While we knew Washington was where we were meant to be, we didn’t know where in Washington we wanted to go. So we started researching; where were the best job opportunities for John? Where was housing the cheapest but the neighborhoods were still good? Where were schools with good preschools? And where were all the Autism services like occupational therapy and ABA? Better yet, what type of ABA was it?

Seattle was immediately out of the question. The cost of living there was just as bad, if not worse, than Southern California.

Tacoma had all the job opportunities, but the housing was hit or miss price wise. The schools were also a bit hit or miss – but then can you really trust the school grade websites? Some of them didn’t have enough reviews, and they don’t really have a whole lot of info on special education.

Our friends lived in Gig Harbor – which has really great schools. And it’s close enough to Tacoma that the commute wouldn’t be too bad for John. But there weren’t any houses in our price range, and rentals were hard to find.

John had family up in Port Townsend, but it was a bit too far from therapy services for the Boyo.

Bremerton and Port Orchard had homes and rentals in our price range, job opportunities, decent schools and therapy services. Plus we would be halfway between our friends in Gig Harbor and John’s family in Port Townsend.

We started tracking the Real Estate in that area and talking to realtors. But before we could do anything, we needed to sell our house.