Team Reba Real Estate

Team Reba presents a new listing of a classic 1950’s style home in the Seward Park neighborhood of Seattle.  It’s modern neighbor was featured in this past week’s Pacific Northwest Magazine in the Seattle Times which was built on land formerly a part of this dwelling’s land parcel.

Our listing has many sought after, yet hard to find, features such as: Two (2) Master bedrooms, Universal Design features, 2 kitchens (actually what could be 2 full living quarters and was previously used in this fashion), expansive views of Lake Washington in a serene setting, large lot, and environmentally conscious features such as broad overhangs for passive cooling, ceramic tile roof, and large windows for wonderful natural lighting.  In addition to these features you’ll find numerous outdoor sitting areas, ample parking space besides a 2-car garage, and an elevator between the 2 floors.

See some of photos of this wonderful property below or check out all the photos at our slideshow:

Front of home with circular driveway which supplies excellent additional parking for guests. Here you can see the tile roof which is original to the structure.  Roof products of this kind typically require a substantial structure to support their weight - this is a very solid home!

This view from the northeast corner of the home shows the layout of the walk-out daylight basement - the slope of the site allows for a very open and bright lower living area along with providing fantastic views of Lake Washington and Seward Park from both levels of the home.  It also represents the true size of the home with its 4410 square feet of space.

Gleaming oak hardwoods flow throughout the main level spaces including the dining area, sunken living room, office, family room, kitchen, hall and the 3/4 bath. Deck and patio areas off each level allow for many entertaining opportunities.

Wood cabinetry, stainless appliances including double wall Viking ovens, 2 Miele dishwashers (for the serious entertainer) and tile countertop with a new cooktop in the main level kitchen. The large stainless refrigerator is just out of view to the left of the photo. Space is available for an eat-in kitchen and there are bountiful cabinets and pantry spaces. Note the glass case ahead for displaying favorite art pieces. Upper halogen lighting casts a beautiful glow on glass artworks.

The family room adjacent to the kitchen area enjoys the same magical views as the rest of the living areas and provides secondary access to the deck. This is also the area for entry to the 2-car garage. An alternate staircase passes between the garage and the lower level of the home to provide covered parking for each living space, if necessary.

To see the two master bedrooms, 2nd kitchen and other spaces of the home, please visit the slideshow which will have additional details about the house and its amenities.

Proudly offered at $1,410,000

Serious inquiries by pre-approved or qualified buyers only.  NWMLS# 28131238.

No, it’s not as iconic as the song Georgia on my Mind made most famous (in my mind) by Ray Charles, but Wenatchee is now on my mind after being introduced to a great development opportunity by a fellow RE/MAX agent in this eastern WA city.  The land for sale is actually on the East Wenatchee side of the Columbia River but it is the twin city to Wenatchee.  While not as large, there are similarities to this area and Kansas City (KS/MO) where one area of a large metro area is more of the suburban bedroom community to the next door city.

Anyhow, an article written about me in the RE/MAX Times last year introduced me to this agent, Michael Miller, who is newly transplanted to the Wenatchee area.  He and his wife, Lynn, contacted us at Team Reba to see if perhaps we could help them with promoting this opportunity.  So, here I am doing just that.  It’s pretty exciting actually.  There are several ways you can imagine this land getting developed and all of them are going to be beneficial to that area of the state and the local community. If you’re in the market to develop a roughly 40 acre parcel with a mixture of retail/commercial/residential feel free to contact us and we’ll get you more details.  Be warned though - the parcel, if not subdivided into smaller parcels, has a $10Million price tag.

Some of the development opportunities include townhomes, residential, condos, retail space and more.  I’m personally hoping that a green development might come in and do a really cool urban planned development.  The zoning of the area has quite a list of permitted uses, so there are some very interesting opportunities.

You’ll be reading more about it here on this blog as we get more involved in helping co-list and market this opportunity.

Not everyone knows that I’m a big gardening fan but there are times when I’m walking around a client’s home that I can tell they’re surprised by the number of plants that I can identify by sight as we walk around and I’m giving them my staging advice for the exterior of their home.  Yes, staging includes that all important “curb appeal” which will often mean taking a hard look at the aesthetic of the exterior of a home and the surrounding gardens (or lack thereof).

