Shilshole, a window to the west

In the sliver of a neighborhood known as Shilshole, residents live aboard boats at the marina, in condominium buildings and and a small number of older single-family houses. People here look at, float on and perch over Shilshole Bay.

The water and its stunning Olympic Mountains backdrop are the ties that bind the Shilshole community together. The neighborhood stretches along Seaview Avenue Northwest, squeezed between Shilshole Bay and the railroad tracks at the base of the bluff rising up to Ballard.

Businesses paint boats, sell kayaks, rent surfboards and serve grilled salmon.

A larger-than-life-sized Leif Erikson statue looks out to sea and symbolizes the area's combined Scandinavian and maritime roots. Nearly everything here is oriented to the west.

Visitors to Shilshole come mainly for dinner or for the beach. Ray's Boathouse and Anthony's HomePort offer fresh seafood and water views to locals and tourists alike.

Golden Gardens, the large beachfront park marking the north end of the neighborhood, provides rare Puget Sound sandy beach. Sun seekers pack the park on hot summer days.

Golden Gardens also offers picnic tables, a boat launch, a meadow and a short loop walking trail around restored wetlands.

Construction has just begun on a new and expanded playground. The park is also the northwest terminus of the Burke-Gilman Trail.

A popular off-leash dog park occupies an area of Golden Gardens partway up the bluff. It's accessible by stairs from above and below or from winding Golden Gardens Drive Northwest.

Cottages dwarfed

Among the neighborhood's single-family homes is a row of quaint beach cottages. Until recently, two of them sat boarded-up and vacant, representing the past and the future of this slowly changing neighborhood.

These small homes, many more than 100 years old, once looked out onto the beach and the original Ray's Boathouse — a boat-rental and bait shop that's now a popular seafood restaurant.

Today, newer neighbors dwarf the remaining cottages, and views have been mostly blocked by buildings across busy Seaview Avenue.

The two boarded-up cottages sold in March for $520,000 and have now been torn down. The real-estate listing advertised them as a "wonderful opportunity to own a planned and permitted four unit live/work site."

That means condos to be built, tall enough to get a top-floor view over the buildings across the street.

But the pace of change has been slow in this market; the cottages, on their combined 2,600 square-foot lot, were for sale for nearly a year.

According to Seattle-based Zillow, the median value of all single-family houses in Ballard, including the Shilshole neighborhood, was $353,800 in March, down 8.8 percent year-over-year. This figure represents all homes, not just those recently sold.

The median value of all condos in Ballard was $263,900 in March, down 10.9 percent year-over-year, according to the Zillow Home Value Index.

Lots of wildlife

Dale Pederson, captain of the historic Virginia V steamship and a popular wedding officiant, owns two of the remaining cottages on Seaview and lives in one.

"I love living down at Shilshole," he said, likening the neighborhood to "the edge of the forest primeval."

Pederson enjoys the plentiful wildlife like sea lions, seagulls and raccoons.

He does not object to the development taking place around him, except for the fact that it has made street parking increasingly difficult. Indeed, he plans to develop his own properties some day and imagines living in a penthouse with a prime view of the bay and mountains.

Another Shilshole resident, Dave Krause, lives aboard his 36-½ -foot sailboat at the Shilshole Bay Marina along with his wife, Sam, and their two cats. (Krause reports that the cats are quite good swimmers.)

"The reason we live on a boat," he said, "is that we love the water."

The couple enjoys scuba diving, fishing, and of course sailing. And, Krause pointed out, "we're a small footprint," using far less power than the average-sized home on land.

500 living on boats

The Krauses are among approximately 500 people who live on about 300 boats at the Port of Seattle-operated marina.

While the marina has some 1,400 boat slips in total, the number of slips occupied by "live-aboards", as they are known, is capped at 300. Krause said there are also "sneak-aboards", those who live on their boats without the Port's knowledge.

Krause serves as dock captain for the L dock, where his boat is moored. Along with all live-aboards, he said, he acts as a first line of defense for things that can go wrong among the boats in the marina, most of which are moored there, but not occupied full time.

He's fought fires on two unoccupied boats, and has helped keep four empty boats from sinking when they began taking on water. He described a more routine part of his dock captain duties as reminding folks to clean up after their pets.

While all occupants of the marina share the common bond of boating, Krause hosts weekly summer barbecues on his dock to further a sense of community and help people get to know one another.

Krause explained that one disheartening change in the neighborhood has been the loss of Charlie's, a restaurant that closed in 2004 when some marina buildings were scheduled for redevelopment.

Charlie's served as a central gathering place, where, he said, locals were always welcome, even in their "foulies." That's sailingspeak for foul-weather gear; rain parka, rain pants, and rubber boots.

Sunset West a subset

Just beyond the south end of the marina, and largely resting on pilings, Sunset West's two condominium buildings present some of the largest structures in the neighborhood.

The 156-unit complex was built in 1968 and at seven stories in height, exceeds the currently allowable four-story zoning restriction. Like its marina neighbor, this community forms a contained subset of the Shilshole neighborhood.

Residents Terry and Maria Howard have lived at Sunset West since 1976. Back then they were looking to rent an apartment in a secure building. Terry thought he'd be working overseas for extended periods and wanted his wife to be safe. It turned out the complex had been converted to condominiums, so they decided to buy.

Now retired, the couple still enjoys walking to Ray's for happy hour, to Golden Gardens when the weather cooperates and to the central Ballard business district. They said they know lots of their fellow "old-timers" in the complex, though fewer of the new folks moving in.

This past October a two-bedroom, 1 ¾- bath unit in Sunset West sold for $400,000. Two separate one-bedroom, one-bath units for sale have asking prices of $369,000 and $315,000.

Prices for Sunset West units vary depending on size, updates and quality of the view. All units in the complex have a view, according to manager Carol Hoover, but those on higher floors and closest to the water enjoy the most expansive views, and therefore command higher prices.

A few blocks down from Sunset West and across the street, a newer condo unit sold in November 2010 for $335,000.

Built in 2007, it has two bedrooms and one bathroom in 1,350 square feet. In the same building of just 10 units, the top floor condo is currently listed for $549,950. It has two bedrooms, 2 ½ baths and a den in its triangle-shaped 1,217 square feet. The listing boasts "fantastic views" from its "tons of windows."

When the triangular condo sells, its new owners can gaze out their windows and join their Shilshole neighbors in continually looking west.