Leaving NYC and heading back to Texas today!
 

After nearly 10 years in NYC, finally heading back to Texas! Wife and kids are already down there staying at my parents. Me and the dog will be making the 27 hour drive starting tonight!

Most important part about this whole relocation? I'll have an office in the new house! Sure I'll be working there mostly, but I can finally game in peace! First thing Monday I'm starting working through my backlog of games!

Run away! Run away! I certainly dont blame you for leaving this state. Its a mess.

Congrats….You sound like your very happy to be moving back :thumbsup:

Now leaving regulatory hell, now entering Chuck Norris territory ;)

Which part of Texas?

Austin. I started a construction business with my brother there last year and its at a point where I need to be there full time. Its also slightly less batshit crazy than the rest of the state, so that's nice!

Austin is great, very tech-savvy + immense growth. That's the thing about Texas - completely different burgeoning markets depending on the city you move to. Whereas in New York, you got a single city/region being subsidized by the rest of the state.

I love Austin and was just there last week visiting some relatives. If my job wasn't in Houston I would be there for sure.

Also, what kind of construction company? I'm at a millwork company and we do work in Austin frequently.

The land of freedom, sound values… and delicious fast-food.

And guns.

Most of all it's HOOOOOT. Much too hot for normal people (Norwegians). Maybe not as hot as Arizona? But hot enough, I've been there!

pibbur who doesn't like it when temperature exceeds 20 Celcius and therefore doesn't like it where he is now after a couple of sunny days.

I grew up in Dallas, so Dallas was the backup plan if Austin didn't work out (lots of finance jobs there so if I had to work for The Man, it would have to be there).

We're doing residential construction, specs and custom. We're just about finished our first spec and we have two more that we are about to break ground on. Market is insane. We'd barely framed the first one and people were begging us to make an offer. We pushed them off until we were farther along, but we finally let someone make a bid last month and went into contract. We're mainly building right now in north central Austin, though the two custom jobs we've bid are in south Austin.

I don't know much about construction itself, so I have a ton to learn. I've always been handy/do-it-yourselfer, but this is a whole different thing. That's where my brother comes in. He's a master builder, but he didn't know crap about financing, raising capital etc., which after 18 years on Wall Street, I know a lot about!

Don't forget BBQ. Yummy, yummy BBQ! (And finally some good Tex-Mex, NYC is a wasteland for Tex-Mex)

No doubt. My brother has several. My wife wants to get one. I'm pretty meh on it. I enjoy shooting at a range, particularly skeet, but I rarely have a need to own a gun myself.

Second time I went to my firm's headquarters in Oslo it was January. I called my boss when he told me to make the trip and said "You do realize I'm from Texas right? I'm going DIE!"

You are hereby obligated to make the pilgrimage to Texas Stadium v2.0 (sorry, just can't abide "AT&T Stadium") on my behalf.

Does Austin get stupid-humid like Houston or is it more reasonable like Dallas? Never did get much beyond the DFW area when I was working down there.

Apparently you survived.

Pibbur who is pleased to notice that, also that he himself survived his days in hell…:)

Austin is less humid that Houston but I grew up in South Louisiana and I think Houston is way less humid than there.

My company does commercial only. Right now we are doing alot of Banks.

Running the office is just as important as running the field. You have purchasing, logistics, payroll, job costing, billing, accounting and other stuff. Its a pita.

Make sure you hit up a Torchies Tacos when you get to Austin.

My brother lived in the Austin area for almost 7 years until about a year ago. He moved to San Antonio for his job, and now he's in the process of relocating to Phoenix.

I visited a few times when he was in Austin. (He actually lived in Kyle which is about 20-30 minutes south). Tons of stuff to do in that area, especially if you like nightlife and live music. Of course it helps that the area is still exploding with new residents and businesses right now. It's currently one of the fastest growing regions in the country if I'm not mistaken.

Only thing I didn't like was the weather. Talk about volatile. It's like an oven there all summer, and then it's surprisingly cold during the winter.

Already been there for the 2009 Big 12 Championship game. Nice place, but those screens are distracting. And they had beer but the Big 12 didn't allow sales (learned their lesson after the 2001 game it seems), so they sat all smuggly in their locked coolers and taunted us.

Not as hot as Dallas, not as humid as Houston

Yeah, it wasn't actually as bad as I was expecting. We went skiing at Lillhammer (sp?) where my boss has a cabin. That was pretty awesome, though I found the mountain less technical than what I was used to in Colorado.

nice.

Yup. And that's all going to fall on me for now!

Ohh I will, I love Torchies! We should grab a beer sometime when you're in town.

I have two small children. I only have vague recollections of this thing you call 'nightlife'.

Not to mention in the winter when its 15 degrees one day then 60 the next. It can be a bit crazy, but frankly NYC is the same way.

This is how I just left my office:

http://i.imgur.com/ZbJaxaf.jpg

been waiting 9 years, 7 months, 10 days, 2 hours and 33 minutes to do that!

For reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_to_Texas

hahaha, you sure have a lot of patience!

"Lillehammer"

GTN! GTB!

pibbur who for some reason knows Norwegian better than Texans and Texan-wannabes.

Hmm… sorry?

Go to Norway (My country)
Go to Bergen (My hometown)

silly pibbur who didn't realize that the acronyms weren't as obvious to the watch as it was to him. Or perhaps he did….