I'm moving to Washington--advice?

This might sound a little obvious but if you are going to be living where the weather can shut you in for much of the time, make sure that the house has a personal space for each member of the family. Especially you and your wife. Bedrooms don't really count as such for adults, the reasons are obvious, so you each have a space for your own interests without disturbing the others. This is why having your hobby bench doubling as the dining table will always leads to trouble. And keeping these personal spaces away from the kids spaces will also keep your sanity intact. Sounds obvious but many times people buy small houses then get on each other's nerves because their activity areas are overlapping others. Just my 2¢ ;-) 

This is exactly the kind of info we're looking for. Thank you, Patrick!

I lived in Gig Harbor for several years, if your wife's work will be in Tacoma or other points East, the Narrows bridge will be something to contend with. But GH is a truly lovely community, we enjoyed it a great deal. 

My commute to Sea Tac became a real source of misery after several years passed, horrendous traffic, what began as a 35-45 minute drive in the 70's evolved into a 1.5-2 hour trip by the time of my retirement in 2001. The bridge was the major culprit. Just my .02

Patrick

Latest update: we're looking at Gig Harbor, northwest of Tacoma just a bit, pretty strongly. It's close to a potential work site for my wife, and smaller. If I had my way we'd be somewhere more rural. 

Pipe burst in our basement here the other night, so we're wrangling with contractors and insurance. Flooded an area about 200 sq. ft. So it goes.

I have family that lives in the Lakewood area, south of Seattle; and in Puyallup both seem to be pretty nice. I think anywhere along I-5 from Olympia to Seattle is going to be crazy.

Nice. Yeah, we're avoiding the Seattle area. Looking more like Olympia or somewhere along the I-5 corridor between there and Portland. We also talked about areas north of Seattle, like Bellingham. It's a year away though, so we have time to research the area.

Chris

Dirk, well, if you ignore Boulder and Boulder County and the nuts that run it, it would a nice state!  Scenery, mostly.

In what way? 

Sorry to hear that.  Colorado is nicer.

Well that depends on what you like to do.  If you are an outdoorsy person there are plenty of stuff to do.   Just be aware of the traffic it sucks around JBLM.

My last base was in Washington, several years, profession required living within 1 hour of the airport, Sea Tac, in Seattle. As the years passed and the traffic built, that became increasingly difficult. Olympia and South are great, weather in winter sucks, but temperate seasons still. 

Do not buy a home at lower elevations near a river, flooding due to rain or snow melt is an ever present risk. Buy good rain gear and quality rubber boots, actually quite needed. Avoid a home with bridge between that and work/school/stores, if possible.

You'll find PLENTY of time for model building in winter, you aren't getting outside as much. Good luck.

Patrick