West Seattle Jonathan » Alaska Junction

Crane Progress on Alaska between 41st and 42nd

jonathan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 22:47:08 +0000

I have the luxury of living next to West Seattle’s Big Dig. Here are some pictures of the crane going up. They started at the ripe hour of 5am this morning. I will lead off with a shot taken in the middle of the assembly just cause it is my favorite:

Notice the other crane in the background? That is for the Mural building being built on the former Petco parking lot. The amount of building in West Seattle is just amazing. I think that it is going to be great for the local businesses, as long as they are able to hold out against rising rents.

Furniture in tight quarters

jonathan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 15:34:15 +0000

Moving into a town home in Seattle can be challenging. Tight corners and stairwells coupled with a three or four story layout. As the density of our city increases, the number of town homes will inevitably increase, for several reasons to be discussed later. My wife and I live in a 1200sqft town home in the Alaska Junction neighborhood in West Seattle. It is by far one of the coolest areas in Seattle. We walk to everything. Some of the cities best restaurants and cafe’s are within just a couple of blocks.

However getting furniture into our home was a challenge and is for most town home owners. We bought a 9ft long sofa, it is soft and fuffy, but it wont fit through our stair well. For about a year we converted our first floor bedroom into a “TV” room and avoided moving it into our “living” room on the second floor. Recently we are expecting our first child and need to move our “office” from a third floor bedroom down to the first floor. How to get the huge sofa up stairs to make room for the office?

Being an avid rock climber and mountaineer, ropes and rigging are my thing. Check out this great system to get a couch to the middle floor in a typical West Seattle town home. A little hoist and pull using a three to one pulley system and after removing the second story balcony.

We even have a little video of the final stages:

West Seattle Junction Plaza Park

jonathan — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:05:17 +0000

Located in West Seattle on SW Alaska just west of 42nd next to the Alaska House, this park was planned for development in 2005. With 200,000 for acquisition costs with a projected construction start of Summer 2007, we are a little behind schedule in the Alaska Junction. Up until just recently this has just been a fenced off area, near the Alaska Junction. They have spread the grass seed and now we are watching it grow. With 2008 rapidly approaching I doubt we will see it finished this year, and by the looks of the design it wont be finished for quite a while.

Here is what it currently looks like:

I have to say that even this sparsely planted grass and yellow tape, it is better that the chain-link fenced gravel field that it used to be. The West Seattle Junction will be a better place when this project is finished.

Jonathan Martin
GuideToSeattleRealEstate.com