Does the place I seek even exist? (Seattle, Tacoma: sales, real estate)
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Ok, here goes....I am looking to move to Washington to start a new chapter in my life...Actually, at this point, I'm throwing out the old book and planning on starting an entirely new one!
I've lived in Southern California since I moved from my beautiful house, family, and everything I loved in England, which was 16 years ago. Life has had it's ups and downs, and is currently on an extreme down.
I want to start anew. I need...not want, or hope for, but need a place like the one where I was born and raised....where people are nice, and genuine, not superficial and selfish. I want to be somewhere affordable with a great high school for my 13 year old son. He's extremely intelligent...luckily for him, either my Dad's I.Q. skipped a generation, or he got switched at birth, and somewhere out in San Diego there's a perplexed genius raising a 13 year old with roughly the same I.Q. as a plant.....anyway he's in the gifted program at his middle school, and I would really like him to move on to a high school that can offer similar, and give him a great start in life.
I need somewhere as far away from drugs as you can possibly get.
I need beautiful countryside, and nature. Mum and Dad request we move somewhere fairly close to the coast....England may be an island, but they live in the part that's about as far away as you can get from the coast, and my Mum loves the ocean.
My husband and I hope to get jobs that will earn us enough to get by...we plan on having time outside of work to do family stuff, and go to PTA meetings and be like normal parents.
The first thing everyone says when I mention my intentions of moving, is to give me a sinister warning about the rain. RAIN?!!! You can't threaten an English person with rain for heaven's sake! Frankly, I had never heard anyone talk about weather as much as the Brits till I started reading these posts...it's hilarious! Washington is spectacularly beautiful because of the rain/snow/sleet/wind/sun etc. etc. Weather is not an issue. If its cold, I put on 10 layers, don hat, gloves and scarf, and voila! If it's hot I put on as little as possible within the realms of common decency, and there you go....you just deal with it.
I babble too much, don't I?!!! Anyway...if anyone can help, I'll love you forever, and you can pop round for coffee any time when we find somewhere!!
Ok, here goes....I am looking to move to Washington to start a new chapter in my life...Actually, at this point, I'm throwing out the old book and planning on starting an entirely new one!
I've lived in Southern California since I moved from my beautiful house, family, and everything I loved in England, which was 16 years ago. Life has had it's ups and downs, and is currently on an extreme down.
I want to start anew. I need...not want, or hope for, but need a place like the one where I was born and raised....where people are nice, and genuine, not superficial and selfish. I want to be somewhere affordable with a great high school for my 13 year old son. He's extremely intelligent...luckily for him, either my Dad's I.Q. skipped a generation, or he got switched at birth, and somewhere out in San Diego there's a perplexed genius raising a 13 year old with roughly the same I.Q. as a plant.....anyway he's in the gifted program at his middle school, and I would really like him to move on to a high school that can offer similar, and give him a great start in life.
I need somewhere as far away from drugs as you can possibly get.
I need beautiful countryside, and nature. Mum and Dad request we move somewhere fairly close to the coast....England may be an island, but they live in the part that's about as far away as you can get from the coast, and my Mum loves the ocean.
My husband and I hope to get jobs that will earn us enough to get by...we plan on having time outside of work to do family stuff, and go to PTA meetings and be like normal parents.
The first thing everyone says when I mention my intentions of moving, is to give me a sinister warning about the rain. RAIN?!!! You can't threaten an English person with rain for heaven's sake! Frankly, I had never heard anyone talk about weather as much as the Brits till I started reading these posts...it's hilarious! Washington is spectacularly beautiful because of the rain/snow/sleet/wind/sun etc. etc. Weather is not an issue. If its cold, I put on 10 layers, don hat, gloves and scarf, and voila! If it's hot I put on as little as possible within the realms of common decency, and there you go....you just deal with it.
I babble too much, don't I?!!! Anyway...if anyone can help, I'll love you forever, and you can pop round for coffee any time when we find somewhere!!
