My humor must be too deadpan.  I am NOT SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING living in Portland and commuting to Bel-Red every day.  Thank you.

Metroid: I will neither confirm nor deny your suspicion.

And surprisingly, (in my limited experience) Kirkland is way more expensive than the Bel-Red area.  For some reason all the preppy - er, high-society - Eastsiders feel compelled to live there.  This confuses me because Bellevue is such a great place for kids, but... <shrugs>

Now, I *should* be considering Kirkland because one of the corporations I'm interviewing with has an office there.  But I already know and love all the attractions of the Bel-Red area, so I suspect I'd rather be there anyway.

Actually, right now this is the full list of cities I'm considering:

Bellevue
Redmond
Issaquah
Hunt's / Yarrow Point
Renton

Issaquah is looking quite good - there's a 2 bedroom apartment with den for about $1200/month, $400 deposit ($200 refundable).  Unfortunately, it doesn't include utilities.  It's a nice place, though, with plenty of room for my Bemani zoo and all my instruments.  And the commute should be about 30 minutes, which is right in my sweet spot - I prefer having a medium-length commute so that I can clear my thoughts and am not tempted to pop back over to the office every time I get bored at home.  But if the utils wind up at $500/month and the commute gets stretched out to 60 mins because of the trip up 405, I'd rather not.

The downside, in addition to the cost, is that it'll continue to put wear and tear on my car, since I don't believe the Seattle public transit systems stretch out that far.  And I was genuinely planning on being nicer to my car... I've put about 48,000 miles on it in my 18 months of ownership.  (Don't ask.)  And of course, going into Seattle proper will be that much more inconvenient.  I was hoping to get something near Hunt's Point for this reason, but I haven't found anything in my size range and I don't know whether the neighborhood would be suitable, anyway.

I know.

Although Portland DOES win kthx. (see: Voodoo Doughnut, Wunderland Games)

Wunderland Games?  What do they do?  They sound vaguely familiar but I can't place them offhand.

By the way, metroid, since you're making the Issaquah->Redmond commute, can you tell me whether my time estimate is good?  And how inconvenient *is* it for you to go to Seattle Downtown?

(Let it never be said that I hesitate to interrogate a fount of information for all it's worth. )

I'm on 12th and 42nd, practically 3 blocks off campus. Takes a few minutes to walk to campus, and I'm closer to the Ave than if I was in a dorm.

I may just look into getting an apartment for next year... Hell, maybe even next quarter.

Nickel Arcades.

It's how a poor little [noun] like me manages to afford to go to the arcade regularly.

Ark: Ah, so you're interviewing at Google. ;) Good luck!

I currently live in Issaquah right off of exit 17. I am at work at 8am. If I do not carpool, it regularly takes 1.5 hours to get to work (in redmond, willows road if you're curious). It would take you 30 minutes if you were driving at midnight. Sadly, I'm not joking.

Getting to downtown by bus is very easy. Very short commute. Getting into downtown mid-morning I couldn't tell you. Just during the day randomly, we go into Seattle and it takes about 20 minutes on I-90.

As for Renton. Let me just say "S-Curves." Your commute will suck magnitudes more ass going to and from work than you have ever thought possible if you're going into Redmond. You have been warned. If you can afford Issaquah/Redmond, do it. You should have no trouble finding a place at the rate you're looking for.

<grins> Eh, I guess there's no harm in admitting to the places I'm interviewing.  It's not like they've given me offers yet.

Thanks for the well wishes.  Yes, I am interviewing there, though it's not the current leader.  In particular, it's trailing after Microsoft (which, you're correct, I'm also interviewing with) and even a couple of places that aren't in the Seattle region. (SwRI and NASA-JPL, if you know those).  It's not my second choice mainly because of the horror stories I've heard from friends and colleages about how bad their human resources practices are.  This is my justification for not looking at Kirkland apartments yet.


Uh, damn?  :shock:

Hmm.  An hour and a half.  That's a little more than I was hoping for.  I suppose it could be made to work, though.  I'll have to see the apartment and determine how much I want it vs. the one in Bear Creek (which also looks quite nice).

Or I could just ask my manager if they mind me coming in at midnight and working 'till, say, 10 a.m.  :lol:


Win!  You have made me very happy.  :wink:


Ooh.  Yeah, if Issaquah takes 90 minutes, and Renton is further away than Issaquah... I'm scratching Renton off my list.

I should have probably pretexted some of that. It would take you 60-90 minutes if you took the freeways into Redmond. However, I am a bit further than that when it comes to my commute. If you assume you're going to MS, you could make it there from Issaquah (using some backroads) in 30-45 minutes. You may want to start using "Eastlake Sammamish Parkway" and "Westlake Sammamish Parkway" in your search paths. Essentially, you need to get from Issaquah to 156th or 148th which is what sandwhiches their campus and get around a large lake standing inthe way.
If you're going to Kirkland, my estimates may be more or less correct :)

I had a friend of a friend working at NASA-JPL, I think he works at Amazon now or something. Either way, Google, MS, A research institute and NASA aren't a bad way to start.

Anyway, good luck! We just made an offer today on a house in Marysville which, by comparison, is in butt-fucking egypt ;)

Whoa, don't be dissin Marysville. Traffic through Everett really sucks right now though.

Yeah it does :[. It takes an hour now to get to seattle when it used to only take half, well depending on what time of course.

Hmm, that can't be a coincidence...

And I'm surprised that the Parkway would be quicker, but it's worth a shot - it's more scenic, anyway.  


B-FE?  That's a euphemism for "stone's throw from Canada," right?  Have fun with that.

And I'm impressed that your friend^2 went from JPL to Amazon - I thought I was the only one with such far-flung interests.  This is so different from when I was applying to colleges, and would get "You're applying to WHERE?  What the hell's wrong with you?" on a regular basis.  Positively warms the heart.  :wink:

General question to all, while we're on the subject of traffic: what's your reaction to the new transit/highway proposal?  Good thing, bad thing, necessary but highly painful thing while the Bridge'O'Doom is out of commission?