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Best Places to Live: Bellevue
A growing tech hub across the lake.
Long known as a quiet, bedroom community to Seattle, Bellevue has emerged as one of the region’s social and economic power hubs. Boasting a diverse population and some of the state’s top-ranked schools, this Eastside city has experienced continued growth in recent years, with families and young professionals topping out its ranks of new residents….

Best Places to Live: Gig Harbor
For a quiet retirement—or just a slower pace.
In the south sound, gig harbor lures people with the promise of tranquility, space, and some of the most striking views in the region. The city’s picturesque history stretches back to the 1840s—it was named after the small captain’s gig in which the Wilkes Expedition first arrived—and it has evolved into a scenic community known…

Best Places to Live: Normandy Park
A place apart —but still close to everything.
Normandy Park is a place people choose deliberately. First laid out in 1929 as a suburb, the area grew after the city incorporated in 1953, but it was still home to fewer than 2,000 residents. Much of the land had previously been logged or farmed, and even as Seattle expanded nearby, Normandy Park took shape…

Best Places to Live: Black Diamond
Where to live if you want more space (and love the outdoors).
Black Diamond has always felt like a town apart—not just in distance from Seattle (39 miles), Renton (18 miles), and Bellevue (28 miles), but in pace and personality. Located in southeastern King County, the former coal mining hotspot dates back to the late 19th century, taking its name from the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company….

Best Places to Live: Woodinville
A close-knit, family-friendly community.
Say Woodinville, and the first thing most people think of is wine, but with a growing arts scene, independent agricultural ventures, and top-notch hospitality holdings, this formerly sleepy suburb is stepping up to become a coveted destination for buying a home. “It still feels like a true community, where people know each other and local…

Best Places to Live: Everett
For those looking to get in on the ground level.
Less than 30 miles north of Seattle, Everett was built from working-class roots, with industries such as logging, lumber, and aerospace manufacturing at its core. In recent years, the city has enticed an increasingly younger crowd attracted by housing affordability and job opportunities. “We’re seeing mostly working-age talent in their late 20s to early 40s…

Whale Of A Remodel
The transformation of an Orcas Island home takes advantage of remarkable views
For many years, Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders entertained his Orcas Island neighbors with breathtaking acrobatics in his vintage airplane. Anders and his wife, Valerie, had purchased a five-acre compound on the isolated western edge of the island for its mesmerizing view, a subject he knew something about. As a member of the first human…

Underground Overhaul
Going low solves couple's woes
The Seattle underground is alive and well and living in Montlake, a close-knit community in more ways than one. Dense suburban charm is what lures many families to Montlake. Dense suburban charm is also what forces many families to leave Montlake. “The lots here are very small, with setback and height restrictions,” says architectural designer…

Where Function Meets Finesse
Without the use of a single brick, Little House turns the tables on the Big Bad Wolf.
Texas residents John and Julie Connor had spent many summers visiting family near Seabeck, an unincorporated waterfront village and former mill town in Kitsap County. They loved the wildness of the southern Hood Canal and imagined a small retreat here of their own, so they purchased a large lot with lush second-growth trees on a…

Master of Transparency
Award-winning architect Eric Cobb’s work seamlessly meshes glass, space and light
Noted architect Eric Cobb is collaborating on a second-home project near The Gorge Amphitheatre with a former junior high school soccer teammate, embodying a classic Seattle story of connection. The new Cliffe Pointe at the Gorge project located within the Cave B Estate grounds features 60 second homes surrounded by vineyards, natural sage, and rolling…

Sandy Sanctuary
Mercer Island couple find bliss with a cabana on the beach
With 8,000 lakes, fifth most in the country, Washington is a happy hunting ground for waterfront lots. Highly popular Lake Chelan, the third-deepest lake in the United States, is not on the top of the list of affordable freshwater options, at least not anywhere near Chelan, where scarce waterfront residential lots start at $2 million….

Prairie Townhome Companions
Couple remakes Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired property
Place two architects, a hedgehog, and more than $100,000 under house arrest, and watch the magic unfold. Sandy Wolf founded Seattle’s Office of Ordinary Architecture in the belief that beauty is found in everyday objects. She and her husband — fellow architect Daniel Ash — were not disappointed in that regard in their long search…
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