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Thread: Moving from Pacific Northwest to East Texas - need advice

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by lowell holmes View Post
    Are you ready for the change in culture?
    More like moving to a different planet.

    I was raised in Houston, and after the Navy and some other fooling around I moved to Washington in 1980. We lived in rural Snohomish County for 30 years. Two years ago we decided to move somewhere drier and cheaper and ended up in northern Utah, where my wife has relatives. (We considered the Texas Hill Country but the wealthy baby boomer retirees have REALLY driven the prices up there.) We went from 7.5 acres in the woods to .95 acres in town. The first thing I did was have a shop built, then spent the first summer of my retirement moving all of my equipment down to the new shop. I spent all summer and fall driving back and forth towing a trailer to move all of the stuff that wouldn't fit in the U-Pack. I used U-Pack to move the equipment and hired labor on each end to help with the loading and unloading. When my wife retired in the winter of 2017 we had a commercial mover move us down to Utah. Most of our stuff is in storage and we are living in a very small, old house that was on the property while we are building our retirement home next door.

    I'm not real familiar with Longview, but my sister and mom live in Tyler. It's a nice town, but it's turning into a retirement destination and prices and property values are going up rapidly. I don't know about Longview but it's probably the same, more or less. Both the climate and culture change will be immense. However your living expenses should be lower. Personally, I go to Texas as seldom as possible, but having relatives there requires that I do so occasionally. I still have two brothers in Houston, but if they want to see me they can come up here....

  2. #17
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    You know where you are going. I always enjoy the forests in East Texas, the culture, and the towns. The culture there is enjoyable. In a previous life, I was a Scout leader and we made trips to East Texas. I really enjoyed the lakes and forests.

    As side light IIRC, the distance from Beaumont to El Paso is 750 miles and there are three or four cultural changes between the two cities.

    Galveston County is another culture as well. I will not be leaving this area. I have too many children and grandchildren close by.

  3. #18
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    Dec 2006
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    Porter,TX
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    Tough question to answer, so guessing its a wwing shop.But if the market value is good where your at and there is no sentimental value I say sell them.While you are preparing for the move of household items,sell the machines in order of lease desirable.Then maybe the mover will let you slide in a TS or bandsaw into their trailer.If not maybe what you have left will fit in a covered UHaul trailer.Here in TX there are few auction sites that have running auctions going on all the time which is where I found some of my machines over the yrs.My taste in machines is of the vintage flavor,your may be towards newer machines which if you watch CL's you will find what your looking for so over little time you will be back up running.Once you get here you will be investing in some shop fans for sure cause it is hot during the summer but winter are no where's near what you go through now.Welcome to Tx,clear your mind you have afew 100-1000 friends right here at SawMill

  4. #19
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    Mar 2006
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    Austin Texas
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    Biggest factor I see could be the size of the shop area you will have available to move into. Which of your current shop stuff fit? What tool/equipment do you now have that would be difficult/impossible to replace and you would not want to be without? Oh yeah, big climate and culture change coming up.
    David

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Location
    TX / LA border.. Toledo Bend
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    Living in the E tx area, such as Longview, or even further from civilization where I am at, you will NOT find machinery without driving to a major metro like Dallas and dealing w Clist hassles or bidding on an online auction photo.

    Again check the local Clist links I sent for a taste of unavailability.

    About all they sell around here is beaten Sawzaws, and maybe an occasional Radio saw, and Black and Decker is considered the good stuff.

    Marc

  6. #21
    A few years ago my wife got a good job here in Saskatoon so we packed up and moved from Vancouver. She went ahead and I sold the house, edited and packed all our stuff into two 20' shipping containers and put what we needed for the short term onto a utility trailer, in the back of my pickup and I followed. The containers were rented from Big Steel Box, likely similar companies in your area, that dropped the container in my driveway and picked it up when I had it loaded, brought another. When they had both they put them on semi-trucks and hauled them to Saskatoon. It was (in Canadian) about $3300 each container to bring to me for loading, haul to here, and then bring to the new house for me to unload, plus about $350 a month storage for the pair in their secure yard. If I knew it would take us almost a year and a half to buy land, get plans made, and build, I would have bought two containers and had them shipped out here and put on our property while the place was built. If you get your own containers you can weld bars down the length for more tie downs and they are useful after unloading.

    When I got the container I realized there were not enough tie down points in it. Five rings along both sides at the top and bottom. I was not allowed to screw to the floor and if the container was damaged I would be charged a minimum of $1,000 for repairs. So I brought in the tall heavy machines(air compressor and bandsaw) putting them at the front against the wall with lots of padding, blocking and ratchet strapped them in. Then the table saw and then proceeded to pack heavy book filled boxes under, in and around those machines. More small tools etc., with lighter and lighter items as I went up finishing with blanket wrapped chairs, small tables until there wasn't anymore room in that first 5 feet. I then built a fence/partition of 1x boards with the corners cut so they could be dropped into the outward corrugations of the steel walls. A few vertical members were screwed to the horizontal ones to space them. They gave me more tie down options and would keep things from sliding back and forth as the container was winched on and off the tilt bed trucks used to haul them to and from the yard. I repeated that process until the last 5 foot area at the doors and there put in the vertical deep freeze, and tools that were heavy like the metal lathe and milling machine. I used a lot of ratchet straps and rope along with lots of foam and bubble wrap I got from my former employer. The shop and household goods were both loaded into the same containers because there was a weight limit of 18,000 pounds all up for a container, and I wanted to spread the load between the two. I was actually over maximum enough that the front end of the tilt bed truck's front wheels came off the ground 4' when he pulled it on. They used a bigger truck for the second container. Nothing shifted or was damaged in either container and the containers themselves had no damage either.

