Housing in Forks, WA (Seattle, Yakima: rent, how much, movies)

[Ratski_8]

I am bought my house in Forks three years ago this month, I have rented it out to the locals at a fair price, $700.00. I put new carpet in the house and painted it, and re-rented it out. I am moving inn, In May and yea Forks needs a good restruant, all theo the Buger joint as you come in to town has the fifties greasy tasting food, and the coffee shops have same tasty type food, I loved it , the pizzia parlor the labor has no clue about customer service is... And out on east side of town on the La Push turn off there is a restraunt Bar&Grill, that has a great looking menue with better than average dishes, but there prices are the highest in the area.

The two Coffee shops are the best in town for good home cooking tast. the local sub shop is fare priced. I looked over the Grocery store /delie/ hardweare store, prices are high, because if they have it, a truck brought it, they do pay a higher price for food and fuel gas/ diesel in Forks, for this reason.
but if your willing to drive 150 miles to Costco that's round trip of corse, and do your shopping, and stock up you can save money in the long run. I stayed there for about ten days working my rental, I got a small taste of life up there in Forks, the only thing I did not like in Forks was the Mexican food, they are deprived, most people up there have no clue what real Mexican food should taste like .... this is comming from someone who has lived 2 miles from the Mexico / San Diego boarder for the last 16 years. I can cook better Mexican food than the currant cooks they have up there.
I noticed that they lack a good Bar-be-Que, restruant, with a brick oven.. Ok enough about food . Forks has a charming 4th of July praide right down the 101 in the middle of town, good family fun.
If your in town you should park the ride and find a spot and watch the show because your not going anywhere. I have a lot more to learn about Forks the only way of learning is by being there and working for free by volinteering to help out around town.

[Fat Freddy]

Originally Posted by Ratski_8

Forks has a charming 4th of July praide right down the 101 in the middle of town, good family fun...

If you really want a memorable 4th of July experience, go down to Ocean Shores and park on the beach. But be warned, if you are a combat vet it will probably trigger a flashback.

[jertheber]

I was up to Forks over last weekend, I hadn't been there in fifteen years, things haven't changed much. The local business district looked shabby and underdeveloped. We used to go fishing in that area in the 50's and 60's, I remember it being a clean little town, poor but nice. In todays rural America we can see the difference in the populace of our small towns when compared to the cities, the rural people have been passed by, the wealth that has recently ballooned out of control never set foot in these small towns; Economically time has stopped. Just cruising through town I couldn't help but notice a sense of resignation that is evident in the general appearence of so many homes and business', poverty has a face, and it's a down in the mouth look that reveals the loss of hope for something better. The timber industry has been smacked down in a way that we have not seen in fifty years, the business isn't coming back any time soon. On a more cheery note I'll give a big rave for those in town that were out in the sun and cleaning yards, planting flowers, and trying to make things look nice, it doesn't take money but it does require some sense of pride. All in all the town looks as though new blood might be welcome by most, all these small towns have a lot of folks who do care and need like minded people to help create a better place for all. Conservative politics is the norm in rural America, lets face it, the "you might be a redneck" jokes, are no joke in the backwater towns, but that aside, it's not 100 per cent, so you can relax if your blue politics is worrying you. For those of you not familiar with the general area you can go to Google Earth and look up Forks and the surrounding areas, it would be worthwhile just to make that connection as to the remoteness of those towns. Google Images also has a good couple of downtown shots of Forks. Hwy 101 (the main hwy) is no freeway, it runs around the tip of northern Washington and has numerous bad spots and construction areas at present. It's a drive to anyplace, that can be good or bad I suppose, if you want the quiet of very rural forest land you've got it here in spades. On the other hand, when gas goes through the roof again you'll be wondering what you were thinking. Plan on having a very good gas miser for a car. With the economy in the toilet nationally we have some of the highest unemployment on the coast, Forks was and is a timber town, as such it won't have the quaintness you might associate with a town of it's size in Minnesota or Wisconsin for example. Timber is part of the beauty of the Pacific North West, but it's also the main cash crop for the areas family's, this makes for one hell of a dillema, in order that they may eat they need to hog down huge tracts of surrounding timber off the land, and logging is one ugly scar on the mountains that beckon the tourist industry, fishing, hunting, hiking, and sightseeing is a growing rebuttal to the logging industrie's death grip on the local folks. For now logging pays the bills and tourist traps don't always pay decent wages. I have high hopes for all the coastal regions towns, they are survivors of the hardiest kind. Come up to the north coast and spend some time looking around, it's a different enviroment both politically and ecologically. Remember, you are going to see an obvious need for improvement but that's part of the challenge that north coast living requires, there is no place quite like it, just ask the local's, they will tell you what you want to know, not what you want to hear. Happy trails.

[Ratski_8]

Sure Forks is the quite small town, with a falling population, but the recent noterity due to the twilight book series/ movie has brought the town to the publics eye and sparked intrest in the town, but people have to understand, at night the side walks roll up and every door closes after dark.. and this time of the year dark don't happen till 9:30 PM , And yea there are some rental propertys that could use some clean up, as well the down town could use more tourest dollars, other then money from Prison jobs and Logging money, there is not a lot to go around, I see that the City uses the air port landing strip for drag races, in the summer. Events like the drag racing dose pull in out side dollars. the trick for the citie cousel is to come up with more inventive ways to bring more people to town and give them things to do rain or shine Thats the Real trick...

[Fat Freddy]

Back in the Cedar days we had the Loggers' and Sawyers' annual pot luck picnic.
Plenty of booze and tons of good food.

One of the highlight of the day was the Fingers and Toes Contest where the Sawyers would compare how many fingers they lost with how many toes the Loggers cut off.

The Sawyers always won, but it wasn't really a fair contest because many of the Loggers who cut off their toes had more serious injuries which kept them out of the woods so they went to work in the mill and became Sawyers.

Another popular event was the Girls' Bundle Toss. This was a contest among the women who worked under the mills sorting and packing and was how the Shingle and Shake Queen was chosen.

[Ratski_8]

I just got my Retirement approved, we are going to spend our money in town and meet the people and injoy the clean air. no Swine flu in Forks ... Really this is a Good time of the year to move there, things are warming up, time for Baseball in Forks, if any? I will see

[eponabri]

Hey, Cheri! I haven't been here in a while and totally missed your message.

This is the first time I've talked to you, it's always Rod I get messages from. Just found him on Facebook too..

Sorry we missed seeing your when we were in Forks last fall....

Originally Posted by Forks Transplant

Hehehe, I'm married to him Cindi. This is Cheri Fleck.

[kahlic]

i am trying to move to forks as well. i am 26 and i have four toddler girls from 2-8yrs. i love the outdoors and rain and want my kids to know it as well. which is a moot point being that we live in kansas now and theres nothing here(my husband is a kansas boy and never been anywhere else) it will be an adventure for him. i am giving myself several months to do some research,visit and have things set up before we move. im educated in computer technology but have spent most my life before that as a waitress so i think the hardest will be for him to find a job as the only experience he has had is in framing and drywalling! there is very good insight here and if you can add anything to my research it will be much appreciated as well! thanks

[kahlic]

i think they should do some kind of a carnival or town day to showcase all the neat and interesting thingsthat this small town holds. some things done there will be interesting to the rest of the world and people will come to see it if advertised.

[psprague]

They close the airport runway and have drag races, what more could you want than that?

They have some sort of rain festival (no idea when) and a shindig on the 4th of Julie. Try here for an official listing (http://http://www.forkswa.com/index.html - broken link)