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Seattle Summers: Golden Gardens Park
June 30, 2017 /While on a recent visit to Seattle, my partner and I hit the Washington weather jackpot for June: 65-degree mornings and 85 degree afternoons, without a single cloud in the sky. We decided to grab Thai food and head to Golden Gardens, which is a beachfront park located in northern Ballard. “Hooray, beach day!” I said as we drove to the park. “Well,” my partner replied, with that tone he often takes when he is about to be clever. “Beach day.” He pantomimed air quotes around “beach,” implying that Seattle beaches are not real beaches. My partner is from Colorado (which, let me just point out, has zero beaches), and he grew up frequently visiting family in Hawaii, enjoying pristine white sand beaches and warm waters. I love him dearly, but he is a tiny bit of a beach snob. “What are you saying?” I asked. “I mean, is it even a real beach if it’s all rocky and doesn’t have any sand?” I told him that he’d better change his attitude or I would eat all of the spring rolls and his pad thai (which I am totally capable of doing). While driving to the park, we were able…Read more
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Neighborhood Profile: Beacon Hill
June 28, 2017 /It’s a tough decision: should you live downtown amid the constant bustle of the deliciously funky urban organism that is Seattle? Or, should you live in a quieter neighborhood with better parking and perhaps slightly cheaper housing prices? Luckily, with Beacon Hill, you can enjoy the best of both worlds. The Basics Located south of downtown, between I-5 and Rainier Valley, the up-and-coming Beacon Hill is one of Seattle’s oldest neighborhoods. This large area is known for its relatively affordable housing and its convenient location—residents enjoy easy access to downtown Seattle without having to navigate the freeways (which we all know are not, ahem, Seattle’s best feature). Homes in the northern part of Beacon Hill were mostly built in the early 1900s, and so this area contains many lovely Craftsman bungalows and Seattle box houses. The hill also offers views of downtown, Elliott Bay, Rainier Valley, Mount Rainier, and the Olympic Mountains. Neighborhood Vibe Depending on where you are in the neighborhood, Beacon Hill can be both bustling and quiet. Currently, as well as historically, the neighborhood is home to a diverse population of working-class families. Completed just a few years ago, Beacon Hill’s light rail station has reenergized the…Read more
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Landmarks of Washington State: Mount Rainier
June 16, 2017 /Many of you have been reading Ian Clark’s blog posts for Pickett Street over the past couple of years. Since Ian is now moving on to a PhD program, he kindly passed the blog writing torch to me, his older (and, let’s be honest, wiser) sister. So, if you’re curious as to what it was really like growing up in the Clark household, I can fill you in. Anyway. Like Ian, I grew up in Washington State. Though I now live in the hippy haven of Boulder, Colorado, I look forward to the day when I can move back to the Pacific Northwest, where my heart and my family reside. To start off on a fun, perhaps sentimental note, I’d like to discuss one of my favorite spots in Washington, and, in my humble opinion, what is one of the best mountains in the entire world: Mount Rainier. Don’t get me wrong—Colorado’s Rocky Mountains are truly incredible. However, there’s something special about Mount Rainier. Maybe it’s the fact that, with the surrounding landscape at sea level, the peak with its 14,410 feet dramatically rises out of the clouds like a storybook mountain. I first heard about this mountain when my…Read more
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On Moving, Part 2
June 8, 2017 /Growing up in Washington State, I was convinced my mother and stepfather were ascetic monks disguised as law-abiding citizens. Everything about our house in the woods—its dirt driveway and wood-fired stove, the rickety doors that were forever creaking and driving us all mad—suggested an extension of pioneer society, a devotion to hard work and self-denial accompanied by a general mistrust of modern comforts. My family didn’t seriously invest in electric heating until after I left for college (during winter, I was forever walking around like the little brother in A Christmas Story, wearing roughly 20 sweaters and weeping about not being able to put my arms down), and our shower usually had only 30 seconds of hot water per day. My mother was forever banging on the bathroom door, ordering us to get out of the shower and stop wasting precious natural resources. This lifestyle became especially troublesome once I entered high school. Living in a largely affluent small town, most of my friends enjoyed accordingly cushy lifestyles: palatial homes, unlimited heat, fancy refrigerators that dispensed pompous quantities of ice and filtered water. Such modern conveniences seemed impossibly luxurious to my untutored experience, more akin to the advanced technologies of science…Read more
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Do You Love to Rent?
June 2, 2017 /Three Things to Know Before Agreeing to a Mortgage Because moving and buying a home can be time-consuming and stressful, it can be tempting to rush into a mortgage to get the process over with as quickly as possible. However, a mortgage is an important commitment, and there are a couple key concepts you should understand before signing the dotted line. Luckily, you don’t need to be a mortgage lender to understand your contract, and the most important mortgage concepts are relatively simple once you grasp the basics. Below, we cover the basics of interest rates, adjustable rate mortgages vs. fixed rate mortgages, and points to give you a better idea what to expect when you prepare to agree to your first mortgage. What’s My Interest Rate? Saying your mortgage’s interest rate is pretty important is an understatement, as the interest rate you agree to can dramatically affect the final price tag of your home. It’s surprising, then, that roughly 30% of the country’s homeowners have admitted to not knowing what their interest rate is. Even a slight difference in interest rate levels--say, 4% rather than 4.5%--can save you hundreds of dollars a year and thousands of dollars over your…Read more
