New Homes in Issaquah – The Bridges at Talus

           The Bridges at Talus is built by Steve Burnstead Construction LLC, which is a brother company of Rick Burnstead Construction LLC. There will be more than 90 homes at the Bridges when the project is completed. These new homes in Issaquah are priced from the mid 500 thousands to the mid 700 thousands and ranged from 1,850 to 3,263 square footage. For those of you who would like a personal touch on your new home, such as paint color, granite, flooring, all deco choices, there are still more than 40 lots available at the Bridges as of January 18^th 2013.

This new community is adjacent to Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlife Park with direct access to trail system. While the location of these new homes will provides its residences the tranquil feelings and views of nature surroundings, it is not too far away from downtown Seattle and Bellevue. (There are still a lot of noises and new paint smells in the community due to its ongoing construction. However, once the whole construction project is completed, these should all go away.) Issaquah Transit Center is also only minutes away from the Bridges.

The Bridges is located in the Issaquah School District. The following table shows the school ratings by Great Schools and School digger for schools servicing this community.

	School Digger (max. 5)	Great Schools (max. 10)
Issaquah Valley elementary	4	8
Issaquah Middle School	4	7
Issaquah High School	5	9

 

Issaquah High School is also ranked 17^nd within Washington and 609^th nationally by US news. The crime index by the Neighborhood Scout for the city of Issaquah is 36, which means Issaquah is safer than 36% of the cities in the US. According to the data on Neighborhood Scout, one’s chance of becoming a violent crime victim in Issaquah is only 1 in every 1,194 persons. (One’s chance of becoming a violent crime victim in Washington is 1 in every 339 persons.)

These new homes are built alone a hill, which means that you will burn extra calories by talking a walk in the community, as compared to walking on a flatland. I felt like I have had enough exercise for the day simply by strolling around the community once. When I visited the Bridges, the only finished home is the model home. I visited the model home and another home that is close to completion. The view from the northeast side of the model home is very pleasant. In my opinion, if you are not lucky enough to live next to a body of water such as the ocean or a lake, which most of us are not, this view is the second best. (The second best view is an unobstructed view of the nature, such as mountains and forests from far away. The further away and the more natural scenery you can see, the more pleasant the view is.)

The beautiful view at the model home comes with the price of the home being right next to a cliff (see Figure 4). From the point of view of Feng Shui, it is a bad idea to build a home right next to a cliff. Owners of this model home will feel very insecure. The remedy would be to build a fence at the edge of the property. However, if you build a fence at the edge of the property, the beautiful view that comes with this location will go into waste for the bottom floor. (Someone at the second or third floor can still see the beautiful view.) My suggestion is that buyers can ask the builder to plant low bushes or install a low fence along the edge. Nevertheless, I would still recommend buyers with small children to ask for a tall fence. According to the listing agent, there are many available lots that are not right next to a cliff. However, homes on these lots will not offer views like the model home. Homes on these lots will offer wooded outlooks.

Like many other new homes in Western Washington, very few homes at the Bridges face south. (For details, please see Feng Shui –Part 1 Introduction. ) Burnstead offers 7 floor plans for residences at the Bridges. The floor plan of the model home I visited is the Aspen, which is 2,691 square feet. I visited the model home at around 1:00pm. The active area (living room, nook, and kitchen) has most of its windows facing East-northeast, except a glass sliding door facing South-southeast. Generally speaking, this active area is bright and lovely. However, the kitchen is a bit dark without the lights on. Home owners may want to ask the builders to install some full spectrum light bulbs in the kitchen. (See article: Feng Shui – Part 2 Kitchen Feng Shui.) From picture 2, readers can see that this living room features a huge window that is almost from the ceiling to the floor, which contributes to the brightness in the living room. However, the main seating area in this model home is designed to be in an open space, which creates a feeling of insecurity for home owners sitting on sofa. Whoever provides staging services for Burnstead might know something about Feng Shui as s/he placed a console table with a silk plant behind the sofa. (See future article: Feng Shui – Part 4 living room Feng Shui.) For those sellers whose living rooms have similar layout and their real estate agents do not provide staging services, they may copy this arrangement and place a console table with silk plants behind sofa. Home owners of the same situation may do the same to increase comfort in the living room. The master bedroom of the model home (the Aspen) has the same pleasant view of the nature as the active area does. However, there is one thing I don’t like about the master bath. The faucet is kind of getting in the way of the home owner who is trying to get into the bath tub (see Figure 3). For those of you who are interested in purchasing a home in this neighborhood, you may want to ask the builder to place the faucet closer to the wall.

 Figure 1. Pleasant view from the deck at the model home.

Figure 2. living room of the model home at the Bridge

Figure 3. The faucet is kind of getting in the way of the home owner who is trying to get into the bath tub.

Figure 4. Some homes are right next to a cliff.

Figure 5. Site plan

Figure 6. Raised ceiling entrance