Wife may want to move to Austin!

OK the sky has opened up and the angles are singing....my wife asked me the other night if I would be interested in moving to Austin....I told her I didn't know crap about austin other than what i read here (kind of threw me for a loop since she has never lived farther than 15 miles from where she grew up in SFV)....Anyway I would like to know the real deal on the town...I looked at the chamber of commerse and tried to find stuff on housing and the job market...

Do any of you lone star guys have any advise what areas to look in for finding a house...I make decent money and we will make a killing on our house so I am not too worried about finding something...

Any help would be appreciated...

 

Hey that's funny that you mentioned it.........but I'm going to the Roundup next year for the fun but also lookin at moving to Austin while I'm there!

Lookin for an old farm house with a wrap around porch, a shot gun older then I am and a coon dog with more fleas then hair. That way I can park my pick up truck with it's gun rack and bumper sticker that says "guns don't kill people, I do" and not offend the neighbors!
xxx
Brandy

 

Now that is real funny cause I told her if she was serious that we should go during the round up and look into it....How is Bako?

 

Bako sucks! I'm lookin at buying a pub ***bar and eats*** but not here. So I was lookin into Orange and LA, but I don't want to raise a kid there so Texas here I come!!

We can follow each other out! I'm takin the Pontiac. Should be fun!!
xxx
Brandy

 

Lookin for an old farm house with a wrap around porch, a shot gun older then I am and a coon dog with more fleas then hair. That way I can park my pick up truck with it's gun rack and bumper sticker that says "guns don't kill people, I do" and not offend the neighbors!
xxx
Brandy[/QUOTE]


No Problem on the shotgun...if you don't have one we will issue you one at the border! With that M.O. you'll fit right in. Austin is great, I grew up in San Antonio and went to school in Austin on the 5 1/2 year -4 year degree program.
They tell me I had a good time! AHHHH the early seventies!

 

No Problem on the shotgun...if you don't have one we will issue you one at the border! With that M.O. you'll fit right in. Austin is great, I grew up in San Antonio and went to school in Austin on the 5 1/2 year -4 year degree program.
They tell me I had a good time! AHHHH the early seventies![/QUOTE]

Do they give you classes on the proper way to blow critters away? I make my own preserves and I can cook and spit, but guns are a whole new venture for me! I can rope and ride, swig beer and look stupid in a big hat.........but I'm not bowl legged...yet!
xxx
Brandy

 

Any help would be appreciated...[/QUOTE]


Austin is great! Traffic sucks. Austin is great because of the nature,Hill Country,music sceen,culture,diversity. It has an eclectic blend of old hippies,college kids,politicians,artists,dot com'ers,environmenalists,meat eaters,vegetarians,rednecks,longnecks and liberals.

The traffic sucks because of the antigrowth movement in the 70's to present and the resultant growth anyway.
All most all cities grow North. Austin has grown north, then west then south and now pushing out east.

To the west lies the Hill Country...The prettiest part of Texas. The east is more flat.
Pobably a good time to buy. Even though Austin is pricey...affordable by California standards and Austin is in the beginning of an economic upturn after the doldrum of the dot com bust. Austin is a mini silicon valley.

I like it out west and southwest towards Dripping Springs and Wimberly. North west is cool too up by Cedar Park, but there are alot of options.
There is a vibrant downtown residential area , but I am like Brandy in that I prefer and old house, acreage, wrap around porch and an eight stall garage.

Damn, I think I want to move back now!

 

Do they give you classes on the proper way to blow critters away? I make my own preserves and I can cook and spit, but guns are a whole new venture for me! I can rope and ride, swig beer and look stupid in a big hat.........but I'm not bowl legged...yet!
xxx
Brandy[/QUOTE]


Jeez, I am turning red..your kinda makin me excited talkin like that! You will be a hot item here. If I wasn't married to my sister...
Shotguns are easy..point and pull. Even if you miss we have plenty of recipes for road kill, yumm.
Seriously if you are thinking of a bar and grill, you could have a destination spot just out of town and be covered up with bikers and hot rodders in the evenings and weekends, and then serve lunches to the locals.

shucks, I'd come just to watch ya spit!

