Seattle PSers, I need your help!

[Octavia]

Thank you, crasru! I do think we will start off in one of the "happening" areas of the city, but if/when we decide to buy a house, we might look a little further away. I really crave a place with a yard so I can have a kitchen garden.

It's nice to hear that the cultural aspects of the city are on their way up -- do you go to the symphony or opera often? I'm looking forward to your (and your son's) other reccomendations

 

[katamari]

Octavia, I hope you are still checking this thread. I made a move to Seattle at the end of last summer and just wanted to offer a couple pieces of advice from my experiences.

First, ditto to the no ferries. I actually wouldn't live anywhere outside of the city unless having a yard is more important to you than having things to do close by. The water and mountains, while making Seattle beautiful, also makes it hard to manage in a car. It takes 20 minutes to get 5 miles no matter the time of day (from our experience), which makes us really stay in our neighborhood. It makes picking a neighborhood absolutely key. Any suburb is going to be 20 miles out and across water, so it will take you considerable time to get back and forth between the city and your home. My guess is that you would very rarely get to the city if you do live outside of the city. Getting into the city is also a bear (DH and I both have reverse commutes, but the other side of the highway is always terrible, even at 7:30).

IMO, the "good" neighborhoods for young professionals would be (by proximity to downtown) Queen Anne, Eastlake, Ballard, Wallingford, Madrona, Greenlake, and Phinney Ridge. Capitol Hill and Fremont are very cool, too, but a bit too young for 34-year-old me (and very accessible from QA or Ballard).

The real reason I am writing is to let you know that Seattle, for us, was not an easy place to find an apartment in. DH and I came out late June to find an apartment with a lease starting mid-August. This would have not been a problem in our former city. However, when we were looking at places in Seattle, every place had multiple applicants and renting is competitive. We didn't look at big complexes, but to get any place, we had to be ready to rent then and there (and most places wanted first, last, and ~$2K deposit). We ended up having to rent two months we didn't live here because it was the only way we could get an apartment in the neighborhood we wanted.

So. . .my suggestion, then, (sorry for the long set-up) is to get in with a property management company while you are here and decide on a neighborhood instead of an apartment. Let the property co. know where you want to live and what type of place you want and have them find it for you. We made this suggestion to friends of ours who moved here from TX this spring and it made their move much easier and more cost effective than ours. They are also way happier with their place than we are with ours. Windermere, Apple Property Management, and Ballard Realty are three good ones to start with. If this sounds interesting, I can suggest more.

Congrats on the move! It is lovely and wonderful here.

 

[Arkteia]

I am waiting for my son's answer myself... He just graduated and is a very difficult to get hold of.

Re. cultural life - yes, the opera is pretty good, and so is the symphony. Both are getting even better. Occasionally we go to ballet. (Not often, since as Russians we are very picky when it comes to ballet). Two movie theaters, Egyptian and Paramount, are running independent movies. There are a couple of movie theaters where you can watch direct translation from the Metropolitan opera - one in Redmond, the other (I presume) in Seattle. While Art Museum is definitely poor, there is an affiliated museum of Asian art at Pioneers Park (I do not remember its proper name... it can be easily Googled). There is a new, very interesting, museum of Asian History which was made possible by donations of the Asian community. There is a small but very nice Museum of Dolls in Bellevue. And, if you like art but find SAM not satisfying, you can always drive to Vancouver (3 1/2 hours!). They have awesome art museum. I suspect it has some special connections with French museums because they always have exhibitions - from Louvre, or Musee D'Orsay, or where not... Actually, I have more fun in Vancouver (I think it is a more beautiful city) but at least our area is developing and has promise.

I do not know if you have been living on the East Coast for the most of your life. If you have, there may be some cultural shock (minor for you since you are younger than I). The culture here is more casual. There is less variety of cultures here (in Boston, I saw people coming from such interesting, remote places... like Cape Verde). You will not see it here. To me it looked disheartening but it may be my nature.

Another thing... be ready to a 6-hour flight across the country if you want to visit your friends or relatives in Philly!

Also wanted to tell you - Portland, Oregon, is also 3 hours south of us and it is a quaint, beautiful city, with more sun, smaller and more compact, with many things to see. With nearby beaches in Astoria. On your way, you may make a small stop at Vancouver, WA. George Marshall served there in the 30-es and in fact he was noticed and promoted after a small plane with Russian pilots landed there (it was meant to land in San Francisco but due to some technical problems it did not happen). Marshall handled the situation so well that he got noticed. As the result, the US got one of its finest statesmen. There is a small museum in Marshall's former house.

I started sounding like a guide book. I am trying to explain that there are some places to see and some trips for your weekends.
Not to forget - rockhunting!

P.S. And - a major cultural event - Neiman Marcus opened its store here a couple of years ago! When Saks comes, I shall feel fully civilized!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

There is also the Frye museum. It's free and has free parking. lol There is one room of paintings and then they always have some exhibit of sorts going on. I forget the current one, but I took my kids to it (took them seperately). It was really weird. I guess if you live around that area and have an hour to kill, it's worth it...I guess depending upon the exhibit (I wouldn't recommend the one they have now!). I forget what is coming next, but will take my kids since it's free!

I love the Japanese Garden at the Arboretum (sp?). That part cost $, but there are also places to walk around. You can even rent a canoe or kayak and travel around the water down by there. The rentals are around the UW area and you can row out and over by the very north tip of the arboretum and have a picnic.

 

[Octavia]

The real reason I am writing is to let you know that Seattle, for us, was not an easy place to find an apartment in. DH and I came out late June to find an apartment with a lease starting mid-August. This would have not been a problem in our former city. However, when we were looking at places in Seattle, every place had multiple applicants and renting is competitive. We didn't look at big complexes, but to get any place, we had to be ready to rent then and there (and most places wanted first, last, and ~$2K deposit). We ended up having to rent two months we didn't live here because it was the only way we could get an apartment in the neighborhood we wanted.

So. . .my suggestion, then, (sorry for the long set-up) is to get in with a property management company while you are here and decide on a neighborhood instead of an apartment. Let the property co. know where you want to live and what type of place you want and have them find it for you. We made this suggestion to friends of ours who moved here from TX this spring and it made their move much easier and more cost effective than ours. They are also way happier with their place than we are with ours. Windermere, Apple Property Management, and Ballard Realty are three good ones to start with. If this sounds interesting, I can suggest more.

Congrats on the move! It is lovely and wonderful here.

Katamari, thank you SO MUCH for posting this. I have been slightly stressed about finding a place to live from so far away, and even more so now that this weekend ended up falling through, so I don't know if/when we'll actually get out there before DH's new job starts. His work schedule for this summer is insane so there is very little time for us to make the trip. So I think our only option at this point is to hire someone to find a place for us. I looked at the three management companies you suggested, and it seems like Windermere has the biggest selection listed on their site...but I don't know if that really means anything. Do you know which company your friends used? I would definitely be interested in hearing more about the companies you're familiar with.

It won't be a problem for us to pay first, last, and deposit -- that is very common here, as well, though we currently rent from a friend so we didn't have to do that for this place. I was expecting something similar when we move, though. We also need to find an apartment that will allow our cat, but it seems like Seattle is pet-friendlier than Philly from what I've seen so far. (Here's hoping...).

MC and crasru, I am definitely going to come back to this thread once we're settled so I can go all the places you are suggesting! It sounds like there's really a lot to do and I'm looking forward to it!