Condo can’t-dos

In the market for a condominium? You’ve got a lot of homework ahead of you, so check out real estate columnist Steve Tytler’s quick guide to condo-buying.

For our part, The Buzz recommends you avoid condos where:

  • The swimming pool has been drained and renamed a “skateboard park.”
  • The only source of heat is one of those “Amish fireplaces” — unless it includes the optional “handcrafted wood mantel.”
  • There are door peepholes curiously installed in the wall between your unit and the neighbor’s place.

    Three-martini lunches included: Season Two of “Mad Men,” the TV series set in a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the early 1960s, has been released on DVD.

    The boxed set includes a fifth of gin, a carton of Pall Malls and the key to the apartment of the new girl in the typing pool.

    Everything must go: With a little planning, you can sell off your unwanted stuff — and make enough cash to pay the vet bill — at your next garage sale (Page D1).

    But don’t forget the most important planning element of all: Making sure your relatives, who, for your birthday, gave you most of the stuff you’re unloading, aren’t aware of your sale.

    — Mark Carlson, Herald staff

    Talk to us

    > Give us your news tips.

    > Send us a letter to the editor.

    > More Herald contact information.

  • More in Opinion

    RGB version
    Editorial cartoons for Saturday, April 26

    A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

    County Council members Jared Mead, left, and Nate Nehring speak to students on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, during Civic Education Day at the Snohomish County Campus in Everett, Washington. (Will Geschke / The Herald)
    Editorial: Students get a life lesson in building bridges

    Two county officials’ civics campaign is showing the possibilities of discourse and government.

    Roberts: Gutting of scientific research will leave us blind

    The Trump administration’s deep cuts to science and research will harm our economy and environment.

    Comment: Funding delays jeopardize research of healthy aging

    A freeze of NIH funding threatens research into aging and Alzheimer’s at the UW School of Medicine.

    Comment: Meaningful law on rent requires bill’s earlier version

    As lawmakers seek a deal, rent stabilization should keep a 7 percent cap and apply to single homes.

    Forum: Trump cuts to museum funding hit Imagine Children’s

    The defunding of a museum and library program means the loss of a science lab for preschoolers.

    Forum: We strive for Belonging, then keep it to ourselves

    From childhood we treat Belonging as something to be jealously guarded. What if others belong, too?

    Comment: Higher tax on tobacco pouches could backfire

    A proposed 95 percent tax on smokeless tobacco could lead some back to more dangerous cigarettes.

    toon
    Editorial cartoons for Friday, April 25

    A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

    FILE - This Feb. 6, 2015, file photo, shows a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine on a countertop at a pediatrics clinic in Greenbrae, Calif. Washington state lawmakers voted Tuesday, April 23, 2019 to remove parents' ability to claim a personal or philosophical exemption from vaccinating their children for measles, although medical and religious exemptions will remain. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
    Editorial: Commonsense best shot at avoiding measles epidemic

    Without vaccination, misinformation, hesitancy and disease could combine for a deadly epidemic.

    The Buzz: This week, the makeup tips of political powerbrokers

    Who would have guessed that Kitara Revanche and Pete Hegseth used the same brand of concealer?

    Schwab: Who saw this coming? said no one but Senate Republicans

    Take your pick of agency heads; for those who advise and consent, there was no sign of trouble ahead.

    Support local journalism

    If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.