 

My experiences with Austin were great; but all of them are more than 30 years old. My wife and I lived there the first year we were married when I was in the Air Force, stationed at what used to be Bergstrom AFB. We lived there a second time after my tour in Thailand. We loved Austin for all the reasons listed above and by those H.A.M.B.'s who live there. It has reasonably good weather with mild temperatures. We lived in apartments in what would now be mid-town. I know from friends the city has exploded from what we knew. If you are into boats, there are lots of lakes on which to use them. And they put the power boats on one lake, and the sail boats on another. Or they used to do that. Just remember its a university town with Univ. of Texas-Austin there and its the state capital so it is over run with politicians and lawyers. A visit would be a good idea, especially when you could get a chance to see the traffic during the week. A city of any size has traffic problems nowadays, just some are worse than others. Use Google for real estate sites to check out what kinds of houses would be listed. Try and find the Austin multiple-listing service site. Also the local newspaper could give you more local info on their web site. I think its called the Austin American-Statesman. I hope this helps. We'd move back to Austin just to escape the Phoenix heat, if the kids weren't in Arizona.

Phil, aka AZAV8

 

Brandy have i got a deal for you!! The "old " farmhouse is only 5 yrs old but with the wraparound porch you can shoot crittters in any direction!! You are gonna need a peekup truck cause the house is down 3 miles of bad road. Shoot, for $350,000 I will throw in the cows & the tractor as well as the shotgun!! And it's only an hour & a half from Austin!

 

No Problem on the shotgun...if you don't have one we will issue you one at the border!

Do they give you classes on the proper way to blow critters away? I make my own preserves
xxx
Brandy[/QUOTE]

Hey Brandy..., the shotgun is used to get rid of "Bugs" ("not the bunny"..., but the insects!) and a few slithery critters.. (Like the famous "Rattle-headed-copper-maccasin!) !!!!

Let me know when you make the Scorpion/Black Widow/Tarantula preserves...!

 

Austin sucks. But I am just saying that so no-one else will move here.

Actually, despite everyone from Cali movin' here, its still a pretty nice place to live, especially if you can get work on a schedule that doesn't involve rush hour. Or live very close to work. Bad part is almost every state road through town is fixing to be a toll road.
Big house with a rap around porch, huh, any spot of land bigger than a 1800 sq ft house needs is split up into those size spots. If you find acreage, it will cost much, but still a bargain by Cali standards.

If your bringing a hot rod, come one, we need more.

 

Did she say she would come along with you?

 

oooohhhhh nooooo! my wife is saying the same thing! i like it there, but never wanted to live there. We know a bunch of people here in dfw that want to move there. BORED summed it up great. It's pretty, still kinda small-townish, and there's always stuff to do. but, the past couple of times we've realized it has lost a lot of it's quirkiness of the random shops in houses and different little things that made if different than any other town. now it's just getting over-commercialized and corporate like the rest of the world. traffic really sucks! last time we went, the one of the main roads was getting expanded from 2 lanes each way to 4, so only one each way was open then, i'm sure it's done now. it's funny being the capitol of republican texas, home to george bush, you get bothered by anti-bush hippies and shit.

it's weird that so many hamber's are form the area but i only saw a few cool cars, the scene seems bigger in dfw

 

Can you convince MY wife to move down there?!!!!!!

Travis

 

for some of you hardcore texans that hate californians and economic growth, not to worry... some people (like me) WANT to stay in california!!

 

South Austin is where it's at-plenty of neighbors from Cali. I can't say shit about 'outsiders' moving in-I'm from Houston

 

Nah that's alright.........I want lead pipes and saggin roofs. New homes don't have the characteristics I need to be happy. Besides, I wouldn't know what to do with a cow besides kill it and grill it!
I need a barn so I can store my stuff.....but I dunno about the bugs! Scorpions and spiders don't exactly do it for me unless they come in a belt buckle!! We had a scorpion in the restaurant the other day. The bar girl and I stood on tables screamin like sissys until an oilfield worker came and squished it.........it was too big for me!
Bored, that's what I want.... a sort of Roadhouse just on the outskirts of town. It's what I'm used to and what I like. A place with spitoons.
xxx
Brandy

 

hey kids,

anyone want to sponsor an australian or arrange a money-for-green-card-marrage? i'd love to live in austin

Danny

 

Yeah, come on out. More hotrodders is always good but....remember this. The whole "Austin is great" thing? Not for long! The hill country is being developed at an obscene rate. The roads were never designed for this sort of volume and they are not only congested but torn the fuk up. Many of the places that made this city great are gone or going. Can you say gentrification? I guess like any other growing "small" city, it happens to the neat old local buisnesses and the neat old neiborhoods. I am no granola eatin neohippie ( nor are my freinds or reletives) BUT it is damn ironic to read peoples posts (this and others) stating how "great Austin is" But " damn those fukin hippies". It is "those fukin hippies" that really helped to make Austin an oasis of art, music, culture etc... in the heart of a giant conservetive state. Don't believe me? Do yo remember Dallas or Houston in the 70's? I do. If ya wanted the " laidback, Willie Nelson, cosmic cowboy, Armadillo World H.Q." life, THis was the ONLY place to live it. Yeah I know, times change blah blah blah but These things I speak of are why people loved Austin. Soap creek saloon is long gone, the swiiming holes, lakes, downtown, the parks, they are all bursting at the seams w/ assholes that every day move here, tear shit up, and bitch about the "fukin hippies"! Am I bitter?! You are Goddamn right I am bitter! Yeah I love that car culture here is growing and it is now the HAMB capital of the world, but how would you feel if every fukin asshole from god knows where showed up on your doorstep and took over leaving you no room to breath? All you HAMBERS come on out bring your cars, there are still a few bits of what makes Austin great to salvage but be warned, This place is a fukin mess now! God bless Willie Nelson! Rant off.

