moving to kitsap peninsula 06/06

this is so freaky weird

I am from Charleston SC (born and bred) and I live in Gig Harbor / Purdy. I am just shy of being in the Peninsula. We moved to WA a little over a year ago and I love it here.

From a Charleston perspective, I would say avoid Bremerton at all costs. It is just..... it's not beautiful or representative of this state at all. Everything and everywhere else has been GORGEOUS but that area seems to be a blight. If you're coming from Charleston, then you know what the automile is. Bremerton is like the automile on steroids, with a dash of jacked up Navy Shipyard to boot.

Gig Harbor is like the good parts of Mount Pleasant, Silverdale is lovely but it has all the shopping of Mt Pleasant. Port Orchard and Olalla are pastoral and the Southern parts of the peninsula, well.... other people have commented on that. Although I have a dear friend in Belfair and she likes it there.

When I take a ferry, I take the Fountelroy one. I love how convenient that is. The fare and the gas to drive to Seattle are identical. And they actually serve good coffee. I would say that life on this side of the bridge is much like Charleston in the respect that water is everywhere, and much beloved.

What do you envision for your day to day life, besides scouting? That would help us tell you where it is!

We Charleston ladies need to meet up!!!!!!

Wolfmeis: that was the best question and you're relating it to the charleston area was awesome--made so much sense thank you!

crafting--i knit and am learning to crochet & sew slowly and on my own. if we find a good house in a crappy school district i will home school. otherwise i will probably try to garden (black thumb, eventually i WILL homegrow those organic baby carrots we eat by the ton {probably 100 million years from now--our first garden was a hysterical flop}), craft anything and everything, & would love to find a bookclub that isn't reading oprah (nothing against oprah, just a sci-fi/fan addict) even if it was an online book club for busy mums and dads, flea markets and garage sales on the weekend for bookhunting

also somewhere with good community adult education programs would be awesome (any sort of thing: learn to weld, learn to tat, learn to make mrs. grundy's microwave pies, learn to speak some foreign language 1/2 the country has never heard of) if it's fun &/or useful i am willing to try it at least once or twice

we're coming up this summer, 3 week of june

Well, the yarn shops, the beadwork shops... all exist in plentiful supply. One of the things I love about WA is that the people here are creative junkies. JUNKIES. I belong to a yahoo group called crunchy mamas and we meet every Wednesday at a local Starbucks for knitting night.

All these places we're talking about--- they're in what you and I consider close driving distance. The residents here hate to drive any length of time. Silverdale is 30 mins from my home, but so is downtown Tacoma. It takes me 80 mins to get to Seattle, 45 mins to get to Olympia. How could you not LOVE proximity like that???? But because I am on the peninsula, I get to keep the trees, FRESH air and beautiful water and mountain views as my home.

A difference in my life from Charleston: I get my milk delivered ( www.smithbrothersfarms.com ), I get my organic veggies through a CSA for about 26.00 a week ( www.terrysberries.com ) and did I mention the no sales tax on food?

The NW is the home to Costco and to Starbucks, so those are everywhere. There are more shopping outlets here than....gawsh. In fact, the Costco in Silverdale is surrounded by them. I am wearing a smoking little sweater I picked up at Eddie Bauer last week for 1.99.

The parks here are very different from home; the YMCAs are more important, and they don't have anything like The Charleston County parks and recreation commission. The parks are here, but they're not extensive like James Island County park.

Resident Central Kitsap/North Kitsap resident here...

I have lived in Port Orchard, Bremerton, Silverdale, Seabeck. I have to say that as a parent, I definitely prefer where I live now, very close to Seabeck. I am 20 minutes from the ferry convenience of Bremerton (I rarely partake... I'm rarely in Bremerton at all, honestly) and where we do most of our 'shopping-for-life', like groceries and Target and whatnot.

I live in a rural area of Bremerton so I'm not living anywhere near a base, but I'm only 20 minutes away if for some reason I ever wanted to go to one. LOL The area where I live is pretty coveted by those who have been here for a walk on the trailhead or a visit to Scenic Beach or a swim at Wildcat Lake- we have the best of a lot of things out here. The elementary school is the best in the county, IMO, we have an amazing staff who really do truly care about the students and are very involved with promoting parent involvement. I correspond by email with my son's teacher whenenever I wish and can request to meet her any time, and am viewed as part of his education team, not just the crazy over protective mother.

Having lived in Bremerton proper, I can say that I wouldn't do it again unless I was a single mama needing an apartment.

