Sadly the listing has only the one photo, so we don’t get to see what this patriot’s home looks like inside.
However, we do get to see what the patriot selling this home looks like, thanks to a local news article published in 2008: Everett man’s face a portrait of patriotism
That’s not face paint.
That is a tattoo.
From the Everett Herald article:
He wants people to read the words inked into his skin and think about them, a walking testament to free speech. They are saturated with a love for his adopted country that he has carried for decades.
At Bloomfield’s house, it’s always the Fourth of July.
He grew up poor in an island hut on Tonga, where they see the sunrise before the rest of the world. He stowed away on a boat from American Samoa to California, and later got his green card in 1976.
He was drawn by stories of opportunity and images of money as abundant as suburban grass clippings.
But it takes hard work to live here, he says, and that’s a lesson he shares with his children and grandchildren. He spends his days cutting and packaging crab and salmon at a seafood warehouse.
He pumps iron every other day, his 58-year-old body a carefully maintained canvas filled with provocative words, phrases and pictures.
I wonder why he’s selling?
I do think they’re missing a golden opportunity here by not pricing this thing at $177,600.
I have to wonder how the neighbors feel about his patriotic ardor. See, there was a house I drove past semi-regularly when I still lived in the KC area. It was just across the street from a shopping mall. The mall’s construction so outraged the resident that he had his split-level sided in horizontal rows of pastel yellow, blue, and pink. It stayed that way for years, despite the equal outrage of his residential neighbors. Many, many years later someone finally gave it a more normal exterior.
Maybe the level of displeasure depends on the area, on the economic and educational levels. I can’t see this flying in most upper-middle class neighborhoods, though it might in some place like Beverly Hills. There are more than enough eccentrics to go around in high-end SoCal. The neighborhood featured here seems decidedly modest, so perhaps those who see the house daily are OK with it.
It would indeed be interesting to go inside. Since we can’t, I’d settle for maybe checking back in the future to see if new owners choose to change the exterior. Um, the front exterior, that is. Apparently Mr. Bloomfield’s love of America doesn’t extend to the back of the house or, hopefully, of his body.
Is it just me or does Everett pop up here with alarming regularity? When I lived in Seattle, I thought of Everett as a bland ‘burb. I had no idea it was such a hotbed of eccentricity.
@MsWildhack: I believe Marty’s based in Seattle, hence the relatively high number of Seattle and nearby listings.
@Emerald63: Everett, even. ;^)
I see. So has the weirdness factor increased in Everett over the last 13 years or was it always this way?
Okay, so I want to see the place at night with the lights strung out in the front yard all lit up.
I also found a couple more photos, of Sam at least.
Love that there is 1 picture..it’s listed as a HOT HOME on Redfin. Eeek!
@Frodo: ‘Kay… cross-dressing is a thing, a thing that’s been around for millennia, so… um… OK, then. That’s his thing.
But a tongue tattoo? Is that weirder or less weird than an eyeball tattoo, which is also a thing? And that tattoo in particular, on the tongue??
I guess it’s a damn good thing this guy is friendly.