NOAA site on Lake Union on the market

By Eric Pryne

Seattle Times business reporter

The owner of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Operations Center on Lake Union has put the soon-to-be-vacated property up for sale, marketing it as "a great future development opportunity."
NOAA's lease expires in June, and the federal agency is moving its research fleet to Newport, Ore., after nearly 50 years at the Lake Union site.
Biotech and office buildings are among the development possibilities, said Jason Rosauer of GVA Kidder Mathews, one of the brokers marketing the property. "A Carillon Point or an Elliott Bay Marina would be an option," he added, referring to waterfront developments in Kirkland and Seattle, respectively.
Or the site, with 915 feet of waterfront and three piers, could provide moorage and other services for fishing vessels or luxury yachts, Rosauer added: "We want to let the market decide its best use."
The market also will decide what it's worth, he said: There's no published asking price.
The 8-acre property, at 1801 Fairview Ave. E., has been owned since the 1920s by a corporation controlled by several families. The corporation's manager could not be reached for comment Monday.
NOAA has leased the site since 1963. The agency moored four oceangoing research ships there until fire damaged the piers in 2006. The facility also has serviced six NOAA ships based in Alaska, California and Hawaii.
The property includes a two-story office/lab building and a 12,000-square-foot warehouse.
NOAA decided last year to move its research fleet to Oregon, in part because governments there offered generous subsidies. Seattle-area political leaders tried to get the decision reversed, but Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who oversees NOAA, said in August that it was too late.

Tiny house movement thrives amid real estate bust

By TERENCE CHEA

Associated Press

As Americans downsize in the aftermath of a colossal real estate bust, at least one tiny corner of the housing market appears to be thriving. To save money or simplify their lives, a small but growing number of Americans are buying or building homes that could fit inside many people's living rooms, according to entrepreneurs in the small house industry.
Some put these wheeled homes in their backyards to use as offices, studios or extra bedrooms. Others use them as mobile vacation homes they can park in the woods. But the most intrepid of the tiny house owners live in them full-time, paring down their possessions and often living off the grid.
"It's very un-American in the sense that living small means consuming less," said Jay Shafer, 46, co-founder of the Small House Society, sitting on the porch of his wooden cabin in California wine country. "Living in a small house like this really entails knowing what you need to be happy and getting rid of everything else."
Shafer, author of "The Small House Book," built the 89-square-foot house himself a decade ago and lived in it full-time until his son was born last year. Inside a space the size of an ice cream truck, he has a kitchen with gas stove and sink, bathroom with shower, two-seater porch, bedroom loft and a "great room" where he can work and entertain - as long as he doesn't invite more than a couple guests.
He and his family now live in relatively sprawling 500-square foot home next to the tiny one.
Shafer, co-owner of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, designs and builds miniature homes with a minimalist style that prizes quality over quantity and makes sure no cubic inch goes to waste. Most can be hooked up to public utilities. The houses, which pack a range of amenities in spaces smaller than some people's closets, are sold for $40,000 to $50,000 ready-made, but cost half as much if you build it yourself.

Mortgage Modifications Co's are put under the Microscope

The promoters have names that resemble federal foreclosure-intervention programs such as Making Home Affordable or Home Affordable manipulation. Some even flash pics of President Obama or the great seal of the United States.

You've probably seen the pitches on TV & radio and the net or found them stuffed in your mail: official-looking communications complete with logos & letterheads that look vaguely like those used by the Treasury, IRS & other federal agencies.

Bogus firms always insist on getting your funds upfront with often thousands of dollars; then do little or nothing. But now the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is cutting off the main fuel supply for mortgage-modification scammers: Under new rules outlined Nov. 19, the agency designs to ban virtually all upfront payments, institute mandatory disclosure rules; clamp down with new federal restrictions on lawyers who participate in mortgage-modification schemes.

They are in lieu criminal enterprises posing as do-gooders who promise to get you out of the mortgage jam you're in, whether you're severely delinquent or deeply underwater. they claim they can persuade your lender to cut your every month payments, forgive all penalties, slash your rate of interest & even get your loan balance reduced. If your lender won't cooperate, they say they'll perform "forensic audits" on your mortgage; persuade a court to cancel your whole loan transaction because of technical mistakes in the paperwork.

Shout Out ....The King and I Thai Restaurant

The King and I is probably one of my favorite Thai Restaurants.  I have entertained there and had many business lunches.  I have going there for at least the last 5 years.  The food is Excellent and the Service is far and away some of the best I have experienced.  I would recommend it to anyone.

