The house is located at 17321 NE 31st Ct, Redmond WA 98052. This is a lovely nice quiet cul-de-sac, in a “mature” well-established neighborhood of similar homes. It is neither the most expensive nor the least expensive home, but is nicely in the middle.
The neighbors are friendly. Next door are people who have lived here even longer than me, some of the others in our development have been here for similar long times. We have a neighborhood email group and share information, advice, and occasionally make half-hearted efforts to meet up.
The house is down a long private driveway, and surrounded by trees rather than neighbors. There is no traffic noise of any sort, and very little other noise apart from occasionally some children playing out on the other cul-de-sac. Which brings up a unique feature.
The property can be accessed from two sides. The official access is at the address as above, and alternate unofficial access is at the end of the 173rd Ct NE cul-de-sac.
Having two entries is great. From the main driveway, you can quickly go north to Redmond City or to the NE 40th St SR-520 freeway onramps or south to I-90; from the back access, you can quickly go to the nearby shopping up at Crossroads and Overlake, to the NE 24th St onramps to SR520, and to Microsoft.
It also helps if you’ve having a party – you can have some people park down the driveway, and then you have two street fronts for people to park on as well.
Not far away in all directions are parks, including the popular Idylwood Park on the shores of Lake Sammamish. A bit further north is Marymoor Park with lots of space, including an off-leash dog-walking area if you have a dog.
On that point, I’ve the property exterior set up with a “flying line” for a dog that allows my dog a large amount of free area to run around in, while remaining connected to the flying line and not being able to escape. It is a great setup for a dog, and I’m happy to leave the flying line in place if it would be useful to you.
There is good shopping and services in every direction, and plenty of good schools (the property is within the Lake Washington School District, generally considered the best school district in the state).
Microsoft is just over a mile away. It is a lovely walk there on a nice day, or a ridiculously easy drive. Downtown Bellevue can be accessed by either surface streets or SR520 (about 7 miles away). Seattle is about 15 miles away and can be reached using either of the two floating bridges (SR520 or I-90) – that is nice; if there is congestion on one route, you can easily switch to the other. Kirkland is to the north and Issaquah to the south, both are also nearby. The airport is just over 30 minutes away, but keep in mind also the truly lovely new airport that few people yet know about, also about 30 minutes away, but up in Everett (Paine Field).
If you prefer public transport, there is bus service on either W Lake Sammamish Parkway NE or NE 24th St (there’s a shortcut from here to NE 24th), several excellent Park & Rides (because they service Microsoft too), and there’s new light rail with a station at a Park and Ride two miles away. Construction is almost complete and the line is due to open in 2023.
The area is all very bike friendly with bike lanes on most roads, so if you enjoy some bicycling for exercise or pleasure, that is easy.
I don’t know the exact statistics, but it seems to me that Redmond is about the safest and lowest-crime area in the entire world (and, yes, I’ve lived many different places). A friend of mine was a Redmond police officer – his biggest problem was staying awake during his shifts. He had so little to do he’d come and chat with me for, ugh, hours at a time during the day, and he was able to study for and pass a law degree in his spare time on duty! He was promoted to police chief of another city on the other side of Lake Washington, didn’t like the thought of actually being in a city with crime, and last I heard, he’s now a law professor somewhere in California. 🙂 The police are generally relaxed and friendly rather than hostile and “para-military”. The same can be said for the fire and paramedics – quick/short story : I broke my ankle one time while mowing the lawn. Paramedics took me to ER, and when they got me there, asked if there was anything else they could do to help. I joked and said they could always go and finish mowing my lawn for me. And so they did!