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May be moving to Austin...

Hello, ladies!  My husband and I are contemplating a move to Austin for his job.  We're Canadian living just outside of Toronto.  I'm very nervous about moving so far away, but after reading a few posts here you all seem very nice!  We'd probably be moving to the Cedar Park area or something around there.  Is anybody from that area?

Re: May be moving to Austin...

  • Hi!I I don't live in Cedar Park, but I'm in NW Austin which is in the same direction, just not as far out of town.

    Will you have a chance to come down and visit before you make a decision on relocating?

  • I don't live in Cedar Park, but several friends of mine live in that area and love it.

    I agree that it's a great idea to visit Austin.  I love living here, but I grew up here and am pretty used to our lack of seasons and terrible traffic. (Even though that doesn't keep me from complaining about it.!) Smile  Austin is a wonderful place to live, but I can imagine it will be really different from Toronto.

  • Thanks for the replies, ladies!  We just told my parents about the possibility today, and will let them get used to the idea a bit and then we'll go for a visit to scout everything out.  I think the biggest change I need to get used to is the lack of seasons...  thinking about not having snow on Christmas depresses me, but I'm hoping it won't bother me enough to make me sad if we move there.  We've heard about the awful traffic, but having braved Toronto traffic for years we're not terribly concerned.  It's good to see you have an active board here!
  • i've lived in cedar park for 13 years now and have been really happy here!  we live right near the "border" between cedar park and its northern neighbor, leander.  in fact, if you are looking online at houses, you might include leander in your home or apartment search since leander and cedar park are right next to each other.  you could also include western round rock and very western parts of georgetown, too, for that matter.  and there really aren't any "bad" parts of cedar park, either, so that makes a search easier when you don't really know where to look!

    traffic on the interstate and a couple of the highways can get really slow during rush hours and sometimes on weekends.  at other times, it's usually not that bad, especially if you know several different routes to use and what time of day to go.  dh and i both work in cedar park, so we can usually choose when to go downtown.  with the new 183 toll road, it only takes about 30 minutes.  will you be living in cedar park and working in austin?  if so, that might pose some traffic issues.  if you will be living and working in cedar park, leander, or round rock, then no worries.   

     

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  • imagegwynnetx:

    i've lived in cedar park for 13 years now and have been really happy here!  we live right near the "border" between cedar park and its northern neighbor, leander.  in fact, if you are looking online at houses, you might include leander in your home or apartment search since leander and cedar park are right next to each other.  you could also include western round rock and very western parts of georgetown, too, for that matter.  and there really aren't any "bad" parts of cedar park, either, so that makes a search easier when you don't really know where to look!

    traffic on the interstate and a couple of the highways can get really slow during rush hours and sometimes on weekends.  at other times, it's usually not that bad, especially if you know several different routes to use and what time of day to go.  dh and i both work in cedar park, so we can usually choose when to go downtown.  with the new 183 toll road, it only takes about 30 minutes.  will you be living in cedar park and working in austin?  if so, that might pose some traffic issues.  if you will be living and working in cedar park, leander, or round rock, then no worries.   

    eta: feel free to ask me questions if you need.  like i said, i've lived here for 13 years, so i know realtors, mechanics, vets, doctors, schools, etc., etc., and would be happy to answer your questions.  and if i don't know, i can find out!

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  • Thank you so much for the offer!  My husband works in the tech industry so we would have to wait and see what company he ends up working for and then find housing near there, to help with the traffic issues.  But we're thinking he'll be working near one of the tech companies not far from Cedar Park and Round Rock, so that's where we've been focusing so far.  He said Leander would be a bit too far north for us to live.

    I do have kind of a dumb question... here, we all have basements and ours is chock full of crap - folded boxes I use for my business, bins of clothing the kids have outgrown, and various furniture redo projects I'm working on.  I understand not many houses in Austin have basements...  where do you store all your extra "stuff"?  Do you have attics that you can use as storage?  (Silly question I know!) 

  • imageSmooshie:

    Thank you so much for the offer!  My husband works in the tech industry so we would have to wait and see what company he ends up working for and then find housing near there, to help with the traffic issues.  But we're thinking he'll be working near one of the tech companies not far from Cedar Park and Round Rock, so that's where we've been focusing so far.  He said Leander would be a bit too far north for us to live.

    I do have kind of a dumb question... here, we all have basements and ours is chock full of crap - folded boxes I use for my business, bins of clothing the kids have outgrown, and various furniture redo projects I'm working on.  I understand not many houses in Austin have basements...  where do you store all your extra "stuff"?  Do you have attics that you can use as storage?  (Silly question I know!) 

    the soil here is mainly clay and/or limestone, so if you build into clay, the ground's going to either shrink or swell around your basement.  if you build into limestone, you're going to have to dig into that, and that takes time and money.  i don't think it's practical or cost effective to install a basement here when building a house.  there're probably other reasons, too.  we keep our stuff in our indoor closets, attic, and garage.  we have a 2 car garage but only park 1 in there.  the other side is full of stuff!  (that reminds me.  we need to clean out the garage this winter.)


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  • Ah, ok.  That makes sense.  I guess we'll be using our garage as storage.  :)  I'm really hoping this will force us (meaning my husband, of course) to get rid of some of the stuff we're hoarding.  He tends to keep everything forever.
  • We use the attic for some storage.  

    Also, with weather as mild as it is - a lot of people don't *have* to have a garage for their cars.  I know lots of people in my neighborhood buy a home with a three car garage, knowing that they will just have two - and use the 3rd stall for storage.  

    Also, we try to minimize the junk in our lives.   A move is always good for that!

     

    My DH is also in the tech industry... but he's at one of the companies that is south.  If we lived in Cedar Park/Leander his commute would be killer.  We actually moved from N Austin when he got the job because it was taking over an 75 min to get to/from work.   

  • What company does your husband work for?  Mine currently works for AMD at their Toronto office.  We're debating whether he should stay and transfer to the Austin office or find something new altogether.
  • imageSmooshie:
    What company does your husband work for?  Mine currently works for AMD at their Toronto office.  We're debating whether he should stay and transfer to the Austin office or find something new altogether.
    DH does not work for amd, but did a co-op with them a few years back. If he wants to transfer to amd, I would not suggest looking at cedar park/Leander. That's really far with pretty significant traffic. You can email me at s h a n w a l k 2 @ yahoo dot com if you want more details.
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