Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Thanksgiving 2016

This year my girls are going to spend Thankgiving with me and Connie wants to go to Everett to cousin Mikes

Crista and her family have other plans.

I asked Jess to pick up Grandma and Kelsey and bring them over. I will meet on the Seattle side

Jess picked everyone up and got on the ferry.   The traffic was the worst I've seen in years and the weather was dreadful.   We cautiously drove to Everett

It was a great visit,  Jessica got to meet baby Colton for the first time!

We had a good time.   On the way home the weather was still dreadful but the traffic was light.   We got to the ferry dock in Seattle but  there was no boat for some time.   Jess made the decision to drive around.   She drove all day!   Grandma was very happy to have been chauffeured to and from Thanksgiving dinner.    We won't do this next year though!

Monday, January 9, 2017

End of our Alki living - Nov 2016

In August 2016,  we received a letter from the landlord stating he was considering selling his place down the street and moving back in to his condo.   He said he may change his mind but strongly leaning towards moving back to his condo.

Panic.  We had planned on living here forever!   I  emailed him, offered him $400 more a month for rent or  would he be interested in selling?   No, was the answer.  

So we started looking.   We had till early 2017, but we didn't want to wait for the last minute.

The first place we looked at was an apartment on California,  a few blocks North of Alaska ave.   It was expensive . It was a run down piece of garbage.   Deflated.   Will we end up in Burien?   We really want  to stay closer to downtown.

We checked out a place on the beach next.  It looked new, but we found that it was a partial add on to a very old building.  The place was a run down piece of garbage.

Next we found a nice, newer place in the Admiral junction.  It was nice ,except for a big building with an elevator which I really don't like .   The landlords were super cool.    The place faced North and was a middle unit.   We just couldn't pull the trigger on it.    If we ever decide to buy, I'd love to work with this guy.

We found a place right by Lincoln Park.   it was huge,  It was an old building on the West slope.   It was a ground floor unit.  The place was big.   but , it was half under ground.   It had everything we wanted,  it was right next door to Lincoln park and a block from beach.   It had the only laundry room in the building, everyone else had a shared laundry.  

We really had to think about it.  In the end, we decided to pass.  It was kind of a split decision.

I found a place in the AK Junction,  Off Fauntleroy.   Location seemed good. I went to check it out.  It was a three unit town house style building   Three side by side units,  two stories.   The current resident let me in.    The two other units faced West, but this one faced South.   It had it's own entrance on the south.  Lots of south facing windows.   It was built in the late 90's.   Hmm   This might work.

We rented it and moved in Nov 1.   What we have found that, it hasn't been taken care of very well.   We buddied up with the maintenance guy and he has been fixing stuff for us.

The biggest issue here is noise.   2 months later, still an issue.     I was feeling some despair about it when on our door one day was a notice about upcoming work on Fauntleroy,  coinciding with the rezone.   Hope!

The plan is to add a tree lined median,   dedicated bike lanes,   more sidewalks and crosswalks.  more traffic lights.  It's a "boulevard" project.    It will slow traffic down and should make it  a bit quieter.

The rezone changes our neighborhood which today is mostly single occupancy,  to  low rise 4 units.  As we saw in Alki,  most every single occupancy house will be leveled and a boxy quadraplex will rise.

While I am not in love with this new neighborhood, I am very excited to watch it change over the next few years.   Who knows, it may change into the neighborhood we want!