I live in a 1000sq ft house w/3bd 1ba, w/attached garage a mile away from the school and we pay $800 per month. If we buy it, we expect to pay (no more than) $160-$175K for it. The house prices out here are going up quick, too- two years ago this house would have been worth about $145K. Heck, maybe it still is..

My husband commutes to Seattle but I have to say that living in Kitsap is great because you aren't far from the city but you don't have to deal with city life. I detest the traffic in the city- be it Tacoma or Seattle or anywhere that size. I rarely go over the bridge to Tacoma, it's just overwhelming to me now that I'm all country-fied! (I grew up in Seattle!)

The beautiful thing about where I live is that I'm also not far from the big organic/natural foods store in Kitsap, Central Market in Poulsbo. Safeway in Silverdale is hosting more natural foods, and in Silverdale there is also an organic butcher! All of their meat is natural/organic and it's reasonably priced, too. I'm so excited about that!

Poulsbo has incredible local shopping, and wonderful parks! Silverdale has great parks too, I haven't seen one yet in Port Orchard that didn't scare me a little. That's not to say there aren't good parks in PO, I just am unaware of them.

FYI: There is a Kitsap-AP yahoogroup that you're welcome to join and ask around on. Lots of the mamas there are military transplants and would be glad to share their experiences! Spring is here so we should be having more playgroups and park dates. We tend to rotate around to parks around the county or homes when it's rainy.

Kitsap also has the Peninsula Birth Network site where you can find birth professionals if you're looking for one, or other family friendly links. Also check out KitsapKids.com. And once you get here I'll introduce you to the knitting group in Poulsbo, if you like- we're knitters/crocheters of all experience levels, bringing newborns and small kids so we can get together.

Welcome to the county!

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Your little ones would both be very welcome! I have a 8yo and almost 5yo, too.

My vote is for Port Orchard, Poulsbo, or Seabeck .

My mom's lived in Port Orchard for about 17 years now, and I think it's a beautiful place to live, with a great down-town area (I love Bay St). There's a waterfront park were they have free summer concerts for families. And Manchester beach is such a great little hidden treasure- a sandy wide beach with a bit of a tidepool that gets all warm for the wading when the tide's out. Just a great place, really.

Poulsbo has a *great* 4th of July fireworks celebration, with a huge sidewalk fair and lots of things to do. And, funny aside, my step-dad is one of the meat-cutters at Central Market. He's been a meat-cutter for over 30 years, I think, and he really knows what he's doing. Central Market is a really neat store, but my mom, who's been a grocery checker (cashier, clerk) for about the last 20 years says it's a little more expensive than other stores in the area. I don't shop there myself since I live in Tacoma right now, but she's got a pretty good grip on average prices since that's what she does all day.

I don't know as much about Seabeck, but my family looked at buying a piece of land up there and the view of the mountains was breathtaking.

Bremerton itself... I'm not very fond of. On rainy days (and of course there are many) it's just gray and kinda depressing. On sunny days it's just kinda gray. There are a couple of good festivals, like the blackberry festival, but you don't need to live there to go to them, of course. Tacoma's really much nicer, but it's not so close to Bangor that you'd want to move here.

As for what was said about the 'southern' part of the peninsula being a little rednecky... I grew up there, and it's not a little rednecky at all. It's a LOT rednecky, lol. Which is really quite funny because where there aren't trailers there are half-million dollar homes with huge landscaped yards. (Canterwood, with it's golf course and country club vs. Lake of the Woods, with it's meth labs and pot farms.) Seriously. There are so many trailers in some spots it's a marval a tornado hasn't hit. The proximity to expensive houses are probably the only thing holding it back, lol.

So I'd stay away from the Key Peninsula if I were you. Gig Harbor itself is OK, though. Just not as close to the base as you might want.

i think we're really going to look into the port orchard area and poulsbo, luckily we just got our pre-approval for a home loan for the amount we wanted and there's a couple of houses in our price range with most of the amenities we want in the port orchard area. i can deal with ********--i graduated from an ag high school, in case i have to go south. we had the million $ homes interspersed with the trailers and shacks back home, too. that always cracked me up and drives dh crazy when we go see my folks.

how much do any of you who live on the peninsula go over to seattle? or does the peninsula fulfill all your needs?

posting on here was the best idea (not mine, thanks Kel!) yet. the information i've gotten has been phenomenal! ! ! i am starting to look forward to moving to WA when at first i was feeling uncomfortable. my kids are excited to see how Central Market compares to Whole Foods. even dh is glad to hear me reading the posts of this thread. Thank you all so very much!