Kinnear Apartments

This 100 year old building features hardwood floors and original trim with it’s once luxury interiors. I have enjoyed the classic interior and original sky light for the last 9 months. It’s well preserved to reflect the lifestyles it served when it was completed in 1908.

This is one of those buildings where if you had to pick a single word to define it, that word would be «character.» And boy, does this building have a lot of it. I could go on for pages. The web address links to the a historical site survey which was done by the city of Seattle department of neighborhoods. There’s a lot of interesting stuff there.
As far as actually living here, well, keep in mind the character. And the prices, dear lord the prices. I pay less than $ 800 for what has to be a 900sq ft one bedroom with 10 foot ceilings throughout most of the apartment. The parts that aren’t 10 foot seem to vary by unit. Mine has acoustic tile in the kitchen and bathroom. The cabinetry seems to suggest that those rooms fell victim to a remodel done in the 70s.
The heating works much better than I thought it would, it was converted from radiator (1 – 2 of them in each room) to this weird hot water through copper pipes in baseboard units system. The water heater for this is a giant monstrosity next to my fridge. It’s about half the size of the refrigerator, and hangs on the wall. I thought it was obtrusive until I saw them in the other units, one of which had this thing sitting right out in their living room. Speaking of water, the building was built in 1907, so the water pressure and temperature has never really been something to rely on. Not that surprising, really.
If you’re on the south side of the building, the views are fantastic! Full Puget Sound view, it’s really great. The windows are pretty large in most of the units it seems, so there’s a lot of light even if you don’t get the view.
The neighbors are fairly quiet, even the raccoons. Be careful parking if you drive a jalopy, this place borders on one of the swankier areas of Queen Anne and the parking police are quick to slap a «move it or lose it» ticket on your car if it’s ugly. This has happened to me several times, but please don’t judge me. It’s not my fault my car’s ugly, it’s… Sweden’s. Yeah.
So, overall, live here if you’re nice. If you do end up here via this review, feel free to knock on my door… If you can find me.