Howdy. Oh, England, what a beautiful place to leave for a desert next to a beach. I'm in Arizona now (but oging back to WA soon), but lived in Bellevue for much of last year, as well as many visits since I was a child (grandparents had summer home in Washington). I sound like a broken record, but Washington (Seattle metro area) is the most beautiful place to live in NOrth America that has jobs, and fairly moderate weather. Bellevue school systems are also very good(sorry, no facts to citate).
Rain issue is but a myth. It's grey and drizzles much of the time when it does rain. I find it beautiful. I worked with a guy in Bellevue that was from NYC orginally and lived in London for 8 years. 'He' said Seattle/WA reminded him of England...cloudy skies, etc. Weather.com will show you the average highs and lows for seattle/london are nearly identical.
Seattle isn't London, but I think Seattle is a great mdeium size city that with its density will make you feel like you are in London or Boston, etc.
Being from Arizona I have a negative bias toward Californians/California (wont' go into details), but I think the people in Washington while are often considred reserved (quality if you ask me) are far less "superficial" than Californians (esp. So-Cal). I hate even being in California to be honest, which is a shame because the northern half of the state is so beautiful.
Great story and I hope everything looks up for you! Seattle/Washington fits the bill in most ways for what you're looking for but I would heartily suggest coming here with jobs lined up or a lot of money saved up. I think others would be able to give you a better idea since I'm relatively new here, but I feel like the economy may head south soon in Seattle.
As for the people, Seattle has a reputation of being a "cold" city. I have my own opinions which I won't parrot here. But it certainly would help if you had a clique to plug into here when you arrived, such as people you'll meet at work, or a social activity/group (there's a knitting circle that's pretty big that meets in the coffee shop I sometimes go to). Above all, try and find a nice place to live. If you want good schools, it will probably be outside of the actual city of Seattle, which can be somewhat isolating. But having a beautiful home -- even if it costs a little more -- will make the transition much smoother.
I babble too much, don't I?!!! Anyway...if anyone can help, I'll love you forever, and you can pop round for coffee any time when we find somewhere!!
You might actually like Prosser. Cold winters, hot summers. While it isn't close to a lot of natural greenery, the area blooms with agriculture/viticulture, and you are not far at all from various scenic areas including some heavy forests. It has a reputation for a pretty fair school district and relatively nice people. All you really have to do is embrace rooting for their high school football team, which is their pride and joy. It's a county seat, so it has the expected cluster of regional government occupations. It's one of the few towns in the Yakima Valley that isn't a dump.
Hi Dec. I'll concentrate on the great school. Everything else you want is in western, rather than eastern, Washington, so let's look at that.
The best school districts, according to City-Data contributors, are usually cited as, from north to south:
Bellingham
Shoreline
Bainbridge Island
Mercer Island
Bellevue
Issaquah (including part of northeastern Renton)
Olympia.
There are also Vashon Island and Camas (east of Vancouver, WA) school districts usually also cited as excellent.
Thank you SOOO much those who read, and especially those who responded to my post! I am typing this in a motel room in Auburn...yes....we've got as far as coming up to have a look around...and guess what?!! It's snowing! It's almost pathetic, how ridiculously excited I am to see it actually snow! Anyway...we've managed to acquire a real estate agent, who appears to have enough patience and sense of humour to be able to deal with my husband (I warned him he'd need both) who will hopefully be able to help answer some of questions. Again, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to read and respond my ridiculously long post. Oh yes...real quick...Hamza, my mum will be thrilled about the knitting club...unfortunately, the only thing I ever knitted was a square...for charity...they requested everyone knit a square so they could make load of blankets to donate to the poor. I often wonder if they ever used my square...it was more of a trapezium actually...only with more sides...I'm not sure they even have a name for the shape it was. I'll probably have to fall back on my extraordinarily good looks, charm, wit and English accent to make friends here....!!!!
hope you are happy in your new place. you are a very proud parent. many people on cdf post that their child is a genius. and their future is secure thereby. many proud parents on CDF.
as to people finding happyland. i find that people tend to take their hell with them when they pack.
probably #1 post on CDF where are the nice people where are the clean people where are the friendly people. i wonder, (present company excluded of course) how many of the people that post that stuff are?
