Seattle has buses. (Really, they're throughout King County, and reach into the neighboring counties, too.) Use them! In which case you might as well find a place to live along a line. One line at a time. Here's the next one, selected at random for the fun of it.
Far out - or at least it can feel that way. Within less than an hour, Route 114 can take you from rural to urban, from Lake Kathleen to downtown Seattle, from acreage to busyness. You also get a tour of Maplewood, the Renton Highlands, Newcastle, Newport Hills - so you have some choices in case you don't want all that extra space.
↑ Now, that's a big deck. You might as well build big when you have 1.234 acres to play with. There's a lot of playing to do, too; because this 4 bedroom, 4 bath house is in the Lake Kathleen community, which gives you beach rights to a bit of fresh water few people know about. They're asking $649,950 for the 4,180 square foot house that has two master suites. Maybe that makes it about $325,000 per suite, if you want to think in terms of renting the extra space. In any case, there's enough room for the RV, a firepit, and lots of yard work. Enjoy that.
↑ Spend $200,000 less than the first house, $429,000, and get almost the same amount of land, 1.08 acres, almost the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms, 3 and 3; but a lot smaller house, 1,400 square feet. The benefit is less to clean and heat. It is a 1960 rambler (rambler describes the house, not a car) which sits on fairly level property with fairly low maintenance landscaping, except for the mowing of course. The garage is detached, which means projects can happen with annoying whoever's in the house. All that extra flat land also means the projects can grow, just in case you wanted to build something a bit bigger, like a garden big enough to feed a few families.
↑ This 1946 classically simple rambler is either a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, in which case the 1,020 square feet suggests very large rooms; or it is a 3 bedroom 2 bath, in which case the 1,020 square feet suggests much smaller rooms. In either case, the price is the same, $364,000. The house sits on 0.93 acres, and it too has a detached garage. Walking from the car to the house in the rain must have been in style for a while. There's more ornamentation put into the deck and the porch than the lines of the house, but that also gives it an understated appeal to some, or is in need of some embellishments for others.
↑ They proclaim it to be a very large carport, but the chainlink fence and gate suggest it could also be a very large dog kennel for dogs that can't jump. It's attached to a 2, bedroom, 1 bath, 850 square foot house that has an asking price below a quarter million, $249,950. You spend less and also get less because the lot is smaller, 8,250 square feet, which is still larger than many city lots. The property is also fully fenced; so, if that's a dog kennel, there's also an opportunity for a dog to run, and run, and run. Watching that exuberance must be worth something.
↑ A house on 1.82 acres for $179,750 can sound like a listing from 1986, not 2016. There are some caveats. Yes, it is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, with 924 square feet; but the listing suggests either repairing or removing, a couple of options that display an honesty that suggests more of a story. The property has been on the market for most of a year and was originally listed at $245,500. It was probably rolled to the site in 1978, because it looks like a manufactured/mobile home; and it may be time for it to be mobile again. Of course, moving out one house and moving another into its place can actually be trendy if you move in one of the new tiny houses. Check the local regulations, and check with the neighbors - and check out its story.
· Route 114 [Metro]
· All Bus Tours coverage [CS]
Written by Tom Trimbath