Have you been having problems with your Comcast cable service lately? I know I have… It looks like Comcast is willing to give a refund for your down time, but you have to call them up. Their customer service number is: 877-824-2288.
Here is an article regarding the issue from the Seattle Times:
The Seattle Times: Local News: Internet snag hits Comcast customers
A Sunset Hill local has decided to run a triathlon (26 miles running, 26 miles biking and 1 mile swimming) in honor of her friend and to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She recently set up a blog where you can learn more about her training and donate to the cause:
GoJeanGo
Paul Rademacher (out of UNC Chapel Hill) has built an awesome tool for searching for homes based on craigslist data. If you are looking for a home, definitely consider checking this resource out (if for no other reason than to see the future of home search!):
Craigslist Home Search on Google Maps
Such easy-to-use applications have the potential to minimize the importance of the MLS (the real estate agent’s lifeblood)… Hmm…
Thanks for bringing this to my attention zlayde!
The community of Ballard is located in northwest Seattle. Ballard is famous for its Nordic roots, Ballard locks and wonderful family-focused neighborhoods.
According to the City of Seattle, Ballard is made up of a group of smaller neighborhoods, including Sunset Hill, Loyal Heights, Whittier Heights, West Woodland and Adams. In practice, Sunset Hill and Loyal Heights are normally broken out as distinct neighborhoods, while the other areas are more commonly called “Ballard”. In addition, real estate agents sometimes lump parts of Crown Hill and Phinny Ridge into Ballard.
Downtown
Downtown Ballard is a wonderful walking district centered on Market St and Ballard Ave. The area is filled with great shops, dining, and lots of resident artists. Much more information on the local scene can be found at:InBallard .
Some local venues of interest include:
Nordic Heritage
Ballard’s nordic heritage shines through in the attitude of the locals (pretty laid-back and family oriented), the historical sites (such as the nordic heritage museum), the Luthern Churches all over town, and the many festivals in the area (such as the Seafoodfest and the annual Norwegian Constitution Day Parade.
Ballard History
Here is a description presented by the Ballard Historical Society:
In Ballard, you’ll find a microcosm of Pacific Northwest history, tradition and architecture. Bordered by Puget Sound, Shilshole Bay and Salmon Bay, Ballard has a rich history filled with maritime connections. Originally home to mill workers, fishermen and boat builders—many of whom emigrated from Scandinavia—Ballard was a separate city until annexed to Seattle in 1907. Today Ballard maintains its character as a small town within a big city, blessed with varied architecture and a notable Historic Landmark District.
Ballard Community
Ballard has a very strong community with lots of local parks, very good schools, a new library (complete May 2005), and an active community center.
Real Estate Information
Most of Ballard was built-out between 1890 and 1940, with a higher percentage of older homes the closer that you get to the canal area. The price of homes in Ballard varies tremendously. While there are still “deals” to be found for around $300K in some parts of Ballard, many homes with a view of the Sound can go for upwards of a million dollars. There is so much that could be said about real estate in Ballard that I’m not going to even attempt it here… If you want to find out more, try my Ballard Info category of listings.
Ballard Blogs
A great way to get a feel for Ballard is through the many people who live here. Conveniently, I’m not the only Ballard native with a blog. Are you a Ballard Blogger who wants to be added to this list? Just let me know! Here are some others:
Other sites with information on Ballard:
At some point I may develop a slew of loan calculators for this site, but there are so many good ones already on the web, that it is low on my priority list of things to add… The free tools available on eTrade Loan Calculators include:
Other loan calculators are available all over the web, although very few of them seem as clean as eTrade. Here are some more you may find helpful:
Do you know of a different and useful calculator? Let me know and I’ll happily add it!
[photopress:new_ballard_library.gif,thumb,alignright]The ballard branch of the Seattle Public Library is getting ready to open! The latest from the library’s website says that it will be open May 12th 14th!
By the way, this does mean that we will be without a local library for a month as the existing site will close on April 10th.
Update: there is quite a celebration planned for this Saturday!
Map:
INSERT_YAHOO_MAP
Do you have a truely remarkable home? I’ve found one of the best ways to bring out the special charactoristics of a home is by bringing in a professional photographer. My favorate photographer to use is Wendy Baker Photography. She does amazing work!
To see some of the work that she can do bringing out architectural details, check out her architecture gallery. Or check out some photos from a listing I recently sold in Sunset Hill.
Are you interested in having a professional photographer of this caliber on your side when you list your home? I offer this service to all my remarkable homes!
I’ve recently added a Ballard Community Calendar to my website. I created this calendar out of frustration with missing many events in Ballard that I was just not well publicized. I would really like to have all the interesting Ballard events in one place. Hence, I decided to build the calendar! It can be found here:
http://raincityguide.com/webcalendar
Would you be interested in adding to and/or updating this calendar? Email me and I’ll set you up with a login and password so that you can update the calendar. Or, if you prefer, just email me the event and I’ll post it on the calendar!
Where did I get the events that are currently listed?
I populatd the calendar with events that I culled from the websites listed below. Are you aware of another website that I should check periodically to see if it has been updated? Leave a comment and I’ll check that site as well!
http://www.ballardchamber.com/events.shtml
http://www.phinneycenter.org/bfc/cal.html
http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/parks/centers/Ballard/activity.htm
http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/centers/Ballard.htm
http://www.ballardhistory.org/events.html
http://www.cmiregistration.com/user/about/index.jxp?id=246&org=122
http://www.artsballard.org/
http://www.ballarddistrictcouncil.org/calendar.html
http://www.nordicmuseum.com/
http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/sunsethill.htm
http://www.walkingwithecw.org/yre.html
http://www.elevated.org/involved/calendar/
http://www.thistletheatre.org/
http://www.ballardll.net/
Slightly more technical
I chose to use WebCalendar for a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons include:
If you have any interest and/or ideas about how to add to the Ballard Community Calendar, then please leave comments or contact me.
When looking to remodel your home you have to be clear about your objectives. Are you doing it for personal reasons? Or to add value to your home? Many home improvements don’t pay for themselves in terms of adding value to your home, while others are no-brainers if you can make the improvements. How do you find out which improvements are appropriate?
If you are making the improvement to add value there are definitely some resources that I can help point out. The National Association of Realtors posted an article that explicitly listed the pay-off for various home improvements. However, they don’t publish that information on the web, so if you would like to have specific improvements (like how much value can I add with a new fireplace?), then email me. I have a number of resources. If you are looking for general information, the Seattle Times posts articles occasionally that give overview statistics.
This article mentioned that the “Best Investment Bets” were:
Why do many home-improvement investments not pay for themselves? Mainly it has to do with people’s expectations. If you are adding or fixing something that people expect to be there, then it won’t add much value to your home. For example, people expect that the plumbing system works. If you have to pay $5,000 to fix the plumbing, you just aren’t likely to recoup that money through a higher home price. Same thing with a new roof.
For people interested in the Sunset Hill market, I’ve just posted the March edition of my newsletter here:
March 2005 Newsletter. Note that this file is quite large (about 1 Mb), so if you have a dial-up connection, it will work best if you “right-click” on the link and use the “save link as” feature to save it directly to your hard-drive.
In addition to listing the sale prices for various homes within the neighborhood, I always try to give some good tips and/or advice on the local real estate market. If you would like to receive a hard-copy of my monthly newsletter (or simply an email notification when a new version is available for downloading), just let me know by emailing me.