Kick Off to the new Holiday Season 2010

Reserve your ticket for Garden d'Lights in Bellevue

If you haven't experienced the Garden d'Lights Festival at the Bellevue Botanical garden, you're missing out on an brilliant holiday experience. From Nov. 27 through Jan. 1, the garden is ablaze with thousands of plants, flowers & animals, all created from strings of lights. The light total is over a half-million now, & dedicated volunteers created each artistic piece.

This year, a tortoise will join Charlotte in her web, Willie the slug (complete with slime trail) & the 30 or so other animals throughout the garden.

Tickets cost $5 per person. babies 10 & more youthful are free. Entry is free on a variety of nights, but you still must reserve a ticket & have it with you to enter the garden. For information or to reserve tickets, visit www.gardendlights.org.

Not surprisingly, Garden d'Lights has become so popular that the organizers of the festival are limiting the number of visitors that will be allowed in each night. To gain entry to Garden d'Lights, you now must reserve a ticket in advance.

Happy Thanksgiving

More snow expected to fall this evening

Lauren Barkley, 8, left, and her brother, Richard, 6, play in the snow at Downtown Park after an early release from Sacred Heart School in Bellevue on Monday.
Chad Coleman/Bellevue Reporter
By NAT LEVY
UPDATE, 4:32 p.m.The Bellevue School District announced that all schools will begin two hours late Tuesday, as a result of weather conditions. Release times will follow the standard schedule. Bus trips to the south end of Bellevue will be on limited schedule, according to BSD's website.
More than an inch of snow has already dropped on Bellevue, and the rest of the Seattle metro area, and it won't stop anytime soon.
The Monday evening commute is expected to be impacted by another snow system that has settled over the area and could drop several more inches of snow on the ground by the end of the day.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the Puget Sound Region early Monday, predicting anywhere between two and six inches of snow this evening.
NWS Meteorologist Dennis D'Amico said Monday afternoon that the snow will continue to fall through the night with drier conditions Tuesday. Wind will be a factor, with the potential for gusts as high as 40 miles per hour.
But when the snow fades, the issue of it freezing and turning into sheets of ice comes into play.
"Ice will be a problem if roadways are not treated well," D'Amico said. "Our highs tomorrow will not go above freezing."
To this point, treatment of the roadways has prevented accidents. There have actually been fewer incidents Monday in Bellevue than a normal day, in which more cars might be on the road, said Sheryl Mullen, spokeswoman for the North East King County Regional Public Safety Communication Agency (NORCOM), which operates dispatch centers for Bellevue and other nearby cities.
Mullen applauded road crew work for keeping snow and ice off main arterials and preventing the kinds of accidents that can lock up an entire city, or even the whole Eastside.
"Either people are doing better in the snow than we think," Mullen said, "or the road crews are keeping the roads really clean. We're waiting for things to pick up but they just haven't."
Plows from state and local municipalities have been at it all day, working on highways and city streets.
Plows from the Washington State Department of Transportation have been out all day clearing highways as snow falls on and off.
In Bellevue, the city's 14 plows have been extremely active. Mike Jackman, assistant director of utilities for Bellevue, said all major arterials and neighborhood roads have been cleared.
The vulnerable roads are the small residential streets and those at higher elevations south of I-90. Jackman said utilities crews will continue to work on the main streets, but he hopes to get into most of the neighborhoods overnight so ice doesn't become a problem.
"Our biggest concern is as the temperature begins to drop, there could be some real icing conditions developing overnight," he said. "We'll be all out and trying to de-ice all night long ahead of the morning commute."
But the snow is continuing to impact travel. Roads are beginning to stack up as travel times soar above their average times, according to WSDOT travel times.
For those seeking protection from the weather, Bellevue's severe weather shelter at the Crossroads Community Center will be open beginning at 8:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The shelter, located at 16000 NE 10th St., accommodates 50 individuals and is run by the Eastside Interfaith Social Concerns Council. For more information, the council can be reached at 425-614-8544.

It's Still Coming Down

Seattle, Jane Calbreath Dec. 2010

As the day went on in Seattle and Eastside Neighborhoods, the snow continued to fall.  Drivers and People on foot were slipping on icy roadways and sidewalks.  As I look out the window in Bellevue at 9:23pm I can see the snow isn't seeming to let up.  If you are out in the weather, please bundle up and stay warm, remember that as the wind blows it causes the temperature to drop even more against your exposed skin.

Shout Out...Yarrow Bay Grill

.

We had dinner and drinks in their dinning room and the service was terrific.  We had a good time and will definately go back.  They are conveniently located at Carillon Point.with plenty of parking available. We love to meet friends, and business associates there. A great place for evening drinks.  I would recommend this place.

