South Seattle: Sweat the Small Stuff

On the upside, this place is spruced up for sale. On the downside I think some details were overlooked in the process. For future owners that could promise a short fix-it list or merit concern that the fundamentals weren’t all that great to start with.

Despite new appliances the kitchen felt a little rough to me, due in large part to some unfinished edges on the cabinetry and in smaller part due to my immediate desire to slap an island in the middle of it. I also spotted a lot of peeling and cracking caulk in the kitchen and in the ground floor bathroom.

Upstairs you’ll find two good-sized bedrooms with cathedral ceilings, and a large bathroom. The bedrooms have substantial closets, in fact this house is long on storage, but I would like to see their carpets receive a thorough cleaning. Gleaming hardwoods on the upstairs thoroughfare and the ground floor only emphasized the need for the rugs to be shampooed. I liked the modern marquetry detail in the wood floors, though. In my opinion there were a lot of scuffs on the painted walls and woodwork, but in all likelihood the next owner will paint in their preferred palette so maybe that was a wise labor-saving plan.

Rather than a backyard abutting the alley, there’s a two-car garage, a hot tub and a sunny deck with a large air conditioning unit on it. The only greenery is the front lawn, which is well protected by a rather foreboding black metal fence. Since this residence is on a fairly nice block in Mt Baker, I’m not totally sure the fortressing is necessary, but maybe it’s for keeping things in rather than out.

It was obvious to me when I visited that someone had put time and effort into readying this home for sale. But in these days of extraordinary staging, and knowing that new bathrooms and kitchens pay for themselves and then some in resale, I think it would have been prudent to put a little more TLC into this house before it hit the market.

Price: $589,950
Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Sq. Ft.*: 1,910
Lot Sq. Ft.*: 4,080
$/Sq. Ft.*: $309
* Information from sources deemed reliable but not guaranteed.