Brandon -- Start NOW, propagating the roses that are most important to you. With any luck, you will have a good number of viable plants quite without digging any of them up. That's a compromise, of course, but not an unreasonable one.

If you are able to save even just the heart of your collection, it will make the whole thing easier to deal with.

Beaverton is quite a commute. Are you sure you want to follow that job

So sorry to hear of the difficulties you're facing, Brandon. Is it the time factor mainly that may prevent you from taking your roses with you, or some other reason? I wouldn't worry about digging up the roses affecting sale prospects, since most people these days don't care about plants and just want easy care yards.

Jeri, I have started to take cuttings of some of my roses. The biggest concern is that everything in our price range for monthly minimums are either expensives HOA fee properties or condos:(

Kristine, it is either commute to Beaverton or be without a job. and past experience looking for jobs at the end of the year has taught me that this is the wrong time to be looking. Plus it is a good job.

Hang in there Brandon. I know ... I understand. The bloated price for housing is an increasing problem. No joke. There are two houses on our small street that are for sale. Both are hideously over priced.
I say, stick with the commute -- while at the same time polishing that resume. And tend those cuttings. That will help preserve your sanity.

Jeri, I am going to stick with the commute. There are a lot of people who aren't and it could result in a promotion. However, I would eventually need to figure out living situation. I just wish everything wasn't so danged expensive.

Oh, I sure understand that! It HAS to change. There has to be a remedy. Too many families, now, are "falling through the cracks".

unfortunately it seems like those who need the change are the exact ones that are too busy living hand to mouth and are the ones falling through the cracks. making enough to not qualify for help, not making enought to afford much of anything.

maybe another housing/stock market collapse would be big enough to get the message to whomever that the status quo isn't working?

From your lips to God's Ears.

Brandon, I'm so sorry about your situation. Your love of roses is obvious to everyone here, and I hope this will somehow work out for you. I wish you all the best.

Just wondering... if quite a few people are going to be resigning and if you are offered a promotion as a result - could that be a moment to leverage your newly in-demand status of loyal, experienced, etc employee, to ask whether they might consider providing some financial help for you and your family to move, in order for you to 'be more available/close at hand to the new location' or whatever... ?

It might not work, but you never know unless you ask...

I hope you don't have to go looking for a rich woman who loves roses.

Brandon, do you know anyone who lives out in the country that would let you move the roses to their ‘back forty’, where they would stay until you could fine a new affordable place. It may take a while but you would still have your roses.

Do you have any work from home leverage? Good luck with everything.

Good luck, and some of this advice sounds worth thinking about. Too many people are in too-tight situations, but I don't think our current Administration cares.

Shelia, at this point if I had to find another spouse/ significant other I would settle for someone who likes roses. :)

I wouldn't call that settling, Brandon.

thanks for all the well wishes and thoughts. I was noticing that I missed on a few questions.

the major factor on not being able to take them with us is thatw e aren't sure where we are goign to end up, and my wife is currently looking into condo complexs. (perish the thought)

I may be able to ask my mom to hold onto some of them, but wouldn't be able to give her a time frame for how long. ( and out of 90 in ground roses and roughly 20 in pots roses, which ones do i leave behind?) and if we do move to a condo, then it would likely be a permenant thing.

I asked about how they would handle the people who have houses and was told that the bigger company which owns ours has an assistance program. i reached out to them and was told that they don't handle manufactured homes, which is what we have and is what is in our price range.

there are 2 positions that are open for remote work, so that may be a possibility, but I am not hold my breath on those. The promotions would be possibly more avaialbe to those who are physically in beaverton if there are pormotions.

hopefully something will work out some how.

Karen, yours is a wonderfully inspiring post. I feel as you do about roses; they have given me so much over the years and, despite everything, they will be in my life until I can no longer make it out the door to tend to them.

If you're looking at condos, why not a town house. Don't those often have small patios or even a very small yard? A poster on another thread moved from a house with a garden to an apartment. A balcony was on her list of must haves, so she was able to take her favorite roses with her where she gardens on a smaller scale on her balcony.

There are a few people who post here regularly who garden on balconies and show the most beautiful photos of their roses. There are advantages - your roses are closer so you can easily enjoy their color and fragrance, you can move them around so the ones blooming are more visible, no wheelbarrows and garden tools to schlep around and the best...... no weeds,

true, no weeds would be a blessing.

I have a relative that commutes to beaverton from Salem. It’s not great, but they do it.

Commuted from PA to Baltimore for ten years, an hour and forty minutes one way. Taking the bus part of the way helped. As you do it, you learn of ways to make it better (never great, but at least better). My neighbor had a two and a half hour commute, down to D.C. He did that for at least fifteen years, that I know of. So you are not alone in the commute difficulty. It can be done. And it buys you time to get into the right housing situation, if you do decide to move.

I kept some of my plants including small roses on our little patio at the condo we revered. It was a short time but I could have kept them there longer if we hadn't moved.

If you have to I hope you get out of your loan is the most advantageous way for you and your family. Maybe you could keep your home and rent it out and rent something yourself and your family closer to work. I know commuting into Beaverton can be a beast.