Before the curtains close on 2013, let's take one last look at everything that we loved about a year that saw a whole lot of things change in and around Seattle. Here are Seattle's ten most popular posts of 2013.
10. Here's The 'Seattle For Beginners' Map That Puts Us In Our Place - This map made the rounds on Facebook and caught our attention. It was a pretty stark, brutally-honest breakdown of who lives where and what defines them. Plenty of folks agreed and disagreed with it.
9. This Week In Strange, Weird & Terrible Seattle Real Estate Listing Photos (June 7) - This is our favorite post to write each week. This one apparently caught your attention more than the rest, probably because of all the weird & creepy stuff going on in those mirrors…
8. Snohomish Tiny Tack House Packs A Lot Into 140 Square Feet - Western Washington loves its tiny homes and they don't get much tinier than this 140 sq. ft. one. Even more amazing is that it's a two-level house!
7. Climber Posts Pics Atop CenturyLink Field, Space Needle, Seattle Great Wheel - A mystery climber posted pics of himself sitting on the roof of CenturyLink Field, the Space Needle, the King Street Station clock and the Great Wheel, sending Seattle into a tizzy and wondering how the heck he did it.
6. Check Out Paul Allen's Mercer Island Mansions, Private Island - During Whale Week, we profiled the many homes and properties of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Incidentally, Allen just sold that private island, though not for nearly as much as he was asking.
5. Fifty Shades of Grey Penthouse Sells For $6.2M - In the books, Christian Grey lives in the penthouse of the Escala tower at 1920 4th Avenue. That unit sold earlier in the year, prompting a whole lot of women to gaze at the digs, which may or may not have lived up to their imagination. It was certainly lacking in the bondage department…
4. Ballard Company Turning Shipping Containers Into Homes - We love the idea of weird places to live and what's weirder than living inside a shipping container? Of course, ShelterKraft Werks churns out some pretty cool and livable shipping container abodes.
3. Seattle Magazine Names 15 Best Neighborhoods In Seattle - Seattle loves the never-ending battle to determine whether or not my neighborhood is better than your neighborhood. The 15 hoods in question? Ballard, Burien, Greenwood/Phinney, Queen Anne, Georgetown, Capitol Hill, Kirkland, Columbia City, Ravenna, West Seattle, Wallingford, West Bellevue, South Lake Union, Edmonds and Madrona.
2. 15 More Crazy Stats About Bill Gates' Medina Mansion - Our first post about Bill Gates's mansion was so popular (we'll get to it in a minute), we had to write another one. Our favorite stat? The estate's sand on the lake bank is not natural to Lake Washington. It is actually delivered via barge annually from a tropical beach in St. Lucia.
1. 15 Crazy Stats About Bill Gates' Medina Mansion - On average, this post has been among the site's top two most-popular at any given moment ever since we wrote it in January. Folks cannot get enough of the sensors that guests receive to control music, temperature and more. Or the 2,300 square-foot reception hall can seat 150 people. Or the 23-car garage. And everything else that makes this one of the most impressive homes in America.