Originally posted by: RossMAN
I hope you like grey clouds and rain
Yes! YES, I do!
I worry about the wife somewhat, but I like the weather up there. We'll see how she deals with it. I think with a nice house that actually HAS a fireplace (so few places in Bend seem to), she'll be happier.
Plus, it gets DAMN cold here - although I knew deserts did this, I just had no idea HOW much so. Every night, in fact, all summer long. You can't even have a decent cookout, because once that sun sets - *PFOOM* - the temperature drops like a rock.
We actually get frosts - FROSTS! - as in, it gets below freezing at night - IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY AND AUGUST!! Even when it's 90+ degrees during the day, it'll drop 40-50 degrees at nightfall, it's the weirdest damn thing.
And winters...oh, man, don't go there. It gets REALLY cold at night, then. I mean, we had hard winters in Ohio, but you expect that there and have a fireplace and tons of firewood so that when the thermostat is cranked and it's still not keeping the house 'warm' feeling, you are set. No such luck, here!
'Temperate' - even if cooler and wetter - sounds all kinds of awesome coming from this.
Originally posted by: Vic
But Oregon has no sales tax so hop across the bridge and shop there.
That's actually the plan. We already do a lot of shopping in Portland (bought all our furniture and some art from there), and that's 4 hours away already! 'Right across the river' will kick ass.
Originally posted by: Vic
Property values are less than Bend and Portland, but rising fast.
Doubt it's as fast as here. Property values when up 20% -
20%!! - since last year. It will be something of an 'investment' setback to move to Vancouver, WA over Bend, BUT....well, that much closer to Portland is awfully nice!
Originally posted by: Vic
Hey man, you live in Bend. It's only 3 hours away. If you want to ski, it's the Mt. Hood "Cascade crud," and not the famous Bachelor powder.
Don't ski, so, 'meh'.
Originally posted by: Vic
Despite popular myth, it only rains 35 inches a year but there's only 70 sunny days per year, which is a lot less than Bend's record-in-the-US-more-than-Austin-TX 200+ sunny days per year.
Well:
#1) Yeah, I'm not really sure where they get that number from. I think we've had a week of sunny days this year, TOTAL. Heck, every time I've been up to Portland this year, it's actually been sunnier and hotter there than in Bend. BIZARRE weather.
#2) See point above about temperature. It can be all the 'sunny' it wants, doesn't make a lick of difference when it's so far below freezing.
Originally posted by: Vic
Hey, you'll get to pump your own gas. Wish I could do that (except when I drive over there)...
Actually, I've really gotten used to NOT having to do it. It's rather nice not smelling like gas fumes.
Originally posted by: Vic
FYI, all of Vancouver now is one big sprawling strip mall. A suburban maze of poorly designed streets. I saw it happening while I growing up, and wow they did a bad job... possibly the worst designed city (road wise) in America.
That - THAT - I'm worried about. Wife doesn't go for 'urban sprawl' much. Indeed, she hates - UTTERLY LOATHES - 'suburbia'. She'd prefer to either live way-the-hell-out-in-the-sticks or in a condo on the river. That in-between crap just doesn't work...you know, where you have a "house" and a "yard", but the house is nearly prefab and the construction quality is so poor it will be falling apart in a decade, and the 'yard' is so small you can reach over from your second story window and shake hands with your neighbor from HIS second story window....
Nonono, that's no good at all. Either ACTUALLY stack the buildings on top of each other, or space them out with a few acres each. Having a 3ft side yard is just a tease.
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