Lindsay Terrace

These Italian-ornate seven townhouses are terraced up the hillside on the east side of 12th Street from Cameron Avenue, offering double indoor drive-under parking, large floor plans and balconies facing both east and west. The building was completed in 1996 by Spartacus Holdings and owner/architect Paul Tarjan. It's a conventional condominium, meaning owners own the inside of their homes and jointly own the building structure, the exterior shell and the land. Exterior windows and doors are also common property for maintenance and future replacement.

These are large homes, with the downhill three being even larger than the uphill four. Of the larger group the largest square footage is 2,783, less 687 sq. ft. for the garage, laundry and utilities, leaving 2,096 sq. ft. of living space on the next three floors. Among the smaller uphill four the smallest home's gross area is 2,444 sq. ft., with a garage and utility main floor of 612, for a net living area of 1,832 sq. ft. There are three living levels with the third floor being smaller and set back from the back east-facing wall, allowing for roomy decks looking toward downtown. The top-floor areas have vaulted ceilings rising to something over 10 feet, while the living-room/kitchen floors all have nine-foot ceilings. Most if not all suites have a skylight for the top floor.

Each home offers two bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a living room natural-gas fireplace, lots of hardwood and granite counter tops for attractive multi-level living. The complex roof design and stucco cladding--especially of the downhill larger three homes--combine to create the potential for water leaks. Some day (I'm writing in 2007) I'd expect the need for upgraded flashing, downspouts and perhaps some upgrade to the cladding's ability to shed water.