South Seattle: A 36 Acre Backyard

Having spent a few formative years growing up in woodland suburbia, I’m cursed with lingering privacy issues. I love city living, but I also want the freedom to unabashedly wear sweat pants in my backyard. However, I’ve successfully fought the urge to toss up a privacy fence, and I’ve grown to enjoy grinning and waving at all the passersby from my deck. Still, underneath it all, I’m planning my hedge and it will be glorious.

This brings me to this tidy 1948 cottage in Upper Rainier Beach. The house itself has seen some recent repair and updating, with a mother-in-law area put in downstairs. The rooms are nicely sized, although the kitchen seems like a walk-in closet with appliances and wood-patterned linoleum. In the basement are two rooms and an economy-sized kitchenette and bathroom, with a separate entry. Whether the space downstairs is used as an apartment or not, there is a fair amount of space in this house and it would be a worthy goal to optimize the layout.

The real bonus to living in this spot is a largely unknown greenbelt called Lakeridge Park that adjoins the backyard property line.

It’s a big, dense ravine filled with trails, native plants, and flowering shrubs. You’re in Seattle in the front of the house, but in the back, it feels like Carnation. For dog walkers and explorers, there’s a nice canyon trail along a stream, accessible from Holyoke Way, about a quarter mile away from this property. Otherwise, you could enjoy a cup of tea on the deck, listen to the birds and not worry about making small talk with the mailman for the 20th time.

The Features: Price: $419,000. Last sold in 1999 for $167,000. 2,090 square feet. 4 bedrooms, 1.75 baths.