Our home is a beautiful, 3,600 sq.ft, classic Portland craftsman. The home is a corner house with a original lead glass windows throughout the downstairs. This gives the entire downstairs fantastic light even in the cloudy winter months. We spend most of our time on the downstairs in the cozy living room with gas fireplace reading, working on our computers and playing the grand piano, flute and guitar. The kitchen is open to both the living room an dining room. The main floor also holds the guest bedroom, which we use as a knitting room since Gwen is an avid knitter and stores her projects and yarn there. The main bedroom is also situated on the main floor with views to our back yard and deck. The kitchen (which was recently featured in Oregon Home Magazine) is the main hub of the house. There are four of us in the family and we all cook, so the traffic and use is heavy and we are often spending time there eating, cooking and laughing. The kitchen has large paper stone counter space, butcher block island, and a built-in sitting nook and table that looks out to our back yard. The washer/ dyer is off the kitchen in the back of the house. The second floor holds our children's bedrooms , a small art studio where Gary paints, a full bathroom with claw foot bath and shower, and an open area where we watch Portland Trail Blazer Basketball games for 6 months of the year (We are big fans!) on our large flat screen T.V.
The basement is finished and set up as a ballet studio for our nine year old daughter and a music studio for our 14 year old son who plays guitar and piano. Air conditioning,

Our home sits in the center of one of Portland's most family friendly and food friendly areas, Sellwood. Which feels like a small village connected to the city of Portland. Here is what is within walking distance of our house: The Willamette River, 3 Yoga Studios (www.theyogaproject.org), over 20 antiques shops, 2 parks,a bird sanctuary, an old fashion amusement park (www.oakspark.com),a roller skating rink (http://oakspark.com/skating.html),40 miles of bike paths with a 15 minute ride to downtown, over 20 different restaurants (some of our favorites http://jadeteahouse.com/index.html, Greek at www.elenisrestaurant.com,The best Japanese in the city, as well as Italian, Greek, Thai, Mexican), one block from the library, 4 blocks to the post-office,hardware store, and our favorite place to grocery shop is a 5 minute walk away www.newseasonsmarket.com

Sellwood is an amazing area with the best of a small village and the big city. We love it!

Some articles about our Neighborhood
http://www.viamagazine.com/weekenders/sellwood03.asp
http://relocationtoportland.com/2009/01/22/people-love-sellwood
http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/sellwood-charm-and-eccentricity-in-the-heart-of-portland-466311.html

There really is no need for a car in our neighborhood. We use it to go the the Oregon Coast (1.5 hours away), The Columbia Gorge (40 minutes away), My Hood 1 hour away, or longer trips to Seattle (3 hours away), Southern Oregon, or even Northern California, all less then a day away. You can even consider longer trips to Canada and San Francisco, all very possible from our house.

Summer of 2012 interested in the oregon coast south of oceanside and north of Newport for 5 days between July10-19

Winter of 2012 interested in Southern California for 10-14 days between Dec. 17 and January 2nd, this could also be a non simultaneous exchange with you coming to Portland in July of 2012 and our family coming to S.Cal in winter of 2012

We are a family of Four Eli 15, Emma 11, Gary and Gwen. Gary is a creativity consultant (www.oyf.com), artist, and improv theater performer. Gwen is a knitter and political fund raiser. Eli is in high school and is an actor and a musician he recently organized a youth rock benefit for the Global Non Profit Mercy Corps (www.mercycorps.org/countries/unitedstates/15558). Eli has started a new band (www.meetyourmonster.com). Emma is an avid ballet performer and attends classes at Classical Ballet Academy which is three blocks from our house. Our family loves to cook, garden, play and watch basket ball, and read...we read a lot. We have 2 dogs (king charles spaniels). We would board the animals during your stay, or are happy to discuss them as part of the package if you are interested. They are easy and adorable animals.

English