At my last home, the one I just finished closing on the sale of last week, I had done extensive exterior work using a contractor to build a wrap around deck, patio, raised beds, etc.  Not only was this nice for my own personal use, but it was great in the eventual resale of the home because of all the extras that it provided.  In the bedding areas I put in mostly perennials but some of the spaces were also used for organic gardening for our own vegetable food supplies in the spring through fall.  Most of the plant choices were made to be low maintenance as well as drought-tolerant and we had rain barrels installed to catch water runoff from the deck for use in the garden to limit seasonal summer water use.  With food prices and gas prices being what they are today, it is nice to have an onsite garden which helps limit the number of trips to the store for fresh produce and keep our household expenses down.

To keep up on various gardening ideas I frequently read the NWLife section of the Seattle Times, specifically, the gardening section. In the July 2nd edition there was an article on the “native plant of the month” named Sisyrinchium, aka Blue-eyed grass.  I’m looking for ideas for my new home where we have an area that ends up with an occasional water run-off area caused by the topography of the lot and neighborhood.  My thoughts in attempting to limit actual run-off and to help in slowing down the water and helping it to percolate more slowly into the ground is to put in a mini-marsh like garden where water can collect and there will be plants that help the process and that can survive and thrive in that environment.

The blue-eyed grass seems to be one of many that can fit into my little scheme.  Granted, I realize I’m taking on a multi-year process of putting this in place and my first goal is to stake out the spot in our new lot that will become our new vegetable garden, but collecting ideas is part of the fun of gardening.

The best tidbit of info that I gleaned from this article though was the website put together by the Washington Native Plant Society where you can find more information on native plants, including the places where you can buy them.  Growing native plants is a smart move because you’ll have fewer high-maintenance plants to deal with because native plants typically have already figured out how to defend themselves against pests and they usually require less watering than more fussy plants that have been transplanted to our environment.

So, over this holiday weekend, if you’re out gardening - have fun, be safe and “go native!”

Magnolia View Condo

This updated and funky 1 bedroom, 1 bath unit in Magnolia will have you feeling like you’re in Morocco or Thailand instead of Seattle, except for the stunning view from the full length picture window reminding you that you’re surrounded by trees and mountains instead of sand.  Beautiful stainless steel appliance upgrades including a stylishly sculptured kitchen hood.  Durable Marmoleum flooring in the kitchen and a rich stained bamboo floating floor in the dining, living, and bedroom areas. Gorgeous new lighting with antiqued bronze finish and an earthy, yet warm, update to the bathroom including gorgeous tile work in the shower.  Add to all this lovely living  space a dual access deck (with a storage unit) where you can sit and enjoy beautiful sunsets on warm summer evenings - inside you’ll enjoy those same colors of warm oranges, pinks, and reds all year round.  -  Price point is expected to be below $300,000

Located on the east side of Magnolia this condo has easy access to downtown Seattle, Ballard, Fremont, South Lake Union and Queen Anne.  Not to mention proximity to one of Seattle’s great parks - Discovery Park on the bluffs of Magnolia. Nearby eateries include Red Mill Burgers (yum!), Mulleady’s Irish Pub, Chinooks, and more.

Because it’s always been of interest to me anyway and it is also a point of interest for our assistant, Nina, we’ve been tracking information on green building practices for many years.  If you want to take a little diversion over to another site where I blog, you can read about a recent class we attended on Northwest Energy Star building practices.  It’s pretty interesting stuff.

One of the items discussed is a house in Stanwood that was completely rebuilt using “green” building methods.  You can see it online here at www.goinggreenatthebeach.com and you can see it in person on June 1st from 1-4pm when the owners, Dave and Anna Porter hold an open house for the public to showcase the design and owner friendly features.

A client of ours works at the local Almvigs appliance and design center in the Roosevelt area. While they have loads of gorgeous bath and kitchen items to drool over they are also carrying a product I’d like to see more available (and more affordable) in this area…. LED lighting.

These fantastic little, yet hyper-bright, lights are the up and coming favorite for lowering our energy needs in the USA when it comes to lighting a home.  Incandescent lights burn up a lot of energy and even CFL’s, while better, don’t match up to LEDs (light emitting diodes) because of energy needs, limitations on use, and concerns about mercury when being disposed (they should be recycled).  We’ve had LEDs around for years and they are being used in traditionally manufactured commercial products and auto manufacturing for use in car lights.

If you’re a homeowner, renter, or landlord who is trying to lower your electric bills this is one way to start doing that as well as providing a mercury free lighting source.