Every Day the Same Sky

725 Olympic Blvd., Everett, WA 98203

What really cracks me up about the primary listing photo for this home is that the agent took the time to photoshop in a blue sky (as evidenced by the glowing edges of the trees) but didn’t bother to do anything about the overwhelming expanse of brown, dead front lawn.

I mean, if you’re going to market your listing with deceptive photos, why not go all the way?

725 Olympic Blvd., Everett, WA 98203

Same story in the back… hey wait a minute, that’s the same exact sky.

725 Olympic Blvd., Everett, WA 98203

And from another angle? Yet again, the same sky.

725 Olympic Blvd., Everett, WA 98203

More glowing trees.

725 Olympic Blvd., Everett, WA 98203

Even the park a few blocks down the street has the same sky. Incredible!

I think the listing agent should have just stuck with the classic Czech Sky. At least then they would have fit in.

About the Author

Marty E.
Naked Loon Editor-in-Chief

6 Comments on "Every Day the Same Sky"

  1. Emerald63 | July 10, 2015 at 5:12 PM |

    A nice looking small home, but with multiple listing issues. “Awaken to the sound of sea lions barking” is not the best opening and should’ve been left out. Barking dogs would never have been mentioned. Also, though google maps shows a pleasant real life situation, the concept of being “sandwiched between” two of anything, even nice parks, has an unappetizing (you’ll forgive me) ring to it, like being jammed between two unpleasant fellow travelers when flying coach. Also mentioned are “beach improvements.” There’s mucho room for them – one of the most beautiful coasts in the world and the Powers That Be chose to line it for several miles with… railroad tracks. Another crime against prime real estate, the only natural drawback of which in this case is frequently overcast skies. The last couple pics show why they bothered to photoshop in blue around the house. Too bad they didn’t green up the lawn, too. And please… someone finish out that garage interior. Until then, either don’t include any photos of it or use just one.

    The home, while currently decent, would benefit from some upgrades. Photos show the main living area is unnecessarily chopped up. A solid wall separates the claustrophobic entry from the dining area (both spaces are to the left of the living room when facing the fireplace). I’d remove that wall or make it a half wall. The small wing walls between living and dining could be removed or replaced by columns if structurally needed. The walls to the right of the FP might go as well, depending on how the bedrooms are laid out along the current hallway. These removals would open up the living space, creating the illusion of a lot more room. Ditch the carpet for the hardwood floors and either remove or paint over the tired paneling. Unless a sleek modern look is the desired result, that fireplace needs some sort of mantelpiece, even a minimal one. (BTW, does it look to anyone else like the living room floor is sloping down slightly to the left when facing the fireplace?)

    Moving on, that’s a great kitchen, but I’d change out the carpet for something more easily cleaned. The bedrooms are small; enlarging the windows to full length would help, though it would be expensive. The backyard has lots of potential, first by simply watering it, but also from adding improvements. Hopefully dry conditions aren’t what made the owners remove a mature tree in the front yard. You can see it in the street view, as well as the remaining stump in the first photo above.

    ReplyReply
  2. Looking at the street view, my thought is that the agent was trying to erase the fact that it has power lines all over the view above. The photo for the front of the house was off-centered enough to miss the pole. Although, they weren’t too careful. They erased the power lines in the front yard from the photo of the back yard, but missed erasing the pole, probably because it looks like it’s something attached to the top of the chimney.

    I’m with Em – get rid of the pink carpets. I can’t tell if that’s carpet in the kitchen/dining area, or if it’s just ugly linoleum or laminate with a fine speckled pattern.

    Also, for those cold winters, it would be a good thing to finish out the garage with insulation given that the laundry is out there as well as the water heater.

    That’s some really brown grass. There needs to be color correction, but I doubt that you’d be able to correct the brown enough to look very green. It is what it is. I’m not a big fan of watering the lawn if you can get by without it. I don’t water mine and I’ve got a healthy well.

    ReplyReply
  3. @Frodo: I noticed the oddly placed power lines in the street view, too. The pole for this house is pretty much in the middle of the front yard. Not just in the middle of the frontage, but set back into the yard itself. Who does that? It must be even odder looking, sitting out there by itself, now that the giant tree is gone.

    Another oddity, there’s also a pole in the driveway of the house just to the north. (The driveway is on the far side of the property from the featured listing.) It seems from the gravel indentations that there is technically enough room to drive past it, but why should you have to squeeze in, maybe even damage your car or, arguably worse, take down the pole and power lines? Why didn’t they move the pole over a foot or two to the very edge of the alloted driveway width?

    I’m 99% sure that’s carpeting in the kitchen/breakfast room. You can see a bad stain just in front of the cooktop in Pic 4. I’ve never seen that bad a stain on linoleum. I was really surprised they didn’t put a doormat sized decorative rug over it for the listing.

    About the brown grass, which you can also see at the local park and overlooking the coastline in the street view, I just thought of something… this is Everett, WA. Washington, as in overcast, damp, rainy Washington. So… where’s all this brown grass coming from? Is it actually diseased? Or has the California drought gone much father north than I realized? The concepts of “brown” and “Pacific Northwest” simply do not go together.

    ReplyReply
  4. MsWildhack | August 6, 2015 at 7:18 PM |

    Two things about the brown grass:

    1. Yes, the PNW (entire West Coast, actually) is in the midst of drought. The Puget Sound area is currently experiencing from “severe” to “extreme” drought conditions.

    2. As I recall, the type of grass that is used for lawns in the Seattle area, at least. seems to go brown fairly quickly. It doesn’t die, it just goes brown and dormant much quicker than bluegrass does.

    ReplyReply
  5. @MsWildhack: I wondered about the grass species. It may be zoysia grass, which does go dormant during drought. I remember learning about it when we first moved from the Chicago area, where no one was growing it (early ’70s) to the KC suburbs, where a goodly proportion of the yards in our area had it. The whole family thought it looked awful, but the real estate guy explained that it wasn’t dead, only dormant, and would come back on its own once it rained. The lush, long stem Kentucky blue grass lawns, on the other hand, would die for good if not watered. And when there are water restrictions that’s exactly what happens.

    ReplyReply
  6. I guess in my lifetime there’s never been a serious enough drought to kill off the bluegrass here in my town — my folks have never had to re-sod their lawn since before I was born. And that was a long time ago. :-)

    ReplyReply

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*