This Condo is For Sale!

After nine wonderful years enjoying our PDX getaway, we're putting our condo on the market. We've listed our unit with William Gilliland of Windermere Realty. You can reach William at
503.333.6475 or, check out his website. 

The #07 corner units are the best one-bedroom, 1.5 bath floorplans in the Benson Towers building, and ours is immaculate.

The Benson Towers is located at 11th and Clay in the historic, cultural district - close to PSU, the Schnitzer, the Art Museum and the Keller Auditorium.  Portland's famous streetcar line is right out the front door, and Park Street, with its beautiful, canopied long greenway, is right around the corner.

Kitchen with a view & stainless steel appliances.

There's even a high-end, gas cooktop.

Entry hall and guest bath w/storage.

Marble countertops

Living & dining space with a wall of windows!

Balcony with a view. That's PSU across the st.

View East toward downtown & the river.

Bedroom

Bedroom & attached master bath and closet.

Master bath with shower & tub.

Washer/Dryer space in the master bath.

#PDX #ForSale #Condo #PSU

Portland's Farmer's Market

Here are some shots of Portland's wonderful Farmer's Market. Doesn't really do the weekly event justice...but you'll see what I mean. This is a great place to purchase, organic, local food. From fresh fish to produce, the PSU-hosted event has it all. And it's less than 3 blocks from our Condo. What's not to love?

Finishing Touches

We took possession of our Benson Tower Condo on July 18th. Well, we finally got our custom sectional manufactured, delivered and in place - as well as a fine new Turkish tribal carpet to go with it to further define the space. The sectional is quite neutral, so the carpet becomes an important accent piece. We looked long and hard for this particular piece, sorting through about a hundred carpets at five different storefronts. We purchased our new carpet from Nuri at Turkish Imports on NW 23rd Ave. I've posted before about the sectional, I'm pleased to say that it met all of our expectations, and the down stuffed-cusions are sweet. We had an "art hanger" come and hang all of our pictures in a single pass. He also installed our curtain rods into the cement ceiling of the bedroom. Owners void the window warranty by attaching to the window frames. You can bet that was a real challenge for the wood-fabric window coverings in the living/dining space. We also stumbled on this really fine and colorful handmade bedspread from India at Cargo in The Pearl (pictured below). The level of detail on this piece of legitimate folk-art is astounding. It was the only piece like it on the shelves, and we consider it a real addition to our extensive textile collection.

Happy New Year

A day early, as we're traveling to Portland tomorrow - New Year's Eve. We're looking forward to seeing our new, custom-manufactured sofa sectional, which has been delivered and installed in our absence (Thanks, Emma). We've got dinner planned at Meriwether's, then Pink Martini at the Schnitz. Here's to 2008. May it be a better year in all ways than 2007, and bring us closer to world peace and planetary healing. For our friends who will be celebrating the passage, we wish you a wonderful, safe and exhilarating evening. We'll be using a designated driver, please join us in that if you're on the roads.

Portland's Bicycle Boulevards

Portland is definitely a bike city. It has an extensive network of bicycle boulevards, paths and trails. The city is set-up for bicycle commuting, recreactional cycling and trail biking. And... it has a long-term plan in place to ensure that cycling remains a central, transportation and recreation focus. You can discover more at this comprehensive site featuring maps, suggested recreational rides and a wealth of information for all kinds of cyclists.

Wiki Commons Features Portland Skyline

Today's Wikipedia homepage features the above image of Portland's skyline across the river at night as its picture of the day. The image is from Wiki Commons, the comprehensive source of public domain files, including images, maintained by the WikiMedia Foundation, parent of the world's most popular and information-packed encyclopedia, Wikipedia. If you're looking for an end-of-the-year donation, or the perfect gift for your very nerdly nephew with a blog, consider Wikimedia Foundation. You will be judged by your friends, colleagues and even your nephew to be way cool. Guaranteed.

Upcoming Concerts

Okay, I'm excited. We just acquired two tickets to see Pink Martini's second show on New Year's eve at the Schnitzer in Portland. Portland's greatest hometown band in Portland's best venue. What's not to love?

Being close to the Schnitzer, the Art Museum, and the Keller Auditorium means that we never miss an event!

Portland Gets its Holiday Game On

Spent a long weekend at the condo. Picked up a small-footprint, Asian-styled media console for our modest (32-inch) new Panasonic flat screen and a nice Chinese oval mirror from Lotus in the Pearl for the entrance hallway. Now, all we lack is our sectional (due next week sometime) and a couple of small end tables. We did some seasonal partying as well.

