Gerhard Ade covers Real Estate around Seattle and more.

It’s about time you meet Walter.

For nearly two decades, Walter Powers has been my good friend and for ten of these years, he has assisted me in marketing. He also is my official unlicensed real estate assistant with access to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Walter had prior Real Estate Experience.

Walter describes himself as a radio guy. Following the Great Recession, he found work with a broadcast production company that aired a weekly radio show owned by the National Association of REALTORS© – NAR. It’s still running as the number-one real estate show on the radio, heard on hundreds of stations. His role was to be mostly a technical one but somewhere in the mix, they needed a writer… someone to write the scripts for the weekly guests featured on the program. In this role, he had access to many of the world-class resources at NAR. That taught him a lot about housing economics, assessments, legalities, staging, showing, moving your home, online presentation, how to make your home more livable, and more agent advice than I ever thought I’d know.

Color influences our mood.
Think of a cloudless day at the beach versus the threatening clouds of an impending hurricane.

Color has meaning.
Traffic lights tell us to stop and go. A map showing the states in red or blue show party affiliations. The orange rim of the carafe signals that the content is decaffeinated.

Color is a matter of trend and taste.
Currently, hairstyles are more colorful than ever. Shades of grey are meant to signal superior taste in interior design. The business of color shapes taste.

When I shared the topic of this blog with a friend, he suggested the pros and cons approach. Since that would make for two lopsided lists, I decided to make the case for the side my wife and I favor.

The case for closed spaces

We just bought a home. There is much to like about it, such as the curb appeal, the upstairs home office space, and the pool. We also knew what we didn’t like and what we would change. (Thankfully, my wife and I agree on most anything concerning style and design.) Topping that list was the need for some walls.

Walls define spaces.

When I opened the front door, I saw three pillars punctuating the living room and dining area. Once I opened the door completely, I saw the entire family room to the right of the staircase.

In our opinion, the arrangement of the pillars was a half-hearted attempt to define rooms when, in reality, the three pillars presented obstacles. To our minds, a family room is, by definition, reserved for the house’s inhabitants. Giving anyone entering the home a quick and unimpeded view of it contradicts that notion.

Walls define the purpose of a room.

Living rooms are places for conversation. We like to entertain guests. Dining rooms are for special occasions with a focus on food and drink.

By adding two walls in the entry area, we defined not only the living and dining areas, but we created an entry space, a foyer. Without distracting views, now the visitors are the center of attention.

By closing the large opening in the wall toward the family room, we not only enhance the room’s privacy but also defined yet another space. There is now a hallway leading to the primary bedroom.

Most of the entryway is now hidden from the other side of the family room. What is now more apparent is the location of the guest bathroom.

Walls are for putting things.

We not only defined rooms and created spaces, but we also added 28 feet of linear wall. More wall space gives us much-needed room for furniture and art. I have noticed that people have placed pieces of furniture in open-concept homes to create separate rooms. Often that’s a tacit admission for a missing wall.

The open concept – a builder’s dream?

A builder friend told me that the open-concept trend started with smaller homes meant to look larger by a continuous space. A recent Twitter post was less flattering. “HGTV has ruined houses. Every house is just one giant room with a kitchen island in the middle.” One comment aimed at another in-style building trend. “A sliding barn door leads to a bathroom, the only enclosed room for miles.” Readers retweeted the post nearly 5,000 times.

For a good reason, the open-concept idea never reached the bedrooms of two-story homes. The open space with no walls has been known for some time as a dormitory.

Where do you stand?

Over the years, I have seen some homes with open spaces that worked. Often, these homes had views. It’s easier to sacrifice some privacy when the advantages are visible or audible. On the other hand, the slightest cough may conjure up the threat of Covid, which we prefer to wall in.

Where do you stand on the open-concept home design? What has worked for you, and what hasn’t?

Published originally as the 139th issue of The View from the Street.

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In the United States, we celebrate milestones. It begins with graduation from Kindergarten. In Germany, only PhDs celebrated with cap and gown when I grew up there.

When I graduated with a master’s degree in applied arts from college in Switzerland, there was no ceremony. To celebrate the occasion, our graduating class of nine went on a trip to the Alsace for some Riesling and local cheese.

We’ve just come back from a vacation to Houston and Florida. I still feel like I am on vacation so this newsletter is shorter than usual.

If you were planning to buy a condo or home in a suburb of Seattle, Houston, or Sarasota, what would $750,000 buy? I did a quick search and here are the results. The prices and pictures link to the details on Realtor.com.

Seattle Suburb

Price: $799,000
Bellevue, WA, 2 Bedroom, 2.5 Bathroom, 1,640 square feet, condo