 

Ditto.

 

Gotta agree.

Downtown is being "Re-developed"

All the stuff that is "COOL" is not as cool as it was. They built a soup kitchen right smack in the middle of 6th street..err 7th. Bums all around 6th street. This is the best place for shows and the city is wrecking it.

The warehouse district has become the cities new golden child and it SUCKS ass. Consider it the planned music and food court of downtown. Planned work "lofts" are going up like the popularity of rat rods. If you think Austin is a cool place, think again. Its a city like all the rest but with high humidity and insane house prices on the rise.

Oh yeah, and if you want to go to some other car show..its a 10 hour drive...JUST TO GET OUT OF TEXAS.

There are a few times a year that everyone comes out and plays.

Oh yeah heres a funny one. When I first moved here, MOST of the hotrod/streetrods all ran Holley/Edlebrocks so I figured sweet, swapmeets should be a breeze and I could pick up Strombergs all day long. WRONG!! People looked at me funny when I mentioned them. What would you want with them old things... HA HA HA. It seemed as though people threw them away.

There is still some excellent things about Austin, the lake. You can drop a boat and be wake boarding within 20 minutes. Within 20 minutes of pulling your boat out you can be eating Rudy's bar-b-que. Waddling out of Rudy's and 20 minutes later you can be enjoying Lonestar Beer and Honkey. Sometimes if we're lucky Go Fast. Some of you may like to see Flametrick Subs..and you can see them pretty much every night of the week.

So whats my point?? None. Just my observations.

 

2 cents from an Ex- (and Future-) Austinite:

No doubt Austin isn't the eden it once was, but it's still the best damn city on the planet. The important thing is to steer clear of the Go!Go!Go! Cube Farm dotcom assholery and stick to what made Austin great.

Look for those neighborhoods where classic Austin still lives... South Austin, Travis Hgts, East Austin, Del Valle, and if you can afford it, Hyde Park. Above all, don't move to some massive suburban development in Round Rock or Cedar Park just because the houses are astonishingly big and cheap by Cali standards. You'll end up miserable, stuck in traffic, constantly surrounded by jerks who just moved there for the internet brass ring.

 

Always room for HAMBERS though!

 

Just moved here less than a month ago. I'm loving it. My only complaint is the hippies, queers, vegans, and the traffic sucks ass no matter where you go in this town. Live music EVERY night...always something to do. And HOLY CRAP there are hot girls all over this place, just walking aaround and shit, it's unbelieveable!

Then again, I'm coming from the armpit of Texas...Corpus Christi.

 

Well, I'm not a hot chick, I eat RED MEAT, I shower everyday and never burned my bra.........so I figure, no matter how bad it sucks or how much you dislike it or the California migration (yer just gettin back what we got during the Dust Bowl), I'm going. I'll own my dirty ol farm house, my rockin roadhouse and buy the BIGGEST boots I can find (not for line dancin but for spider smashin. ). Besides, this is me just getting back to my roots.........anyone ever been to Fredricksburg Texas?
xxx
Brandy

 

Fredricksburg ain't Austin..., it's much nicer in many Small town ways..., but it is a long drive for the Austin nightlife!!!

I'd move back there again...!

 

I've never been actually, my grandparents moved out from there during the Depression........I like small towns, but I need a crowd to support my pub. A bike ridin, hotroddin, money spendin crowd! BRING ON THE TABLE DANCIN GO GO GIRLS!!
xxx
Brandy

 

Amen
Sounds like The S.F. Bay Area.

 

My 2 cents worth...I was born and raised in SoCal for 25 years and made the move to Austin in December of 2003. Sure I dont get out much having a 3 month old and a 2 1/2 year old, and Lord knows I am the last authority on what there is to do here. HOWEVER, Texas is everything my wife and I have strived for the past 8 years to accomplish. Austin has become a part of us and our family, hell my daughter was just born here. Ignore the anti Cali sentiment, that is pure ignorance. Moving from SoCal to Texas was the best decision we have ever made for OUR family. Best of luck...