Kickstarter Campaign Started to Save Seattle's 'Up' House From Demolition
The home's original owner had famously refused to sell the home to developers.
— -- A Washington-based, affordable-housing nonprofit has launched a Kickstarter campaign to move the so-called “Up” house 60 miles from Seattle to Orcas Island.
OPAL Community Land Trust says it needs to raise $205,000 by Sept. 15 in order to move the home via a barge, or the house could face possible demolition.
The house, located in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, became famous when its elderly owner, Edith Macefield, famously refused an offer of $1 million from real estate developers. Macefield stayed in the home until her death in 2008 at age 86 and developers built around her home.
When the commercial development's concrete walls sprung up around Macefield’s house, an old farmhouse, the home drew comparisons to the home of balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen in the 2009 animated Disney movie “Up,” earning it the nickname, the “Up house.”
To promote the 2009 Disney-Pixar animated film, balloons were placed outside Macefield's home.
Macefield left her home to the superintendent of the development project, Barry Martin, in her will when she died. Martin, in turn, sold it to a company called Reach Returns. The new owners defaulted on their loans and the home went into foreclosure.
Local real estate broker Paul Thomas was brought in to handle the home’s fate. He says that city building codes left it cost-prohibitive to make the Macefield’s home inhabitable, so he sought proposals from organizations who could accept it as a donation and relocate it.
“Their mission is squarely in the right place,” Thomas told ABC News of selecting OPAL from the final five proposals. “I couldn’t believe how well they matched what we’re looking for.”
OPAL describes its mission on its website as, “working to maintain the character, vibrancy and diversity of the Orcas Island community by answering the ongoing need for permanently affordable housing.”
Thomas told ABC News the entire cost of moving the home and finishing it for a new family to inhabit will be closer to $400,000 but that OPAL is seeking the public’s help with raising half of that total. The $400,000 estimate includes moving the home by barge to Orcas Island, purchasing land for the home and then finishing and restoring the home for a new owner.
“A number of people have raised eyebrows and said, ‘Why does it make sense to raise $400,000 and move and finish the house when you could build a new home on the site?’” Thomas said. “One answer is that recycling is the absolute best as it saves an enormous amount of materials and effort.
“The second answer is that the house is going to be a home,” he said. “Nobody knows exactly what Edith would have wanted, but it seems a safe bet that when it comes to a decision between a family living in her home or seeing it torn down, this would be her decision.”
The Executive Director of OPAL, Lisa Byers, told ABC News the non-profit was attracted to the "unique history" of the home.
"The cost to move Edith Macefield's house is actually about the same as building a similarly sized house from scratch, but this house has a unique history that we are interested in keeping alive,” Byers said.
Thomas, a Seattle resident for 15 years, said he did not know Macefield but lived close to her and admired her spunk in not giving in to developers.
“She had an old blue Chevrolet and every time I saw it parked out there in front of her house, it was an indication that everything was OK with the world,” Thomas said. “Edith was still here and still keeping the developers away.
“That made me smile more times than I can count, seeing her old blue car out there,” he said.
OPAL told ABC News the new homeowner will have to have lived in San Juan County for at least three years, qualify for a mortgage and “that their income and assets are not sufficient to afford a home in the traditional real estate market on Orcas Island.”
The Kickstarter campaign has raised just over $2,000 from 33 donors. Donors are offered a variety of rewards for their contribution, including a package of $5 balloons printed with illustrations of the house mailed to them, plaques on the home’s planned picket fence, a chance to help restore the house and an invitation to a “Welcome Party” on Orcas Island for major donors.
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