urbnlivn, a seattle condo blog

There’s another Trace North party tomorrow, Thursday June 26 from 6 to 8PM to celebrate “releasing” the sixth floor for sales. This time hopefully it doesn’t rain! They’d like you to RSVP - rsvp@tracelofts.com. And if you do go, mention I sent you. They have a referral program for existing owners who refer new people. We can share the bonus and each buy some new furniture.

This time I won’t be there, I’ll be in San Francisco drooling over even more expensive lofts.

Update: Since I have received two emails about Trace North today, here are my thoughts on the project and area.

I love living at 12th and Madison. The location is great; you’re close to a lot of restaurants (some of my faves: Quinn’s, Fish Fry, Honey Hole, Bimbos, Tacos Guaymos, La Spiga,…), bars (some of my faves: Grey Gallery, Quinn’s, Moe’s, Linda’s, Cafe Presse…), shops and grocery stores (QFC, Trader Joes…) are only a few blocks away. There is also easy bus connections to downtown with the 12 and the 2 stopping a block away. Parking is also better than other parts of Capitol Hill but getting worse as you all join me :).

The only major draw back is that 12th and Madison is a busy intersection. The noise bothered me for the first few weeks but I don’t notice it anymore and am rarely woken up in the night. The other slight annoyance is that I’m farther away from I5 than I used to be, but it’s really only three or four minutes to get on I5.

As for the building, I’m very happy with Trace Lofts and with Madrona who is the building management company. RAFN, the builder is a good builder (I re-configured a wall in my unit and took out major sections of wall, trust me, it was well constructed!), and Ted, the developer is a one-project-at-a-time-developer and you can tell he paid attention to the details and cared about the project. Any issues we had with the building were dealt with quickly and professionally (minus that sign experience :) ). Also, a number of people involved with the project bought at it. This includes Ted, the interior designer, and one of the folks from RAFN.

I’ve toured Trace North and some of the details I like are the huge roof top deck, stainless steel bar top in some of the kitchens, some units have full showers, I like the doors and most of the lighting, the cork floors turned out better than I expected (I’m not a fan of cork flooring) and many units have great views. The few things I don’t like about Trace is the kitchen cabinets but those are easy to replace if they’re not to your liking and I wish they had put a different counter in and used under mount sinks.

The other great thing about Trace is that all the owners I’ve met are very nice and super friendly. It really does feel like a special community.

You can check out my photos of Trace North if you haven’t stopped by the sales center yet.

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