, failing education, completely asinine state politics, horrible economy, and no work to be found, we are considering relocating out-of-state.

For myself, I provide in-home childcare, which allows me to stay home with our children while helping with bills. I'm also an author with 5 published romance novels. So far it's only a hobby as I pretty much make no money doing it. Lol.

What we're looking for in a place to relocate is:
1) Job availability: My husband is skilled labor with loads of experience. Hourly wage would be a min of $20/hour.
2) Schools: I have 3 children, one who'll be starting college in 6 years, and one starting kindergarten in 5. Quality education is essential.
3) Location: central IL is literally flat as a pancake. I have never seen a mountain high enough to have snow on it. FYI I really want to. The only varied topography around here is near major rivers. We love nature and we love small towns. I can't see us being happy anywhere with a population over 10k. My husband has no problem commuting 30-40 min to work in a bigger town/city though.
4) Climate: One of the only things I like about IL is that we get 4 distinct seasons. A mild spring, hot summer (90+ degrees with matching humidity, gorgeous, colorful, and mild fall, and cold snowy winter. Sometimes we get no snow, sometimes a lot of ice. But we definitely have an average month straight of below zero temps. Every season has its pros and cons and I love them all. I don't have to live where there's all four climates on location but being able to drive to that climate is preferred.
5) Politics: my husband and I are both independent. We lean democrat with some views and republican with others. We are voting 3rd party this election. We prefer a place that's open minded and not extremely pushy towards one spectrum or the other. We are pro-legalization of cannabis, pro-life (but not making abortion illegal), small government, low taxes, minimal foreign war involvement, pro human/civil rights but not forcing churches, or religiously owned businesses. We're Christian faith believers but don't regularly attend church. We are tolerant of everyones religion or politics, but will fight tooth and nail to defend what we believe in from being trampled on. Politics are at the bottom of my priority list but we wouldn't be happy in an ultra-liberal or ultra-conservative area.

Facing relocation, we've adapted a go big or go home type attitude.
We have a budget of $15-20k which includes the actual move and 1-6 months cost of living in case we can't find suitable employment or housing. We'd be driving a moving truck and one vehicle across 1500 miles and a few mountain ranges. We can set an arrival time around 40-60 days from now. We are also willing to travel for interviews and accommodation searching beforehand.

So based on that plethora of info, I would appreciate any tips/advice/pros/cons of moving to Washington. Thanks in advance!

[perigee]

I know this was placed in the general WA forum, but this might be one of the times I would actually suggest the greater Seattle area. Manufacturing jobs tend to be on the outskirts, which might help to keep housing slightly more "affordable." The quotation marks are because, as you are probably well aware, you are going from a place with a low COL to a place with a much higher one, especially if you do land in the Seattle metro area.

Everette to the north is where the main Boeing campus is, but they also have one down in Renton and further south in Kent would also be a good place to look. Traffic is beyond horrendous, but the good news is that most of these jobs have earlier hours, so that might be a saving grace.

Boeing runs hot and cold, they can hire tens of thousands and then let them go, but they pay well. A quick search on CL shows that the ads where they listed hourly wages weren't very high.

seattle manufacturing - craigslist

Running Start will be great for your kids, if they do it right they can get the state to pay for an Associates degree or at least the first two years of college.

Best of luck with everything!

[Seacove]

The cost of living in the Seattle metro is much higher and the traffic is very heavy. What about Vancouver with Portland just across the bridge? Or Eastern Washington?

[perigee]

Seacove, manufacturing is a growth industry, we mainly focus on white collar jobs, but there are plenty of blue collar ones, though I have no idea if the pay is keeping up with the COL.

"The secret to Seattle's success is its mix of industries—a combination of technology, service and manufacturing that have hired more readily than those other parts of the country. Seattle has added factory jobs at a rate nearly four times as fast as the rest of the U.S. in the past two years."

Seattle a Leader in Job Growth - WSJ

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by perigee

Seacove, manufacturing is a growth industry, we mainly focus on white collar jobs, but there are plenty of blue collar ones, though I have no idea if the pay is keeping up with the COL.

"The secret to Seattle's success is its mix of industries—a combination of technology, service and manufacturing that have hired more readily than those other parts of the country. Seattle has added factory jobs at a rate nearly four times as fast as the rest of the U.S. in the past two years."

Seattle a Leader in Job Growth - WSJ

Seattle is not the only town. And from the OP:

"We love nature and we love small towns. I can't see us being happy anywhere with a population over 10k."

What town in the Seattle metro of 4 million people has a population under 10K? within a 30-60 minute drive? Unless they are living in Maple Valley and work very far south? Seattle is not the answer to every.single.question. I am sure there is manufacturing in Eastern Washington and Portland/Vancouver too and their populations are more in keeping with what the OP is looking for.

[perigee]

Relax Seacove, I did mention that it's pretty rare for me to recommend Seattle, traffic and COL are crazy, but it might be one place for them to look into, because the greater Seattle area is experiencing growth in that field. From that article they mentioned that they're having problems hiring enough workers, but they also mentioned $15 hr for a newly graduated welder, something that doesn't bode well for OP. Boeing creates a lot of demand, but I mentioned it's ups and downs.

As for where they could live, Enumclaw is about 11k, if work was in the Auburn/Federal Way/Kent area with an early start time, he might be able to make that commute at 4'ish in the morning.

Stealth should have an issue with me, because I almost universally recommend Vancouver

[CrazyDonkey]

It'll likely be cheaper for him to come out first, to apply for jobs, set-up interviews, etc., rather than moving everyone out here without a job.

What is your projected income? What is your housing budget and for what?

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by perigee

Stealth should have an issue with me, because I almost universally recommend Vancouver

Stealth sounds like he's rarely here

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

What is your housing budget and for what?

That is the $500K question...

[perigee]

So true, Seacove!

I would have just given you a rep point, but it seems like C-D insists on me spreading it around before I can rep you again. Damn you for writing interesting posts!

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by perigee

So true, Seacove!

I would have just given you a rep point, but it seems like C-D insists on me spreading it around before I can rep you again. Damn you for writing interesting posts!

Same here and you're very kind!