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[Update, success!] Moving to Seattle and finishing a game
kedinik
Captain of IndustryRegistered User regular
Captain of IndustryRegistered User regular
Edit: Flew in and and moving into an apartment on the 14th; thank you all for the advice and perspective!
I've saved up some money and it's burning a hole in my pocket. I feel compelled to chase my dreams or go broke trying.
To that end I'm quitting my job, moving to Seattle, and spending my time developing and publishing an indie game. I don't expect to make money on this, but it's something I need to get out of my system.
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I want to know what I'm getting myself into, in terms of living in Seattle with a little money saved up and no immediate income.
Realistically, all that I know about Seattle is that I liked PAX '04 and '05, I like the weather, and my money will last longer there than it will in LA.
What advice do you native Seattle-ites have about living there? What should I consider when shopping for an apartment? What are some good ways to save money?
I've saved up some money and it's burning a hole in my pocket. I feel compelled to chase my dreams or go broke trying.
To that end I'm quitting my job, moving to Seattle, and spending my time developing and publishing an indie game. I don't expect to make money on this, but it's something I need to get out of my system.
---
I want to know what I'm getting myself into, in terms of living in Seattle with a little money saved up and no immediate income.
Realistically, all that I know about Seattle is that I liked PAX '04 and '05, I like the weather, and my money will last longer there than it will in LA.
What advice do you native Seattle-ites have about living there? What should I consider when shopping for an apartment? What are some good ways to save money?
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
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Good luck. It's a good place to make a game, but I'm not sure if you'll be able to save very much money.
If you can, I'd try to hook up with some like-minded people and move in with them or share an apartment with someone.
As far as apartment hunting goes, it's the same as most every city--your rent is directly influenced by the location. There's a building half a block from mine that rents a studio for $1350 a month, which is a lot even by area standards, but you can find deals if you're willing to look hard. Craigslist ain't bad, but there are a lot of listings for outlying areas there--make sure to Google Maps that address. The Stranger is one of our local weekly papers, and has a robust classified section online.
Expect to pay about $1000 a month in-city, taking all expenses into account. You can whittle that figure down with some creative jibber-jabber, but that seems like a reasonable jumping-off point. Also note that it's much cheaper to rent a room than an apartment, and various forms of communal living exist around the city. If you don't mind housemates, it's the way to go for ultra budgeting.
Anyway, watch what you eat. Cook from home as much as you possibly can. If you don't have one, get a Costco membership and buy most of your bulk food through there. Buy the rest at WinCo or Fred Meyer as those tend to be the two other inexpensive general grocery chains.
Become familiar with the bus routes.
Rent your video games, unless you have the discipline to beat a game and trade it in while the trade-in value is in your favor.
I don't know what the Craigslist roommate scene is like through Seattle, but here in Portland it wasn't too bad.
I'll second the vote for King County Libraries. They've got a great online system too.
My 1/1 apartment in Fremont is less then $1,000/mo but beyond that I'd be doing the same research you could to find out what's available right now.
I can't imagine life without PCC anymore, but certainly live within your means. You may want to include Trader Joe's in your supply collecting.
One of the best things about Fremont is that my wife and I can walk to quite a lot of things, and as we share a car, I've occasionally made use of the bus system and don't have any complaints. There's also a Zip Car lot less than a block away from me, if ever we do need a second car for some reason. So yeah, I'd say living here without a car is quite do-able. Definitely, if you have a bike.
And yeah, there's wifi everywhere here because there are cafes everywhere here! So if you don't mind working in one, you're set for that (I'm assuming here that you have a mobile system). If you've got a smartphone you'll probably be fully covered then, especially if you can use it for tethering.
Edit:
Forgot to ask about your game! What's the story there?
Costco too.
It's really only their produce which is consistently more.
Also, unless you move to a certain part of Kirkland, you are not going to both not have a car and be able to go to Costco. Speaking from experience, just don't have a car. I've lived in Seattle for a decade and I have an 8 year old son and I have never had a car.
Plus, you wanna live in Seattle, right? Don't be that guy that lives in Bellevue or Shoreline or Tukwila or the like and claims Seattle residence. That's just wrong.
One other thing to note is the curious personality traits displayed by the locals. It's not so terrible once the weather warms up, and the article is exaggerating it for dramatic effect, but it's definitely there. Out-of-towners complain about it and either eventually move away in disgust, or adopt the same trait themselves.
Also, you can't like Nirvana if you live here. You can't not like Modest Mouse. It's just the way of things.
1. No, you don't have to like Rainier beer, as it's crap along the lines of PBR. This is why it's cheap. Stick with craft beers. If you can't afford craft beers then learn to brew your own or make friends with a homebrewer. We have lots of 'em.
2. It's ok to like Nirvana and not like Modest Mouse. You must, however, like AC/DC. They sell more albums here per capita than anywhere in the world and if you go to a party it is a Seattle Law that Back in Black will be played at some point in the music line-up.
3. We have 8-9 months of rain a year. Don't buy an umbrella. Buy a hat.
4. Learn to appreciate pasty white skin color.
5. The little tiny doughnuts at Pike Place Market are awesome. Never go to Pike Place Market on a weekend.
6. The more complicated your coffee order the more Seattle you are. Avoid starbucks whenever possible. There are much better coffee places.