Saturday marked the beginning of Portland's "SantaCon." Organized by the local chapter of the Cacophony Society, the event is yet another example of what makes the Rose City delightfully "weird." In a town where any excuse is good enough to party, the holiday season really gets the locals pumped-up. On Saturday, several thousand white- and red-clad revelers took to the streets with great gusto, megaphones and evidently unlimited supplies of alcoholic fortification against the cold. There were Santas in vinyl, heavily-inked suicide girl Santas in hot pants and fishnets, bathrobes, you name it. And for some odd reason, there were an assortment of bunnies as well. And of course, it all worked and was great fun. But it was not a spectacle you'd bring the babies to see. Leave that for the Lloyd Center mall.

On Sunday, our creative neighbors Jan & Ty had a great holiday "happy hour" at their corner condo in our building. (Thanks, guys.) They invited guests from all the units that ended in 07, like theirs, and a few from their floor as well. What an idea. The Margaritas, Guacamole (homemade), chips and cheeze were great, as was the company and conversation.

Taking the Custom Furniture Plunge

I've noted that our place is small at around 800 square feet, so it presents some design challenges. It is, for the time-being, a vacation destination and that influences our process as well. So we've been working with Amanda and Emma at Montgomery Kalsh Interior Design to get it right. As part of the process, we met recently at the showroom of Design Furnishings International in Northwest Portland to have a fitting for our new sectional. We picked the fabric with Emma and Amanda, and the team at DFI will manufacture the piece to Emma's design specs (image). So Emma, my partner Lupe and I gathered to meet with Mathew, DFI's showroom manager and resident wit.

I had thought the art of pithy conversation to be lost until I began to chat with Mathew. Not only did we all learn more about human anatomy than we probably needed to know, but we also had a delightful conversation in the process. Thrust and parry, rejoinders and repartees, the kind of conversation that requires attention and rewards it with insight and humor.

DFI builds high-quality, custom furniture for the design trade right in Portland. The firm uses solid Alder frames paired with hand-tied springs or Sinuous Arcs, and in-house craftsmen add unique character with hand carved elements that can reflect a variety of classic or contemporary styles. What's not to love? High-end fabric, custom manufacture with quality components, and personal fitting. We're excited to see and chill on our new piece.

So what's involved in a sofa or sectional fitting? Depth, seat height, over-all scale, seams, angles and feet can all be adjusted to best fit our needs. We sat in a variety of pieces, at a variety of heights to get things started. Since we're not ginormously tall, okay, even average height, we selected an appropriate height and depth for our piece. Then we checked-out arm rest heights and arrived at a suitable measurement. We chatted about seams, and discussed the over all look. After this bit of work and quite a bit of enjoyable conversation we left happy. Following the meeting, we made one adjustment on the seaming based on feedback from DFI and the consent of our designer.

Why We Love Portland

Though my family lives in rural southern Oregon, my partner and I are spending a lot of time in Portland at our new condo. Even though it is not yet fully furnished. Maybe it's because we need our regular city fix, or maybe it's because both of our adult daughters are camping out at home as I write. In any case, we're both involved in a serious and on-going love affair with the Rose City. I'm cross-posting this article to my regular blog, Pop Impulse, where I regularly hold-forth on all things interesting.

As west coast cities go, we've discovered Portland is rather an unknown to many of our out-of-state friends. And we like it that way. People mention San Diego, Long Beach, LA, San Francisco & Seattle without so much as a nod to Oregon's biggest burg. So let me fill in the spaces for the uninitiated. Portland is the city that Googles "Impeach Bush" more than any other in the country. It is the country's "greenest" city, with well over a million trees and 25% of the city covered by canopy. There are over a quarter million trees on roadsides in Portland.



The city has a number of downtown highlights: The trendy Pearl District with its abundance of lofts, galleries and high-end furnishing emporiums and the formal Chinese garden, walled and compact with a charming tea house in the center - nestled in the heart of the city. The city's famous rose and Japanese gardens at Washington Park are totally fabulous, and the Tom McCall Waterfront Park along the Willamette river is close to everything and provides a great venue for the city's many parties, like the now famous Cinco de Mayo bash. And of course, the Tri-Met & Max is an excellent example an efficient rapid transit system. We're very pleased there's a stop on the same corner as our building.

Portland is known for its open and progressive attitude and politics; its green hillsides and cityscape; great views; good food and the quintessential Northwest state-of-mind. And of course, for the Suicide Girls, Pink Martini and the homegrown Burnside Skate Park. We are especially fond of the food and wine. I'll be posting extensively on the this blog about our favorite restaurants; events, and art exhibits. We are members of the Portland Museum of Art and plan to attend major exhibitions.