Moving again

[Mr__Bill]

It seems that about every 7 years I pack up and move and vow to never do it again. If we can sell the house we are moving again. This time it's harder to pack things up. In the past we sold the house and then packed for the next place. Not knowing when we are moving, it could be this summer or who know when, and we are not sure yet just where and to what we are moving to. So the packing to make the house look less cluttered has started, the boxes are filling up what I like to call the shop space.

Packing the shop is the real problem, I have to keep available what I may need to fix things here and yet I have to pack up enough that it looks like one could actually get at least one car in there. Some things are up in the air, I might sell the old air compressor and replace it when we are in somewhere, but I'll never buy a new one for what I could get for the old one, but storage is a pain. Until we get a new place everything will be stuffed into storage so packing must be compact and stackable and keeping track of what is in what box and where it went will be a challenge.

So.... if anyone is looking for a house on the Southern Oregon coast let me know.

Bill
on the left coast

[Pappy]

Living a somewhat nomadic life for 21 years as a Marine, 17 of those married, I resisted the urge to buy a house. The longest we were anywhere was 6 years.

Bought this place when I retired in '90 and plan to stay here unless a developer trys to buy the subdivision for apts. That is in the long range planning for the city and county, so it is a possibility. All the owners are in agreement that, if the price is right, we will sell but we will all hold out for top dollar. Then I am going to the country with no close neighbors!

[dbhost]

FWIW, LOML and I have been talking about completing our house refurbishing, putting this house on the rental market and moving to somewhere between Portland and Salem, west of I-5. There is a lot to like about Texas, but the summer climate is not one of those things, and I have always been extremely heat prone. Like I tell my wife, when it's cold, you can always put more clothes on, but there is only so naked you can get in the heat...

[cabinetman]

Does anyone really live in Oregon?

I've moved shops and homes a few times. Not fun at all. In 1985 I moved to a very large shop, which was exciting. But the problem was that the place I was moving to was occupied by the business that was moving to my location. IOW, neither of us had an empty place to move to. I lost many weeks of work.

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[cwsmith]

Sounds like you're at least in good practice. My wife and I have been married 44 years and lived in a small apartment for about a year before we bought our first house. That lasted two years and we moved from Binghamton to Painted Post, lived in a duplex for about five years and then bought this house, where we've lived since the early 70's.

I retired in 2003 and we bought a house in Binghamton again in 2005. That's was almost six years ago and we haven't moved yet... at least not completely. Problem I guess is that it's just the two of us and projects just take way too long with a bad neck and back. We like both houses and since the bottom has fallen out of the housing market, there's not any big encentive to unload the Painted Post house. Moving has been ever so gradual and I'm about at the point where anything left in this place beyond making it comfortable for a week's stay here and there will simply be either given away or junked.

I envy your ambition, I don't do moving very well at all.

CWS

[dbhost]

Does anyone really live in Oregon?

I've moved shops and homes a few times. Not fun at all. In 1985 I moved to a very large shop, which was exciting. But the problem was that the place I was moving to was occupied by the business that was moving to my location. IOW, neither of us had an empty place to move to. I lost many weeks of work.

.

Like I have explained to more than a few folks that have looked at me stunned when I tell them I am from Oregon. Oregon is a fantastic place to live. It's just a miserable place to try to make a living... I guess the scarcity of good jobs is what keeps the population low, and the quality of life for those that can afford it high...

Of course if you like urban environments, outside of Portland, forget it. And comparing Portland to New York, Los Angeles, Houston, or Chicago is a fools errand. Just on a matter of scale, Portland is a medium size city at best...

Portland Oregon population in 2009 was 566,141.
Houston Texas population in 2009 was 2,257,926.

State of Oregon population in 2009 was 3,825,657
Harris County, Texas (where Houston is located) population in 2009 was 4,070,989

Once you get outside of Portland city limits, the population dwindles QUICKLY.
Once you get outside of Houston city limits, and drive for another hour or so, and run into the Gulf of Mexico, the population dwindles QUICKLY... See the difference?

Now I am starting to feel claustrophobic!

[Mr__Bill]

FWIW, LOML and I have been talking about completing our house refurbishing, putting this house on the rental market and moving to somewhere between Portland and Salem, west of I-5. There is a lot to like about Texas, but the summer climate is not one of those things, and I have always been extremely heat prone. Like I tell my wife, when it's cold, you can always put more clothes on, but there is only so naked you can get in the heat...

You are lucky to be in an area where renting it is viable. Here there is a glut of rentals and the going rate is less than the mortgage. West of I-5 in that area there isn't a lot, but here is a great deal for you:

Dave's new house

Too bad you want to be within a hour or so of Portland, but then almost everyone in Oregon lives within an hour or so of Portland except for us, it's a 6 hour drive from here and that's when I drive as fast as I can and don't get caught.

Does anyone really live in Oregon? .

Most of the population is along I-5, between the Coastal and Cascade Mountain ranges Bend is the largest place east of the mountains.

As Dave said, most of the jobs are in the Portland area, out side of there minimum wage is the norm for many jobs that would pay twice that anywhere else. It is, however a good place to work from a home office. I have great broadband service and most of the time the cell phone works too. We just need to be closer to a real airport. If I am ever to get more clients I have to be able to go see them from time to time. When we were in Tacoma it was possible to take the red-eye east, spend a day in meetings and fly out that night and really only have a day and a half invested. Now it's at least 3 and a half days and only if all the connections connect.

I will miss the seafood fresh off the boat, letting the dog run on the beach and the 70 to 100 inches of rain in the winter.

Bill
over here where the sun goes down