Perhaps we should have a contest called the ugliest house in Sequim. That might create a fun photo album. I’ve seen some homes that could compete for the ugliest house in Sequim, but you could add Port Townsend and Port Angeles as strong competitors.
The Ugliest House
This 3-story home is the brightest yellow and a bright blue two tone wonder. As a real estate professional, I’ll tell you what came to my mind when I first saw this home. First, I wondered who in the world would paint a house such gaudy colors, and second a 3-story home will be almost impossible to sell since retirees want single level homes. Now every time I drive past this home, I try to look the other way, but a bright video plays itself out in my mind and I see it anyway.
The Ugliest House
There’s a purple house in the Sequim area, and I like to tell my buyers when we’re driving past that house that every town has a purple house, and we all laugh. I also have said, “Imagine being a neighbor and see that purple house every day!” But I just learned that one of the neighbor’s mowed his field with the words “A Hole” and an arrow pointing toward the purple house. Here is a photo from Google maps. While this isn’t funny for the players involved, you have to find some humor in all of this.
Do you have any crazy photos of the ugliest house in your area? If you do, send me a photo of your ugliest house.
Last Updated on September 6, 2019 by Chuck Marunde
Hi Chuck,
Good blog, and thank you for the book again, we appreciate them both.
While this is an interesting topic I’m not sure how helpful it is to highlight so called “ugly houses”. It makes it more difficult for the owners to sell them should the need arise. No one needs that label broadcast all over the internet.
While I don’t care for the colors of the first home I really don’t mind the style. If it were oriented to the south it would have nice solar gain. Maybe there is a view that could not be seen well except from an upper floor. Sometimes ugliness is in the eye of the beholder. For instance my husband thinks our house is ugly, but I think it has lots of historic charm. Reminds me of a New England salt box house with dormers. Sometimes on a narrow lot the best way to expand is to go up. We are doing our best to improve it as funds become available.
As hard working home owners with not alot of extra money for improvements we certainly don’t need, or want folks running around looking for what they think are ugly houses, and posting them on the internet. One person’s ugly house is another’s safe haven. Tastes vary a great deal from one person to the next. After all, I think McMansions are ugly, and wasteful. Please remember that not all who live in this area are wealthy.
The person who mowed the swear words is a worse neighbor than the one who likes purple. Maybe they should build a fence, or plant big trees if they don’t like it instead of what they did do. Thanks for listening. ~ Claudia
Claudia, you are a person with discernment, and I like that. I agree that talking about ugly homes is not necessarily something that “feels” good in terms of topics to write about. In 23 years and over 2,000 articles on this blog, I have never written about an ugly home, but this one sticks out. The truth is, this home has been the topic of conversation for many Sequimites, and long before I decided to write about it, a lot of people have been talking about how gaudy they think the paint colors are. Let’s face it, any reasonable person is going to admit these colors are gaudy for a home. More people talked to me about how unfortunate they found these colors than any other home in the entire area in the last two decades. This home doesn’t have to worry about my little blog article, because its colors are its very own advertising 24/7. Imagine all the people that drive past this home every single day on Woodcock Road. What I wrote about retiree preferences for homes in Sequim is true, and a 3 story home is going to be hard to sell, and that is especially true if it is bright two-tone yellow and blue. The fact that the owners like these colors is apparent, but that doesn’t stop me and the vast majority of buyers and homeowners in the area from gauking at the gaudy colors.
By the way, on the purple house, I can’t even tell you how many people have said to me, “Can you imagine having to look at that purple house every day?” I wouldn’t have mowed anything in my field if I lived nearby, but no one I know wants to look at a purple house every day. Egad!
Thank you for your response Chuck. The well worn adage “Good fences make good neighbors” hold true in this case. Adding in some nice tall privacy screen trees/shrubs would help ease everyone’s concern very nicely. I think I was more concerned about the ugly home photo contest. We will paint ours Lotus Leaf by Behr one of these days. So at least the color will be better. Thanks again ~ Claudia