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Roof vents are an unassuming part of a home’s silhouette, yet they’re one of the most overlooked weak points in a building’s exterior — especially in neighborhoods like Ballard where older houses, varied roofing styles, and moisture-prone maritime weather create ideal conditions for small gaps and degraded vent fittings. What looks like a small, functional…

Columbia City’s canopy of mature street trees and pocket parks is more than neighborhood scenery — it’s a living ecosystem that shapes the rhythms of urban wildlife. Every December, residents often notice an uptick in squirrel activity: more rustling in the eaves, frantic chases across lawns, and a flurry of tail-twitching on powerlines and branches….

In the wet, cool climate around Mount Baker, winter brings more than snow and spectacular mountain views — it brings persistent moisture that can turn an otherwise dry attic into an attractive haven for rodents. Homes in the Mount Baker region face a unique combination of long, damp winters, frequent temperature swings, and heavy snowfall…

As the holiday season brings sparkling lights, visiting friends and family, and an influx of short-term guests to Seattle’s scenic waterfront, condo buildings face a heightened risk of bed‑bug introductions. Travel surges, luggage, gift deliveries, and the arrival of secondhand furniture all provide easy opportunities for these hitchhiking pests to move from place to place….

There’s an odd contrast at the heart of many Queen Anne houses: ornate turrets, stained glass and carved woodwork on the outside, and a utilitarian, often dimly lit laundry room tucked away at the back or in the basement. These service spaces—original sculleries, converted back-porch laundries, or modernized utility rooms within 19th-century footprints—were built for…

Green Lake’s combination of waterfront exposure, mature landscaping, and older housing stock makes its mudrooms — those practical transition spaces between outdoors and home — especially vulnerable after heavy storms. When wind and rain displace wildlife and saturate yards, rodents such as mice and rats are driven to seek dry, warm shelter and easy food…

Each December, tenants in Rainier Valley apartment complexes raise the same complaint: cockroaches. What begins as an occasional sighting often escalates into widespread infestations that migrate quickly through multi-unit buildings. For residents already contending with tight living quarters, older housing stock and limited maintenance resources, these seasonal surges become more than an annoyance — they…

Magnolia trees, with their glossy leaves and broad canopies, are a familiar feature on residential and natural slopes alike. When these trees stand on steep lots, they create a complex vertical mosaic of soil moisture, leaf litter and root channels that differs sharply from flat ground. During heavy rain events this mosaic becomes even more…

Laurelhurst homeowners know that the quiet of early winter can hide small but consequential problems. Foundation cracks that may have seemed cosmetic through the warmer months become urgent in December, when rodents and overwintering insects intensify their search for dry, warm shelter. What starts as a hairline fissure in a basement wall or a separated…

On a cold Capitol Hill evening the district’s historic rowhouses take on an almost storybook quality — brick facades, narrow stoops, and tall chimneys etched against gray skies. But behind those charming exteriors, the season brings a surge in unwelcome activity: rats that have spent warmer months outdoors begin pushing into basements, crawlspaces, attics and…