LIKE ANY CONSCIENTIOUS SEATTLEITE, you wrap your arms around environmentalism like it’s an old-growth tree in the Forest of Best Intentions. You dig aluminum cans out of dumpsters, you send company-wide emails bemoaning your coworkers’ excessive printing practices, you even shower every other day just to conserve water. But, oh Champion of All That Is Green and Good, have you ever recycled a house?
Don’t beat yourself up if the answer is no—it’s not really as easy as sorting your plastic bottles into a blue bin. In fact, it involves lifting the house from its foundation, jacking it up and putting it on wheels, attaching the whole contraption to a tractor trailer, and carting it to its new lot. Oh, and you have to take down the occasional power line along the way, and dig a hole and pour a new foundation, and…
It’s a lot of work in the name of eco-domesticity, but given the fact that nearly 465,000 tons of construction and demolition waste generated in King County in 2007 ended up in landfills, it might be worth it. With each house that gets recycled, says Jeff McCord of Nickel Bros. House Moving, “you’re saving about 40 to 60 tons of waste from going into a landfill.”
And the idea may be catching on. The 53-year-old company—which hunts down well-built older homes in danger of being torn down, finds them new owners, and delivers them (“We’re like the adoption agency for houses,” McCord says)—watched its number of house moves double in the Puget Sound region last year and expects it to double again this year.
“There’s definitely a much greater awareness of the concept of house moving as a creative way of keeping things out of the landfills,” McCord says. Not only that, you can typically buy the house for a buck because you’re saving the previous owner as much as $18,000 in demo costs. Talk about building green.
Second Home
WESTPORT
$395,000
You’ve heard about urban renewal, but what about rural renewal? After fishing restrictions stripped Westport of its “salmon capital of the world” title in the ’80s, this small town on Washington’s coast fell into a fiscal funk and watched beach lovers flock to its Grays Harbor neighbor, Ocean Shores. But now that construction is under way on the massive Half Moon Bay resort, set to include a championship Scottish links–style golf course, people are coming back. And right in the middle of all the beachfront buzz is the Point at Westport Harbor, a 26-unit condo complex on the marina, within walking distance of shopping, dining, and all the fish they’ll let you catch.
Listed by Mike Coverdale, Windermere Real Estate
Green Homes
Green Homes
Buying Power
Okay, so going the recycled-dwelling route sounds a little extreme. You can still ease your eco-troubled conscience—and afford to pay your heating bills—with a green home. From a vintage house on a hill to the latest in sustainable-living luxury, Seattle’s got plenty of enviro-friendly options.
Snohomish $375,000
Details 20104 87th St SE; 1,616 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 1¾ baths, built 1986
Selling points Earth-sheltered Terra-Dome stays cool in summer and warm in winter, reduces water runoff, and filters out pollutants.
Listed by Sabine Bestier, Windermere Real Estate
Greenlake $1,050,000
Details 8513 Wallingford Ave N; 3,300 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3¼ baths, built 2008
Selling points Rain harvesting system connects to toilets; floors are made of 15 percent reclaimed fly ash and dust from burnt fossil fuels.
Listed by Adam Weissman and Todd Shively, Coldwell Banker Bain
Issaquah $1,359,000
Details 1473 29th Pl NE; 4,233 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, built 2008
Selling points Certified Built Green 4-star home constructed with sustainable practices, including groundwater recharging and replanting of disturbed vegetation.
Listed by Ken Miller, John L. Scott
Published in the The Most Important Restaurants issue of Seattle Met.
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