What's For Sale Sunday (Mercer Island, WA)

Two of my children went to a huge party yesterday at a big, beautiful house.  The festivities were actually held outside in the pool area with water slide, and around the basketball court, tennis court, full size playground and baseball field. (yes, I did say baseball field)  Four carnival rides were brought in for the party as well as a food truck.  Oh, and did I mention that it was also on a lake?  Needless to say, my kids had a fantastic time.  So in listening to them talk about the party (me asking a ton of questions about the house and yard), I decided to do a What's For Sale Sunday post about an area that comes to mind when I think of a more affluent area.  Mercer Island, Washington.

Mercer Island is a five mile long, mostly residential island located between Seattle and Bellevue.  It is connected to these cities by floating bridges.  (The above copyrighted photo was taken by Mike Seidl and originally featured by Windermere Real Estate Mercer Island.)  When I was around 11 years old my family lived on Mercer Island for a short time.  We had moved from a teeny tiny town in a remote location so coming to Mercer Island was like living in the big city for us.  My parents told us kids that Mercer Island was a wealthy area.  Now, I don't know if it is now or if it ever even was then, but that was my perception of it. (It's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

The interesting part of us living in Mercer Island was that we were renting a house owned by Marni Nixon.  She was somewhat of a local celebrity since she hosted her own children's television show in Seattle called, Boomerang.  On the show she would sing, play games and interact with some puppets.  One thing I wasn't aware of at the time was that Marni was a lovely soprano who had sung opera and had dubbed singing voices for a number of stars.  Her voice is what you hear singing the lead in The King and I, My Fair Lady and An Affair to Remember.  She actually was the singing voices for both the Maria and Rita characters in the West Side Story movie.  Marni did a little acting herself.  You can see her in the movie, Sound of Music.  She is the nun who complains to the Mother Superior about Maria (played by Julie Andrews).

The house was just an ordinary home.  I don't know if Marni owned it just for a rental or if she had ever even lived there.  We liked it just fine and thought it was cool to live in a house owned by someone on t.v.

So in honor of my childhood memories I'm featuring a luxury home on Mercer Island.  This stunning 6 bedroom, 6 bath, 6071 sq ft home on .4 of an acre is listed for the measly sum of only $5,995,000.  I love the back view of the house with such gorgeous landscaping.  So many beautiful windows to look out onto the lake.  (They must go through a lot of Windex.)

I absolutely LOVE this view.  Love it!  The decor is very subtle to showcase the wonderful lake outside. (Of course, it pales in comparison to my own awesome backyard view of the rear of my neighbor's house and rickety fence.)

Like the Black Eyed Peas song, "I Just Can't Get Enough."  (Of this view, that is...)

Imagine eating breakfast here every morning.  The natural lighting throughout the home is amazing.  (Don't know if the picture has been retouched but it still is beautiful.)

I really love this house but I'm going to have to ask my realtor to take it off the list.  I mean, how can I even consider buying a home without a baseball diamond?



(photo credits: Mercer Island-Mike Seidel, Windermere Real Estate Mercer Island;  http://mercerislandpulse.com/   Marni Nixon-marninixon official website; home picts-realtor.com)