Best Reason In Seattle To Stop Owning and Start Renting

I’d sell my beloved bungalow in an instant if I had the connections and cash to afford this fabulous apartment in the Smith Tower.

What makes me drool is that it’s unique. Not just in location, but in architecture. Ever since I began sketching houses when I was 10, I always wanted something that was different from everybody else’s. At the time, that meant dreaming about anything except the vanilla tract home where I was living. A loft space in an old meat-packing plant, for instance. (Yes, Miss Anti-Manners, I am old enough to remember when Tribeca was a slum.)

Today, that means lusting after the top floor of what was once the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Or, as I wrote in my bio, the U-District Carnegie library. But both are out of my reach, so I keep remodeling my 1920 bungalow, making it a reflection of my taste and style. It’s not unique, but it is individualistic.

Come to think about it, that ability to leave my personal stamp on a house is still the best reason I know to own instead of rent.