The current Washington commute is totally unacceptable after years of financial and personal misery in Colorado, so we are about to move from provincial Puyallup to Renton and thus much closer to Zombie13's very demanding job in Kent. Additionally, he has been told that he will soon be assigned to a location in Renton which will shorten his commute there a little bit more, best case scenario. (From Kent to Renton the driving time is between 25-30 minutes, a vast improvement over the 60 minutes + he has to endure 20 days a month now.)
His current commute is one hour each way every day as working from home is simply not an option with this company (supposedly though, on extreme weather days (i.e., severely rainy and low visibility or rare snow days when the gridlock traffic roads present clear driving dangers, he may be allowed to login from home.) From Renton (once he is ensconced there), that will add another twenty to thirty minutes , meaning he could be in some of the worst traffic in the US for three hours each and every day as long as he works for his company - not reasonable or acceptable given his age (53 in December and the fact he is not getting any younger), so this is a necessary step in improving our lives as the move away from crappy Colorado was designed to do.
Puyallup is a decent place to live, just too far from a job with little flexibility or downtime. The modern rambler (ranch) is a most welcome respite from the endless stairs I was subjected to in our former two-story house, and I like having everything I need on a daily basis (i.e., kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom and full bathroom and multiple closets) all on one level, but at just under 2000sf, it is clearly too small, and we are visibly cramped.
The new rental, by contrast is a large rambler with a large basement at over 3200sf and beautifully customized with very unique features like a huge gorgeous built-in curio cabinet, perfect for our many expensive - looking glass figurines and family heirlooms. The bathrooms are elegant and the kitchen while built more than twenty years ago is visually striking and the fireplace features real stonemasonry and an adjunct area that can be used as a pizza oven. The whole house screams refined character, the basement features a large disco ball and a small dance floor, a wooden radio room, perfect for VO, a wet bar with plenty of built-in liquor bottle and glass cabinet storage, a second small kitchenette ,etc. There are two gated outside decks, one a small veranda outside the master bedroom sliding glass screened door, the other, open and wrapping around half the main level. And the lush, almost two-acre yard is totally surrounded by mature trees and wildlife. (We saw a brave doe looking for food last weekend!) This home sits near a small lake on a private road. Best of all, the rent is only $125 more each month than our current house and the laid-back landlord, himself a cat person, doesn't mind three cats and has no concerns about nail holes in the walls or the older carpets in the house.
The only drawbacks? We will have to move in at least two years or less as the large property will be developed into four smaller lots for sale.
And, of course, breaking the lease. The terms are we must give them 20 days' notice, professionally clean the carpets, pay a relisting fee and continue paying the rent until they find other occupants, which means we might be on the hook until the lease ends at the end of April 2023.
Fortunately, we have more than enough to double pay if we must and this breathtaking house was at a once in a year find. (It was listed last Monday and already had four other applications besides ours.)
When we flew here in April on the company paid five day housing hunting trip, the Bk13 was not yet closed, my husband's FICO score was below 700, no verifiable proof and history of the new job's annual pay raise (both required on many rental applications) beside the offer letter, we had two barely adequate to drive cars , we still owned the Colorado house and still owed on two 401K loans, so a mortgage payment and monthly rent for a house here was just not advisable or doable with the limited 401K funds we then had at our disposal. Thus, we didn't have much choice in rental location, and this was the one property management company glad to rent to us under the many above listed prohibitive financial concerns. In other words, we took what we could get.
Luckily, much has changed since then -we have two much newer cars, one credit building auto loan, a real Capitol One unsecured credit card with a pretty high limit, and a much higher FICO score.
And before anyone mentions partially paid company temporary housing as a better initial option, I must add that we needed a local street address to buy both cars and establish local residency, two crucial pieces of the puzzle to raise our credit scores and our cats needed more space than a tiny hotel room/one bedroom apartment would have allowed.
Normally we wouldn't have the extra proceeds to take the chance and move twice in less than three months, but we have learned that life is too short to waste precious hours in traffic and live only to get to and from the job site, leaving only the weekends for short day trips and exploring the new area.
His current commute is one hour each way every day as working from home is simply not an option with this company (supposedly though, on extreme weather days (i.e., severely rainy and low visibility or rare snow days when the gridlock traffic roads present clear driving dangers, he may be allowed to login from home.) From Renton (once he is ensconced there), that will add another twenty to thirty minutes , meaning he could be in some of the worst traffic in the US for three hours each and every day as long as he works for his company - not reasonable or acceptable given his age (53 in December and the fact he is not getting any younger), so this is a necessary step in improving our lives as the move away from crappy Colorado was designed to do.
Puyallup is a decent place to live, just too far from a job with little flexibility or downtime. The modern rambler (ranch) is a most welcome respite from the endless stairs I was subjected to in our former two-story house, and I like having everything I need on a daily basis (i.e., kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom and full bathroom and multiple closets) all on one level, but at just under 2000sf, it is clearly too small, and we are visibly cramped.
The new rental, by contrast is a large rambler with a large basement at over 3200sf and beautifully customized with very unique features like a huge gorgeous built-in curio cabinet, perfect for our many expensive - looking glass figurines and family heirlooms. The bathrooms are elegant and the kitchen while built more than twenty years ago is visually striking and the fireplace features real stonemasonry and an adjunct area that can be used as a pizza oven. The whole house screams refined character, the basement features a large disco ball and a small dance floor, a wooden radio room, perfect for VO, a wet bar with plenty of built-in liquor bottle and glass cabinet storage, a second small kitchenette ,etc. There are two gated outside decks, one a small veranda outside the master bedroom sliding glass screened door, the other, open and wrapping around half the main level. And the lush, almost two-acre yard is totally surrounded by mature trees and wildlife. (We saw a brave doe looking for food last weekend!) This home sits near a small lake on a private road. Best of all, the rent is only $125 more each month than our current house and the laid-back landlord, himself a cat person, doesn't mind three cats and has no concerns about nail holes in the walls or the older carpets in the house.
The only drawbacks? We will have to move in at least two years or less as the large property will be developed into four smaller lots for sale.
And, of course, breaking the lease. The terms are we must give them 20 days' notice, professionally clean the carpets, pay a relisting fee and continue paying the rent until they find other occupants, which means we might be on the hook until the lease ends at the end of April 2023.
Fortunately, we have more than enough to double pay if we must and this breathtaking house was at a once in a year find. (It was listed last Monday and already had four other applications besides ours.)
When we flew here in April on the company paid five day housing hunting trip, the Bk13 was not yet closed, my husband's FICO score was below 700, no verifiable proof and history of the new job's annual pay raise (both required on many rental applications) beside the offer letter, we had two barely adequate to drive cars , we still owned the Colorado house and still owed on two 401K loans, so a mortgage payment and monthly rent for a house here was just not advisable or doable with the limited 401K funds we then had at our disposal. Thus, we didn't have much choice in rental location, and this was the one property management company glad to rent to us under the many above listed prohibitive financial concerns. In other words, we took what we could get.
Luckily, much has changed since then -we have two much newer cars, one credit building auto loan, a real Capitol One unsecured credit card with a pretty high limit, and a much higher FICO score.
And before anyone mentions partially paid company temporary housing as a better initial option, I must add that we needed a local street address to buy both cars and establish local residency, two crucial pieces of the puzzle to raise our credit scores and our cats needed more space than a tiny hotel room/one bedroom apartment would have allowed.
Normally we wouldn't have the extra proceeds to take the chance and move twice in less than three months, but we have learned that life is too short to waste precious hours in traffic and live only to get to and from the job site, leaving only the weekends for short day trips and exploring the new area.
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