Seattle is getting expensive. Too expensive. And our place is getting small -too small, as my business grows. Our place is busting at the seams, pruduction is limited because of space issues, and we need more space, period.
And lower living costs, of course.
Wife has been looking in the Spokane, WA area at places for rent. Nice, big places, twice the size what we've got here (950 sqf) with two car garage + workshop type places, for the same amount as we're paying here, or just a little more.
But, we have a problem. An employee (and longtime friend)who's virtually irreplaceable and is dead-set on not moving out of him immediate area. Add to that, he doesn't drive, and refuses to learn, so his transport is extremly limited (IE: ME )
It would be virtually impossible to find someone else to replace him, because of his extraordinary workmanship he adds to my product. While I demand a high level of build quality, he far, far exceeds that.
I'm tempted to tell him I want him to start working weekends, so he can train his replacements (IE: My wife) and see how he responds to that. Other than me, he's basically unemployable. Untill he started working with me, he spent the last eight years folding dead chicken at KFC. His skills have been wasted.
Now personally, I love the Seattle area. I'd like to stick around here, but I can live without the traffic, and I can live without the high cost of housing. Looked at a few places around here, and they were wanting $2000+ for places barely bigger than this, many with no garage or workspace. A "spacious" 650 sqf house was asking $1200/mo!
So I have no problem moving, as long as it's reasonably close to Seattle.
We could force the issue on him. It wouldn't be that hard. All we'd have to do is call the city health deparment to come look at the place he lives. It's a dump - a total disaster of a house that should be condemned for multiple reasons. He lives there with a friend because "it's cheap" and the friend's father owns the house...
Get rid of the employee and train the wife, and loose her steady income and health insurance?
Force the issue on him? (He has no realy ties here...no family, no friends to speak of, and no life in general - so he'd leave nothing behind)
Or just deal with it and make his life miserable by giving him more work than he can possibly do?