Seattle prepares to receive its new Chairman

Minase wrote:

I lived in Park Highland when I first moved to Bellevue. No real problems (this was years ago so it could be completely different now!), and the easy access to the botanical garden is nice if you like nature walks. They were very strict about parking, though, so if that is an issue I'd advise staying away. Very easy to bicycle down the hill to downtown Bellevue, too.

The bus system is underrated in the Seattle area, IF your commute starts at near a transit center and ends in either the Seattle or Bellevue downtown core. It sounds like you'd be going to downtown Bellevue, so anywhere near the RapidRide B line or the 500 bus series (www.soundtransit.org) that goes through the Bellevue Transit Center would work. Be careful with the King County buses - some of the 'feeder buses' crawl through residential Bellevue neighborhoods and take forever - look at the number of stops on the route!

Work in downtown Seattle if you possibly can - I have coworkers that live very far south, own huge houses that cost half of what mine does in Bellevue, and take the train in every day.

Thanks Minase! My company's office is in Bellevue, and I'm not looking to change jobs anytime soon, so a walking distance location is good for me right now. I'm not a big car fan, so I'm hoping to live with 1 at most. If I can find something near a transit center, that could work too, but haven't looked in Seattle yet since I've been under the impression that the traffic kinda sucks during morning/evening commutes. Well, also because we're looking for as much peace and quiet as possible, which I imagine Seattle will have less of.

Chairman_Mao wrote:
clover wrote:

Equity apartments are nice because it's sort of like saving for a house.

The Chelsea and the other Kirkland ones are just up the road from us :)

Do you mean that the rent you pay on an Equity apartment goes toward owning it if you choose to buy later?

Sounds like we'll be in good company in Kirkland! Park Highlands is very tempting because it's walking distance to my office and there's a very close botanical garden my wife and son will enjoy.

Yeah, I'm wondering about this too. We used to live in a place run by Equity, and the only things I noticed was that rent was about $250 higher (stupid monthly pet rent), they had nicer amenities, and supposedly the entire complex was bond-owned so the chances that we'd be bought and chased out of the third apartment in a row by the local big-wig real-estate developer were nil.

Chairman_Mao wrote:
clover wrote:

Equity apartments are nice because it's sort of like saving for a house.

The Chelsea and the other Kirkland ones are just up the road from us :)

Do you mean that the rent you pay on an Equity apartment goes toward owning it if you choose to buy later?

Sounds like we'll be in good company in Kirkland! Park Highlands is very tempting because it's walking distance to my office and there's a very close botanical garden my wife and son will enjoy.

The company that owns Equity Apartments partners with some homebuilders too; you get credit toward new construction when you live in one of their buildings. Not many people use it, but it's a nice bonus if you know you're going to rent for a while and then buy a new house in a certain area.

Well we've decided on Park Highland and should have a leasing agreement signed (perhaps e-signed?) by Tuesday, largely for the botanical garden, as our unit will be very close to the private entrance, and for its proximity to my workplace. The equity thing sounds nice, but I can't say for sure we'll be staying long term in the area just yet.

So, with that in mind, we're going to be in the market for furniture, appliances and what not. So A, if you guys have anything you're looking to part with let me know, and B, what 2nd hand shops are not too far away that offer a decent selection? We don't need fancy stuff but don't want super cheap bargain basement either. One place recommended to us is Value Village. We're also totally fine with the IKEA aesthetic, and will probably hit that up for anything we can't get used.

Clover, btw, when I mentioned to my wife that I saw you were Cordon-Bleu trained in your GWJer profile, she wanted to know if you teach classes. She looooves cooking, if you didn't already guess.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Well we've decided on Park Highland and should have a leasing agreement signed (perhaps e-signed?) by Tuesday, largely for the botanical garden, as our unit will be very close to the private entrance, and for its proximity to my workplace. The equity thing sounds nice, but I can't say for sure we'll be staying long term in the area just yet.

So, with that in mind, we're going to be in the market for furniture, appliances and what not. So A, if you guys have anything you're looking to part with let me know, and B, what 2nd hand shops are not too far away that offer a decent selection? We don't need fancy stuff but don't want super cheap bargain basement either. One place recommended to us is Value Village. We're also totally fine with the IKEA aesthetic, and will probably hit that up for anything we can't get used.

Clover, btw, when I mentioned to my wife that I saw you were Cordon-Bleu trained in your GWJer profile, she wanted to know if you teach classes. She looooves cooking, if you didn't already guess.

I can't speak for Seattle from direct experience but if you want to save money and buy used then craigslist is the way to go. I've never seen a secondhand store that didn't overvalue its inventory, or at least value it significantly above what you can find it for on craigslist.

If you don't want to deal with buying things piecemeal and bargain hunting, then Ikea is a good option.

For non-furniture items (appliances, cookware, plates, place settings, etc...) a place like Costco (membership required) or Fred Meyer can serve as a good one stop-shop.

Scaphism wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Well we've decided on Park Highland and should have a leasing agreement signed (perhaps e-signed?) by Tuesday, largely for the botanical garden, as our unit will be very close to the private entrance, and for its proximity to my workplace. The equity thing sounds nice, but I can't say for sure we'll be staying long term in the area just yet.

So, with that in mind, we're going to be in the market for furniture, appliances and what not. So A, if you guys have anything you're looking to part with let me know, and B, what 2nd hand shops are not too far away that offer a decent selection? We don't need fancy stuff but don't want super cheap bargain basement either. One place recommended to us is Value Village. We're also totally fine with the IKEA aesthetic, and will probably hit that up for anything we can't get used.

