Blog

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…

The Fremont Artists’ Lofts are a creative hub where drawings, prints, collages, sketchbooks and archival papers live alongside paints, tools and the everyday detritus of studio life. For artists who store finished works, studies and reference materials in loft studios, silverfish are a frequent and insidious threat: these small, wingless insects feed on starches, cellulose…

The holidays are a time for big menus, last-minute guests and pantry staples pulled out of long-term storage — and for many households in Wallingford that means a heightened risk of pantry pests. Indian meal moths, weevils, flour and rice beetles are small, common insects that quietly infest grains, flours, cereals, nuts, dried fruit, spices…

Phinney Ridge’s compact blocks and sloping streets form a familiar Seattle silhouette: rows of pitched roofs, dormers peeking above mature street trees, and chimneys that punctuate winter fog. Those rooflines—so charming from the sidewalk—also form a hidden landscape of nooks, soffits, vents and attic voids that become attractive real estate once temperatures drop. As daylight…

Broadview attic fans are designed to protect homes by exhausting hot, humid air from the attic, improving energy efficiency and prolonging roof life. But like any roof-mounted equipment, they can become an unintended gateway for pests when installation or maintenance is overlooked. This article examines how attic fans — including Broadview models — interact with…