    So a couple more things to add. We ordered a lot of single and double wall boxes from U-Line along with a few rolls of small bubble wrap, a plastic strapping kit and a packing tape dispenser with rolls of tape. The boxes were 12" cubes and 14" cubes. That made it possible to stack them easily and hold enough to be liftable, even full of books. We also ordered a 10 pack of moving blankets from Amazon for a bit over $100 to supplement the half dozen friends gave us. You know who your friends are when you have a household of good to pack and load in a short period of time.

    The editing is the hard part and it still bugs me when I need something that I gave away, like solvent that isn't supposed to be in the container, or saw horses because they take up too much space, or the brass, bronze, aluminium, and steel that I took and sold to the scrap yard. Leaving machines is hard especially when you don't get much for them and there are none where you move to and they cost lots to replace. But to keep the weight and bulk down you need to. Hand and small power tools are easier to bring and you should keep any tools you might want for construction or repaires before you get to unpack the containers. I had no problem giving away my 4 bagger dust pump as I always intended to put in a Clear Vue in the new shop. Household stuff is easier as mattresses and older stuffed couches are bulky and were long past replacing anyway. Sentimental things are the hardest but you have to start with one room at a time and work out. I lost at least 25 pounds in the less than 2 months it took from that day my wife and I decided to move until I drove away with the trailer. Found it waiting for me when I got here though.

    You have the benefit of having more time to go through the process especially if you can get your place before you have to move. I went the container route as there was no way I was going to hand it over to movers and have unknown strangers storing the goods in a warehouse. I bought special locks from a locksmith to secure the container and added 5 bolts with two jammed nuts to the latches.

    A couple picks of the fence.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  7. #22
    I did kind of a reverse move: Virginia to the Pacific Northwest. Leaving aside the cultural issues and focusing on what part of the shop I moved:

    I have mostly vintage woodworking machines that I have patiently restored, some of them rare, so I moved them. If I had machines from big box stores that could be easily replaced I would have sold and replaced. I also kept hand tools that are small so easy to move but expensive to replace (think planes, hand saws, chisels). But I was ruthless with everything else. I tossed the cheapo cobbled together benches and extension wings and off feed tables since I knew I'd want different sizes and shapes in the new shop anyway and are easy to make again. I sold most of my wood except for a few long wide boards. Most of the random parts and odd hardware that I told myself I'd use some day but hadn't for years got sold or taken to the dump. I haven't missed any of it.

    I did disassemble and take my dust collection system and ducting. The ducts take up space but are lightweight so cheap to ship if you are moving. I ended up re-using almost all of it so that worked out well in my case.

    Good luck with your move. It is stressful but can also be invigorating to move to a very different place.

  8. #23
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    Aug 2007
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    It is as cold in Galveston County Texas this morning .
    20 degrees F, almost as cold as Anchorage Alaska.
    Last edited by lowell holmes; 01-17-2018 at 10:29 AM.

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    East Texas
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    230
    Thanks for the moving tip. All my previous moves, the last one being 22+ years ago, were paid by my employer. I'm finding the couple of quotes more expensive than I expected but a big part is the 2 phase move and possibly 6 months storage. I'm going to have to refine that and find a way around moving in two steps.

    The first phase was to declutter the house by storing things we want to keep and then clearing the remainder after the sale. That first part adds a lot of cost based on the 2 estimates I have from "traditional" movers. I'm considering using a PODS container for phase one instead. I've read good and bad extremes and the bad ones make me reluctant for a long distance move with storage. But having a container on my property for even a couple of months doesn't look bad.

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    East Texas
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    I'm an amateur so my big tools aren't that large in comparison to something like the Wood Whisper's shop. I've got a PM2000 cabinet saw, a Grizzly 19" bandsaw, a Delta 16/32 sander, 8" Grizzly jointer, and a DeWalt planer.

    At various times I've thought about selling the lot and then waiting to see how much I missed them. I've got a Festool track saw and an MFT so even moving completely away from a table saw has it's appeal. A video tour of Vic Tesolin's shop really brought home the amount of space a table saw demands.

  11. #26
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
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    East Texas
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    Cost of living and politics are the driving factors for moving. And we're from Texas originally so it will be a bit like going home.

  12. #27
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    Nov 2004
    Location
    East Texas
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    Quote Originally Posted by lowell holmes View Post
    Are you ready for the change in culture?
    Not only ready but looking forward to it. Without diving into politics, putting an NRA sticker on your car window is a good way to get your car keyed where I live now.

  13. #28
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
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    East Texas
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    Having lived in Houston for over 25 years, I'm very familiar with the heat and humidity and am not looking forward to that at all. But lower taxes and and overall cost of living will make retirement more pleasant. I would like to work because I want to, not because I have to.

    But there is a lot up here in the PNW that I will miss too.

  14. #29
    Keep in mind that as you are near the sea ports all around Seattle/Tacoma that containers are available to buy for relatively cheap prices. As long as you have somewhere to store it in Texas it may be the cheapest solution.

  15. #30
    Welcome home!! ...we'll keep the porch light on for ya.

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