SEATTLE -- There's spite and then there's SPITE. And, depending on the story you believe, there's a home in Montlake -- a small one at that -- that was likely built with the capital 'S' in mind. 
 
 
 
 To neighbors the 830-square-foot house on the corner of 24th Avenue East and East Boston in Montlake is an icon; but what the home, known as the Montlake Spite House, lacks in size it more than makes up for in story, myth and legend. 
 
 
 
 The house, which is currently up for sale, was originally built in 1925. The listing agent describes it best when she says the original owner took full advantage of the pie-shaped property by creating a pie-shaped home; the back of the home is just 4.5 feet wide and the front is only 15 feet. But aside from its unique shape and size, what sets this home apart from its neighbors is how it allegedly came to be. 
 
 
 
 "I can't imagine why else someone would build a house like that if it wasn't out of spite," says Lisa Horton, the owner of the home. 
 
 
 
 Some neighbors tell the tale of a husband, a wife and a divorce settlement. Allegedly a judge awarded the husband the house and the wife the front yard; so out of spite up went the tiny home, by the wife, on top of her front yard. But that's not true, according to The Stranger. A story published several years ago by the newspaper supports a different tale, one which is very familiar to Horton. 
 
 
 
 "I always heard it was a land dispute," Horton says. 
 
 
 
 The story alleges the home went up after the next-door neighbor, who wanted to buy the pie-shaped corner lot, made a low-ball offer to the property owner. The property owner was so mad at the offer he built the house to get back at his neighbor, who eventually ended up moving. 
 
 
 
 Horton, who has owned the home since 2000, says with all its quirks - like having to stand off to the side to make enough room to open the oven door - the local legend must be true. 
 
 
 
 "Of course I buy into it," she says. 
 
 
 
 Eugene Smith, a retired professor at the University of Washington, lived in Montlake for 40 years. Fascinated by local history, in 2004 Smith wrote a book about Montlake's history, devoting one of the chapters to what he calls the eclectic collection of houses seen throughout the neighborhood. 
 
 
 
 "(The Montlake Spite House) was certainly the oddest of all the bungalows," Smith says. "It was the smallest, most peculiar shape." 
 
 
 
 Smith says he was intrigued by the asymmetry of the spite house and came up with his own version of its creation. 
 
 
 
 "What I concluded, since I wasn't able to track down any particular feuds or hate, was that someone came up with a design to fit the lot and built it so it didn't interfere with anyone's view," Smith says. 
 
 
 
 It turns out Montlake's Spite House doesn't stand alone. A handful of stories have been published from across the country featuring similar cases where a home has been built, added-on to or painted to deliberately irritate and annoy others - in many cases a neighbor or city entity. 
 
 
 
 The Montlake Spite House is currently listed for sale at $397,500 and is touted as the "perfect condo alternativein one of Seattle's best neighborhoods." 
 
 
 
 The home, currently unoccupied, previously sold for $239,500 in 2000, according to Redfin. ||||| It looks like such a sweet home. But once you know the history of this pie slice-shaped dwelling, you'll see why it's nicknamed the Seattle Spite House and you'll learn there are laws to prevent you from intentionally building to block views, light or access that your neighbor enjoys. 
 
 Washington State spite law 7.40.030: Malicious erection of structure may be enjoined. An injunction may be granted to restrain the malicious erection, by any owner or lessee of land, of any structure intended to spite, injure or annoy an adjoining proprietor. And where any owner or lessee of land has maliciously erected such a structure with such intent, a mandatory injunction will lie to compel its abatement and removal. 
 
 In legalese - forgive me - an act like that is called a "malicious erection." 
 
 Still, there are so many examples of cranky citizen's constructions to irritate adjacent landowners that Wikipedia has an entry for both a spite house and the less-expensive revenge, a spite fence. 
 
 Warring neighbors have painted exterior walls garish colors, posted unsightly signs and tried other ways to pique the people nearby. But it's expensive, and now illegal, to block with a vengeance. 
 
 The tiny Seattle spite house at 2022 24th Ave. E, which is now listed for sale at $519,900, was built in 1925. Stories of its origin vary, but all focus on serious payback. 
 
 The most popular rumor centers on a wacky divorce case in which a judge awarded the house to the husband and a sliver of the property - the 3,090-square-foot front yard - to the wife. 
 
