Portland homes

We moved to Portland in February of 1990. Before that we were living outside of Forest Grove on 700 acres with lots of room and definitely a rural life. Our house was heated with a wood stove, we shared our phone line with three other families and only got 2 television stations. When we moved into Portland we landed on 12th and Alberta, right in the inner city. This was a huge change for us and the kids. The toughest change was the noise. It was constant and never really went away. This is the first house we bought in Portland.

We had 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. The main floor had a kitchen, large dining room and living room. 3 bedrooms and the bath were upstairs. Over the years we added 2 bedrooms and a TV room in the basement. This house was originally built where the Minnesota Freeway,

 ( I-5), goes through North Portland. They cut off the backyards of 3 houses along Alberta to create the lot for it and moved it here in 1965. It was a great house. 

In 1998 Diane and I separated and I bought a townhouse about 5 blocks away on Emerson. This let the kids wander between houses and made it easier to get them to school and activities. The townhouse was brand new when I bought it, well insulated and very efficient. Quite a difference after the house on 12th which was 85 years old and a little drafty. We had 2 bedrooms and 1 bath upstairs and kitchen, dining area and living room on the main floor. This is the townhouse. Its the one in the middle with the large porch. The porch was a great feature. 

I lived here alone or with the kids till 2003 when Diane sold her house on 12th and her and Parker moved in while we looked for a bigger house. One of our must haves in the new house was more than one bathroom. In the almost 30 years since I moved out of my parents house, I had never lived in a house with more than 1 bathroom and for the last 14 years it had been on the top floor of the house. 

In 2004 we bought the house we still live in. 

This house was also brand new. It had the same layout as our other houses in Portland, living room, kitchen and dining on the main floor but it also had a half bath on the main level. Upstairs were 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. It took a while to get used to having a bathroom on the main floor and even after a year in the house I would still run upstairs to use the facilities. Now with the kids gone it is a 2 bedroom house with a craft room and office. We'll be here till we retire and love our neighborhood and location. 

Brason Avenue, where we live now.

This used  to be the name of the street we live on. Back when this was East Portland instead a part of Portland, the north/south avenues were named instead of numbered. We now live on 7th Place. It's 2 blocks long and doesn't exist elsewhere in the city. We live in an old neighborhood in a new house. Most of the streets and houses were put in around 1910. We still have tether rings for horses embedded in the sidewalks and iron rub rails on the curbs to keep them from chipping. These all go back to the days of horse drawn transportation.  

This is our house. We've lived here for 10 years. The original house on this lot was condemned and torn down. The chain link fence on the north side of the house is all that's left of the original property. It's been a great place to live. We have 4 restaurants, a brew pub, coffee shop, park and bike shop within 4 blocks. The quintessential Portland neighborhood. It's known as the Dekum Triangle and the Woodlawn Neighborhood. 

This is who lives in the house. My wife, Diane and myself. She is the reason this is such a great house. She fills it with love and grandchidren, takes excellent care of me and herself and makes it a place where all our kids are happy to come visit.  And she drives the red Jeep in the driveway. Pretty much just our youngest lived in this house. The rest were out of the house or just here sporadically by the time we moved here but all know it as a  home they can come to.