Huckleberry, I most definitely will not pack my hell with me. I plan on leaving it So. Cal., along with several essentials that I did plan on packing, but inevitably forgot. Because I always forget something vital whenever I pack.
Yes. I am a proud parent, but my wonderful son is as inherently lazy as he is intelligent. He needs a good school with great teachers to keep him focused. If that happens, then yes, I think he'll go very far in life!!
Oh, I think there are a lot of lovely people that post on CDF! It's so kind that people take the time to help other people with their crisis' over where to live!
In terms of packing one's hell with one, the following can sometimes be identified with some more stereotypical southern Californians:
1) Being in a big hurry to announce that you're from there. (The more diplomatic move is to make people pull it out of you, like admitting under moderate duress that you were arrested once for shoplifting. It is not necessarily presumed to be something one should take pride in. I was born in Anaheim and people pretty much had to waterboard me to get that out of me.)
2) A plastic smile pasted on at all times, happy or sad. Northwesterners spot that immediately.
3) Immediate leap into talk about very materialistic things. The Audi, the cabin, the boat, designer label name dropping...stuff like that.
4) Use of homeowner's associations for aggressive oppression of neighbors. A more Northwestern perspective is to reckon on not having a right to tell someone else how to live, unless they're breaking the law.
5) Litigiousness. In general, an "It's your fault that I screwed up because nothing is ever my fault" mentality.
Not saying any of those are universal or even generally deserved, nor true of you, nor untrue of plenty of Washingtonians in reality, etc., etc., etc. Just saying that among those with negative perceptions, those are some of them. Exuberant charm won't always win it, nor necessarily will a foreign accent. What will win it: down to earth, considerate of the environment and people around you without making a big show, being friendly for its own sake.
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I would really like him to move on to a high school that can offer similar, and give him a great start in life.
I need somewhere as far away from drugs as you can possibly get.
I need beautiful countryside, and nature. Mum and Dad request we move somewhere fairly close to the coast....England may be an island, but they live in the part that's about as far away as you can get from the coast, and my Mum loves the ocean.
Do look into the WA program for HS students "running start" that allows HS kids to go to college (paid by the state) in grades 11 & 12. They must pass an entrance exam in grade 10. It was very useful for our kids, as well as many others we know. Most end up with an AA degree + HS diploma upon graduation, and enter University as full jr (only 2 more yrs to pay). I know several who went on to ivy or private U's as full jrs as well as public u's. The best part was the quality education, advanced classes and un-learning the typical public school style BEFORE spending BIG bucks at college. Ours gained much in the experience and became less age segregated.
You should look into Vancouver area as well. Salmon Creek area has good academic programs (Skyline HS) + arts and culture and no sales tax of Portland ~ 10 min away. You have a BIG river, but are further from ocean beach (1.5 hrs). That would be the OR beach, thus very beautiful and scenic. This is a much different beach then the inland waters of the Puget Sound. Each have their special draw. Basically if you like enjoying the scenery and crashing waves and high cliffs, the Pacific Coastline is great. If you want to be ON the water, you might like the Puget Sound. Seattle has much more of a 'marine' flair than Portland, but Portland has a much mellower culture. (and a great accessible airport and public transport)
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I'm in Arizona now (but oging back to WA soon), but lived in Bellevue for much of last year, as well as many visits since I was a child (grandparents had summer home in Washington). I sound like a broken record, but Washington (Seattle metro area) is the most beautiful place to live in NOrth America that has jobs, and fairly moderate weather. Bellevue school systems are also very good(sorry, no facts to citate).