7. As far as cheap places to live, look in the U-District, Ballard, Ravenna and Beacon Hill. You're best off finding a roommate situation.
2. This is horrifying.
3. I suggest having both, but you will RARELY need the umbrella. It's funny, all of my Florida (specifically Tampa Bay) people gave me a hard time about moving somewhere that's always rainy, and I don't think they were intentionally being ironic. There is actually LESS annual rainfall here, and rarely does it match even the most mild Tampa rain for violence and volume. With a hood or a hat, you're generally fine in the rain here.
...
5. Yes. A thousand times yes. Avoid Pike Place as much as possible if you dislike crowds at all.
7. There should be a lot of factors influencing where you choose to live. What you can afford is one. What you need relatively easy access to is another. But don't forget crime.
Most Seattlites are friendly and like hearing people's stories, so go ahead and tell people what it was like for you living there. But definitely do not, under any circumstance, complain about how X was done like Y back in Z. We've heard it all many times before, and people get tired of it.
It was such a common thing for a while that one of our pizza spots printed a shirt that said "If New York was so great, why don't you move back there?"
I'm kidding about hating Nirvana--most long-time residents are indifferent at best. And loving Modest Mouse is optional as well (though, you can hate their new stuff and love their old stuff without coming across as a pretentious douche), but it seems you aren't a true Seattleite until you own a buffalo shirt...
For what it's worth, I like Nirvana and I'm indifferent to Modest Mouse.
I've been a fan of dick-eating jokes for years now, so no problems there.
I've got a roommate lined up to make the move with me, so that will definitely help.
I like biking; sounds like a good transportation option for me. I'll look into ORCA, too.
Gryndyl, thanks for the specific location suggestions; it's been very helpful with the apartment search.
The game's in my sig, Dr Trevorkian; not much of a story there. It's a simple game that I want to polish up and ship concurrently for Flash / iPhone in order to get a solid handle on the whole developing / distributing process.
I'll check into the food shopping options near different apartments that I'm considering; Costco would be nice, but I wouldn't buy a car for it.
The Seattle Chill effect is a bit unexpected, but not a big deal; if anything, it'll cut down on distractions from my work.
QFC's produce is about 12 times better, though, and often almost exactly the same price.
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I've always been a big fan of Met Market
LQA is also a total bitch to get into or out of via bus to anywhere but downtown. Almost as bad as West Seattle in that respect.
Hey, don't ignore 98.1 King FM, one of the country's only full-time classical music stations!
(Although, living in Seattle, you can just go hear it in person.)
Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Last.fm | Pandora | LibraryThing | formspring | Blue Moon over Seattle (MCFC)
I resigned today and I've begun apartment shopping in earnest; seems hard to line up an apartment 2 months in advance, but I'll post any promising addresses in the thread.
1) Green Lake is a fantastic area.
2) It is nigh-impossible to find an open restaurant downtown after 6:30 unless you go to the mall.
2.a) But if you happen to find the Greek place, eat there. It's amazing.
3) Top Pot donuts are only good when you buy them from Top Pot. The ones they sell at Starbucks are an abomination against God and man.
Now you tell me.
It was pretty shocking to find out the lack of open restaurants when I was used to Vancouver, where you can't swing a cat without hitting two or three restaurants downtown.
And I'm no fan of Belltown, but it has Shiro's, Mama's Kitchen, and Noodle Ranch, three of my favorite restaurants.
Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Last.fm | Pandora | LibraryThing | formspring | Blue Moon over Seattle (MCFC)
I'm looking in low crime rate areas that are also near University of Washington; my girlfriend / roommate is trying to swing a research job there.
Please let me know what y'all think of the following locations:
http://maps.google.com/?q=loc%3A+6301+65th+Ave+NE+Seattle+WA+US
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=3821+NE+45th+St+Seattle+WA+98105
http://maps.google.com/?q=loc%3A+NE+65th+St+Seattle+WA+US
The third one is out in View Ridge, just a couple of blocks from a PCC (our local version of Whole Foods, sort of). It's quieter, but a little less convenient. Prepare to take a long hike down to U-Village or a long bus out to Northgate or Ballard if you need to purchase anything other than groceries.
There is nothing worth the price of admission Downtown, though. Even if it were dirt cheap, you'd be going to other neighborhoods to shop/buy groceries/meet with friends/hit the bar/see live music/et cetera.
Consider looking into places up and down 15th Ave, somewhere north of 55th. 15th is a nice street, with a million buses going up and down it that will take you anywhere fast, especially to the UW. North of 55th, the U-district crime falls off pretty hard, so you don't have to worry so much about that. The locations you mention are all nice, but I am a dude who is all about Seattle buses, and 15th is one of the best bus streets in the city. Personally, I would also try to get a place within walking distance of a grocery store, which means near 65th (maybe not the best since there is a high school at 15th & 65th and you might not be into a bunch of surly teens hanging out near your place), 75th, or Northgate Way.
Thank you all for your advice!