Rates Start to Climb

By JANNA HERRON

AP Real Estate Writer

Rates on fixed mortgages jumped from their lowest levels in decades this week.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate for 30-year fixed loans rose to 4.39 percent from 4.17 percent, the lowest level on records dating back to 1971. The 15-year loan also climbed to 3.76 percent from 3.57 percent, the lowest since that survey began in 1991.
Rates rose because Treasury yields climbed to their highest level since July. Mortgage rates tend to track those yields.
The yields rose mostly because traders dumped Treasurys they bought up before the Federal Reserve announced its $600 billion bond-buying program to spur the economy. Republican economists and lawmakers have criticized the Fed program, saying it could lead to runaway inflation. Those fears have led investors to sell their bonds.
Before last week, mortgage rates had been at or near historic lows since April as investors, worried about the economy, shifted money into the safety of U.S. Treasurys. Mortgage rates fell to their lowest point as traders snatched up Treasurys ahead of the central bank's announcement.
The recent jump in rates rippled through the mortgage market. The number of people filling out mortgage applications slumped last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. Purchase applications dropped by 5 percent from the previous week, while refinance applications tumbled 16.5 percent.
While refinancing activity got a boost, low rates did little to buoy the struggling housing market. Potential buyers are worried about their jobs or unable to qualify for a loan because of tighter credit standards. Others can't sell their own homes before buying another.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac collects rates from lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a single day.

Magnolia manse inspires a designer to move and compromise

By Rebecca Teagarden

photographed by Mike Siegel

BETTER BUCKLE up, because we're going over to Kelly Rivelo's. And I'm betting, based on the previous homes of this crazy-for-interior-designing woman, that Kelly Rivelo has more energy than all of us put together.  "This house is a bottomless pit of want/need," she says.  Uh-oh.
"The kitchen was bad. Really bad. The ceiling was falling down. There were rats. It was a foreclosure on its way to being condemned when the previous owners bought it."  Rivelo is standing in what is now the charming French-country kitchen of her latest personal project. Another stately brick home in Magnolia with water/city views. And from this, her fourth residence in that neighborhood in 16 years, Rivelo could rappel down to Palisade for dinner. If she so desired.
When we last visited Rivelo it was in another stately brick, just down the road, the old Blackstock Lumber family manse. She spent a fair amount of time scraping, rebuilding, papering, painting, tiling, carpeting and pampering that house into perfection.
And then she went to an open house.
"A Realtor friend of mine called and said, 'Kelly, I think you should see this house. It's just coming on the market.' I told her, 'I am not going to buy another house.' But I went. As I got to the bottom of the steps the owner saw me, grabbed my hands in hers and said, 'I know you're going to be the one to buy my house. And I want you to be the one to buy my house.' "
Can't fight fate.
Rivelo bought the house in 2007 and set out to make it her own. This is a woman who goes both ways: loves "The Great Gatsby" and "Me Talk Pretty One Day," classical music and Cheap Trick. Is a fan of the Facebook page "I'm not cranky, you're annoying." In other words, she has a wild sense of great taste.
But Rivelo has remarried, and her husband, Dr. Bill El-Kawa, is a contemporary man who does not share his wife's taste for eclectic-country-traditional.
In compromise, "I've really toned down my drag-queen chic," she says, laughing. A magnet of drag-queen Divine reminds. It is stuck to the front of the royal-blue Lacanche in the expanded kitchen. But, still, there's a Carerra marble farm sink. Matching custom zinc counters and exhaust-fan hood (crafted by Christopher Lee Plummer of CLP Designs, flown in from Pennsylvania).
The home, designed by Joseph Cote, was built in 1915 for Charles L. Hibbard in 6,800 square feet over three floors; three bedrooms, a den and five baths. Separate staircase for the servants. The backyard sits on two levels on more than half an acre. You can see it all Dec. 4 during this year's Magnolia Holiday Tour of Homes.
Yes, one 1940s bathroom with mint-green everything remains. But Rivelo is working her way through the square footage. Thirteen can lights in the master bedroom are gone.
This house has good energy and loves a crowd, Rivelo reports. "I can seat 25 in the dining room," she says. "Yeah, it's a party house." Case in point: Rivelo hosted a friend's wedding recently. Seventy-five people and a band. An anniversary party included 120 guests and another band.
"I put in two dishwashers. It's so easy to cook for parties. The kitchen closes off; it's great for caterers.
"I'm not moving again," she says with a big sigh. "I can't.
"Maybe France. For the winters."