Wallingford Moments

A week or so back, the Wallyhoods were taking a stroll through Lower West Wallingford (LoWeWa), when we passed an interesting house for sale. It was new construction with unusual ornateness to it, including, as we fogged the front windows, a glass ball on the banister. We admired the front-to-back kitchen / dining room with french doors at both ends, and the efficient built-in appliance and then decided to take our stroll to the back, to see more of the kitchen.

While poking through their garden, and poking at their siding, we heard a rumble in the driveway. A nervous shiver briefly passed over us: were we caught intruding? Instead of an irate realtor, though, we met a disheveled, hippie-esque gentleman with his daughter in a push-ahead toy car. We weren’t the only ones who decided that the house was interesting enough to peer in through the back windows, and we all got to talking.

Turns out, Jon was one of the builders behind a beautifully restored turn-of-the-century house we had admired down on Woodlawn, so we spent the next half-hour learning its history: how they’d bought it after the original owners had passed, the lengths they’d gone to hew to green building principles, how they’d found uniforms belonging to the owners behind walls they’d torn down and returned them to the surviving children, and how, with the sudden turn in the market, he’d found himself living in the dream home he’d built with the intent to sell.

It was a classic Wallingford moment, strangers out for a stroll, taking a curious interest in some change in the neighborhood, meeting, exchanging stories and moving on.

And then, it happened again last night. After a stop at the taco truck and Molly Moon’s, we ran into our friend Matt, who said his friend Joe was having an open house down the block, and we should go take a look. Never ones to refuse a peek into someone else’s home, we set off down the street.

Turns out, though, that the open house wasn’t until the next day, sorry, door closed…unless you were a friend of Matt’s, in which case, door open!

Joe, we discovered, is the architect who is building a new house across from Mosaic, where we had seen an older house knocked down last week. If the new house is anything like the one they’re selling (4125 Ashworth Ave N), it’s going to be fantastic.

Joe gave us a guided tour, starting out in the garage he had converted to a rumpus room (right). Parts of the ceiling had been replaced with clear corrugated plastic to bring light in, and the walls and been torn back to the studs to create an open, airy feel. The topper: a swing in the middle of the room. Granted, not as cool as a fireman’s pole, but it’s a swing, in the middle of the room!

In the house proper, he pointed out all the places where the original wood had been salvaged and used as trim, railings, and cupboards. Up through the matching kids rooms and master bedroom, the tour took us all the way up through to the roof, where a small deck offered a commanding view of downtown, Mt. Rainier and the rest of the neighborhood.

At this point, Baby Z was getting restive, so we had to make our exit, but not before Z spent some time hypnotized by Joe and Jen’s daughter (future baby-z sitter), while the adults chatted about the neighborhood, remodeling, and schools. Cards exchanged, we stepped back out in the ‘hood and off to home.

What’s the point of all this? Just another paean to our neighborhood, we suppose. It seems like everyone we meet is creating something. Take a stroll with open eyes, talk to strangers, learn something, make a friend. Just another day in Wallingford.