Clover, btw, when I mentioned to my wife that I saw you were Cordon-Bleu trained in your GWJer profile, she wanted to know if you teach classes. She looooves cooking, if you didn't already guess.

I can't speak for Seattle from direct experience but if you want to save money and buy used then craigslist is the way to go. I've never seen a secondhand store that didn't overvalue its inventory, or at least value it significantly above what you can find it for on craigslist.

If you don't want to deal with buying things piecemeal and bargain hunting, then Ikea is a good option.

For non-furniture items (appliances, cookware, plates, place settings, etc...) a place like Costco (membership required) or Fred Meyer can serve as a good one stop-shop.

Ah yes, a Costco membership is likely in order. Thanks for reminding!

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Ah yes, a Costco membership is a cultural requirement. Thanks for reminding!

FTFY

Something I forgot to mention before is AAT TV. It'll make you feel like home.

I was at Re-Store and they had all sorts of good appliances for sale, so check there too.

Ha AA TV looks great. I never got into mainland Chinese TV in particular, it's a wasteland, but the HK and Taiwanese stuff might be better. Will be good to have Chinese language shows for the little one to watch, especially if he can pick up a little Cantonese as well.

Looks like I checked back on this thread a little too late. The Tera apartments are pretty close to me, and right by the Kirkland Transit Center, so it would be easy to get around. I usually use metro.kingcounty.gov for planning bus trips around the area. Especially for anywhere I'm not terribly familiar with. And OneBusAway gives great realtime updates for the bus system - if they're running late (and how late).

My wife wanted me to ask the GWJer collective, where do you shop for baby stuff? I imagine the supermarkets cover the food items, so we're thinking more about clothes, toys, furniture. Any cool shops that aren't Babies R Us or other box store types?

edit: Also, I know nothing about this thing called renter's insurance, but apparently I need some. Any recommendations for providers?

Most likely your auto insurance company offers it. Probably be best to ask there first.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Most likely your auto insurance company offers it. Probably be best to ask there first.

Hmm so I'll need to get auto insurance too, once I have a car. Thanks for reminding.

Capitalism!

http://www.birthandbeyond.com/ and http://www.menmoms.com/ are the two recommendations I got from locals.

Edwin wrote:

http://www.birthandbeyond.com/ and http://www.menmoms.com/ are the two recommendations I got from locals.

Much appreciated, Edwin! I will pass these on to the lady. menmoms.com is a rather misleading URL, I would say...

Last day in China, getting a plane for the green mountains in about 6 hours. The events transpiring in Boston are weighing a bit heavy on me right now, so while I'm glad to leave, I don't really feel like enjoying it.

Dates are also confirmed for our Seattle arrival: May 2. To echo earlier sentiments, I heartily concur we should hold some sort of PNW S&T or whatever they are called sometime in May. We might host something, I dunno, have to see how moving in goes. Hope you like tea.

For baby clothes, a lot of the bigger grocery stores* will also have kids clothes. Given that most outfits last about a month or two before they grow out of them, the clothes you find at grocery stores is usually at the perfect intersection of cheap and indestructible.

*At least, up here in Canada they do.

If you're looking for cute baby clothes, Gymboree and Crazy 8 are decently priced. You should also check out Bellevue Square, if only to go see the Lego outlet which is totally awesome. Fred Meyer and Costco both have good prices on baby formula, diapers, etc.

Looking forward to meeting you in person Mao.

well, we have arrived, and I see you all prepared a little something special for me that I unfortunately missed by just a hair. However, the thought is deeply appreciated. We also managed to leave just a few hours before this bit of excitement, which I suppose was a surprise send off in my honor.

In any case, I'm in town and will be settling in over the next week. Anyone interested in meeting up at some point PM me and I'll share contact details. I look forward to sharing a microbrew and talking about hip things from behind my new hip glasses with most of you.

Really late to this but +1 to Me n Moms. Great store. Got a few things from there in my nursery right now.

Bootyland is a small local baby goods store with some consignment. Also a misleading URL.

Micro-brew?

Tomorrow if you can, go here for the best we have to offer.

If there's a S&T brewing, count me in! Can't do this weekend, though, as I've got family visiting from out of state.

Edwin wrote:

Micro-brew?

Tomorrow if you can, go here for the best we have to offer.

Intriguing. I may have to go to this.

Now that you're here, as you're looking for stuff, I've found Yahoo's Yellow Pages to be very useful in the past. I tend to use Google Maps more these days, but I think Yahoo's service might be better if you're just starting to learn the city. It's better categorized, where Google tends to give you lots of junk responses.

edit: nevermind. I just went and looked, and the Yahoo service has turned to unusable crap.

No wonder they're failing.

Google Maps isn't too far off from what yp.yahoo.com used to offer.

If you guys do end up going to Black Raven for the best beer in the world, let me know as I am just down the road. If you want, there is a theater nearby for Iron Man 3 and a new burger/pinall barcade that opened up nearby too.

Also this weekend:

Mobile Food Truck Rodeo
Craft Beer Tour

Man I wish I could do this weekend but we're still going crazy getting stuff for our apartment and getting a car. Probably any other weekend this month I'll be free though.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Man I wish I could do this weekend but we're still going crazy getting stuff for our apartment and getting a car. Probably any other weekend this month I'll be free though.

I'll drink your share for you.

Dr.Ghastly wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Man I wish I could do this weekend but we're still going crazy getting stuff for our apartment and getting a car. Probably any other weekend this month I'll be free though.

I'll drink your share for you.

So far this festival thing is pretty awesome. I love beer and brauts.