relocating for boeing (everett) from FL/VA need help/advice from locals! please and thank you :-) (Seattle: apartments, home)

[mekong84]

Hey everyone! I've done a few searches and I've found some info but nothing specific enough for what I seem to be looking for so I figured I'd post up and see if I could get any help. I'll try to keep this short!

I'm moving to Washington next week for a job I accepted in Everett. I currently live in Va Beach and I've spent the last several years in Florida going to school. I've never been to the west coast and I'm a little nervous about getting off the plane and not having a place to live!

I'm looking for advice on where might be a good place to live for a 28yr old single guy. I'm not looking for the crazy party scene like when I was in school, but I'm also not looking for suburbia and NO night life.

My IDEAL place would have a garage, it would allow me to have a satellite dish (I can't cancel the stinkin contract yet), and have a place I can walk my 2 dogs. I'd love downtown city life but I'm fairly certain, from what I've read, I won't find any of those things. Considering the price of gas and the traffic situation that I've been reading about I'd like to live somewhere between Seattle and Everett I think. 15/20 min to work and about the same if I want to head downtown-ish on the weekends. What would be really nice is a neighborhood/area of town that has a few things going on; maybe not a crazy night life or tons of stuff but some places I could go on a random Tuesday after work to hit up a happy hour or something like that. Close enough to the city to where I can drive/ride in on the weekends and close enough to Everette to where I've got a tolerable (<30min) commute. Its just me and the dogs so a 1 or 2 bedroom apt/town home type deal would be perfect.

Can you guys give me any suggestions about where to look? Just from pulling up a map of Seattle it looks like Shoreline is geographically in the middle of the 2 cities but I'm not sure about what kind of place it is. Are there any other places that might be more like what I've described? Even if its not quite in the middle, I'd certainly consider other areas.

THANK YOU so much for any advice you might have for me. I've heard nothing but great things about the Seattle area...I'm a Florida guy and used to lots of sun so I'm in for a big change, I know! :-)

[Andy]

Basic rule of thumb is the areas near water are nice, areas near SR-99 are the worst. Mukilteo and Edmonds are more upper class. Mill Creek is the newer built, nicer suburb. Lynnwood is the major retail center. Edmonds has the best downtown core of the places between Seattle and Everett, but not sure how well it is for singles.

[tobester]

You're gonna have to increase your desired "15/20 minute" commute time. It takes about that long to walk from parking lot in Everett. Also, you'll be limited by what apartments will accept two dogs. That being said, I might suggest the northern edge of Seattle (Northgate/Lake City/Greenwood - they all have nice little neighborhood pockets) - the commute north to Everett would be nearly speed limit all the way. The drive back home would not be bad either - southbound traffic doesn't usually start backing up until around Northgate.

[mekong84]

thanks guys! I heard about mill creek today so I'm gonna look into that. I was also informed about the ridiculous parking situation with Boeing sooo I'm not really sure what to do about that. Decided not to buy a motorcycle since the riding season up there is only like 3 months...but now I'm thinking I may need it for parking purposes!

And 15/20 min would be ideal but I understand if that's not really possible. I just know that, where I'm living now, it takes about 15min to get to downtown Norfolk and it takes me 40min with no traffic to get to work. With traffic its pretty much double that. I don't mind a little stop and go but yesterday I drove for about 15 miles at idle speed; I drive a 6 speed manual...and I destroy my clutch with that kind of stuff. So thanks a bunch for the info! I'm certainly going to try to avoid that kind of situation.

much appreciated!

[Kayela]

Might want to add Ballard and/or Fremont to that mix too. Definitely more nightlife and not much further. Also - just want to note if you lived near DT Seattle you could catch the Sounder train instead of driving. It might be something to consider.

[eskercurve]

Basically anywhere is OK, but some areas will be shadier than others. Lake City Way is kinda shady, as is along Aurora. Edmonds by and large is fine, as is Lynnwood.

Though those are no nightlife LOL.

Mill Creek is also no nightlife, but it is a nice area. A lot of Boeing engineers live there or just east of there. A lot of them also live in Mukilteo.

Basically for any nightlife you want to live in the city of Seattle. I'm sure Wallingford, Greenlake, Fremont, Ballard, Queen Anne, and Greenwood would fit your needs. Avoid the U district. It's typically more college kids and thus lower rents, shadier dealings, and a poorer area because, duh, poor college kids. North of 65th it gets better, but you also want to avoid near Northgate mall... sidewalks end at 85th st.

[Adrian71]

I'll second the recommendations for Ballard, Fremont, and Wallingford.

[OregonYeti]

It's all crowded as hell, no difference. You're lucky to get up to the speed limit ever.

[OregonYeti]

I lived in Lynnwood 9 months, and the day I moved back to Corvallis, Oregon, was one of the happiest days of my life--seriously.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Adrian71

I'll second the recommendations for Ballard, Fremont, and Wallingford.

Too far south, probably too expensive too. For the city, Greenwood makes a lot more sense. More laid back, happy hour, neighborhood bar type of neighborhood with garages and places for dogs.