 Some say out of spite, she squeezed a pie slice-shaped structure onto her odd corner lot, which dictated that one end only be 55 inches wide. In this mini mudroom, you can stretch out your arms and touch opposite walls. 
 
 The footprint widens a little in the cramped kitchen, but not enough to stand in front of the oven and open the oven door. The living room in the center of the triangle house offers more elbow room. Finally, at the end, the master suite is a luxurious 15 feet wide. 
 
 Hallways? Forget it. But there is a daylight basement/garage conversion. Buried beneath the main floor is a bedroom and bath that benefit from carriage doors that open to the outdoors. The center of the subterranean space is a cozy seating room. At the almost pointed, narrow end is an elevated platform with a mattress. Tiny house dwellers would feel right at home here. 
 
 At 860 square feet, the listing price breaks down to $605 a square foot, about three times the median in Portland. 
 
 That's pricey. So is the idea of constructing a wall or something larger to retaliate. Building codes and expenses squelch many planned spite houses. Instead, may we suggest calling a neighborhood mediator? 
 
 - Janet Eastman 
 
 jeastman@oregonian.com 
 
 503-799-8739 
 
 @janeteastman ||||| You might think that a little wedge-shaped house built explicitly to aggravate someone would be a tough sell. 
 
 Not in Seattle. Listed at $397,500, the home was just snapped up over the weekend, the real estate agent told Yahoo Homes, after spending only a couple of weeks on the market. "We had quite the interest!" she told us. (A local news story published Tuesday and picked up internationally might have helped the quick sale.) 
 
 Click here or on a photo to go to a slideshow. 
 
 Locals call it the Montlake Spite House. Legend has it that the home, on a mere sliver of a lot, was built by: 
 
 • A woman who won only a bit of yard in a divorce settlement, while her ex got the rest of the property, including the (normal-shaped) house they'd shared. Or ... 
 
 • A landowner who was furious when the neighbor who owned the adjacent (normal-sized) lot made him a lowball offer on the sliver. Or ... 
 
 • A traveler who, while visiting Germany, gave permission for someone to build on the lot -- with the provision that enough land be left for a second house. When the traveler returned, he discovered that the new house took a lot more space than he'd expected, so, “out of spite, he [the landowner] built that funny little pie-shaped home" as an obstacle, the current homeowner told KPLU-FM's Martha Kang. “I also heard that back when it was first built, the side that was facing the neighbor had been painted black.” 
 
 The house at 2022 24th Avenue East has 830 square feet, and it's just 55 inches wide at its narrowest point. The house is shaped like a right triangle with its sharpest point slightly blunted -- that's the 55-inch-wide edge, where a mudroom and exit door lead into the yard. The longest side of the triangle (the hypotenuse) faces the street, with the entrance placed roughly at its center. 
 
 Click here or on a photo to go to a slideshow. 
 
 Lisa Horton, the current homeowner, told KPLU that the shape of the house was never much of an impediment, except when she was cooking: The kitchen is toward the narrow end of the house, so you can't stand in front of the oven when you open it; you have to stand to the side.
– From the front, a half-million-dollar home on the Re/Max website looks like a quaint Spanish Revival in the heart of Seattle. Head to the side for a different perspective, and you'll see appearances are deceiving. You're looking at what Yahoo says locals call the "Montlake Spite House," an 860-square-foot sliver of a house that's legendary even among tiny houses. The front of the pie-shaped home built in 1925 is just 15 feet wide, while the back comes in at under 5 feet wide, KOMO reported in 2013, the last time the house was up for sale. Eugene Smith, a retired professor at the University of Washington who wrote a book on area history, says the wedge-like residence "was certainly the oddest of all the bungalows" in the area. "It was the smallest, most peculiar shape," he told KOMO. And the story behind its supposedly spiteful construction is just as strange as its shape. Yahoo dug up a few origin tales, including that it may have been built by an enraged landowner to spite a neighbor for a lowball offer on the land, per the Stranger. It also may have been a revenge move by a long-ago owner, said to have given permission for someone to build a home while he was traveling, as long as there was room left for his own house, which … there wasn't, really, Quirksee has reported. But one of the catchiest stories, offered by the Oregonian, claims a divorce judge awarded the original, larger home to the husband, and a tiny portion of land to the wife, who then built this minuscule abode to be up in her ex's face. These days there's a law on the books against such a "malicious erection," which involves building a structure to purposely "spite, injure or annoy" neighbors by blocking their view, access, or light. (A secret of the "tiny house" movement.)