Building Small Homes, Family Home-Stay, USA

Details

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  Description

  We are a family of five—two adults and kids aged 12, 8, and 5—living in a 1926 house with beautiful greenery, an apple tree, and constant upkeep needs. We’re also tackling some DIY remodeling. It’s a lively household with active kids, a small senior dog, and busy schedules.
  
  This year has been especially exciting. After years in nonprofit work, Alex is launching a project to restore or salvage old houses, turning them into small, affordable clusters of cottages or flats (along with a tiny house on wheels included in each cluster). The focus is on community connections and quality of life. Eric is also shifting from building museum exhibits to finish carpentry and custom residential furniture. We each run our own small businesses but often collaborate and help out with eachother's projects.
  
  Our neighborhood is a gem—next to the river, highly walkable, with great access to downtown. It’s full of shops, cafes, parks, and even a bird sanctuary. A bike trail that spans Portland is just a few blocks away, and outdoor activities like hiking, skiing, and camping are all within a couple of hours.
  
  Our experience hosting Workawayers has been fantastic. We enjoy sharing meals and conversation with our guests and learning about life in other parts of the world. We’ve found that while skills specific to our projects are great, we value flexibility, kindness, a positive outlook, and a good sense of humor more. Moderate fluency in English or Spanish is preferred, and we can offer Spanish lessons if you’re interested. We welcome travelers from all over to experience Portland and the Pacific Northwest. Must be up-to-date on vaccines.
  
  Our home is best for those who enjoy the lively energy and unpredictability that come with kids. =)

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Teaching

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We greatly enjoy meeting and hosting people, helping folks have a great visit in Portland, sharing food and time together. Our kids also love meeting and spending time with new people. Working on our passion projects and home projects is a terrific opportunity to learn skills in light construction and home maintenance, landscaping/urban farming, and alternative housing development.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  Projects and household tasks include both independent work and also working alongside us as a team. If you have specific trade skills or experience that will aid our projects, that’s great. And if you don’t but are willing to learn and put in a solid effort, also great!
  
  Usually we ask that visitors help out with both our building projects and sharing in household tasks:
  
  *Household*
  Help with tasks that keep our household running smoothly, such as meal prep, grocery shopping, gardening, pet care for our older dog, or home improvement. We always appreciate support with organizing projects. If it’s a good fit, you can also help by walking our kids to/from school or doing activities with them. Musicians: we’d love to host anyone who enjoys playing with our kids (or us!). If you have special skills or talents, we’re open to anything else you’d like to offer, let us know what you’d like to share!
  
  *Building Projects*
  We have two major projects underway as part of Alex's work to build clusters of small, community-centric homes. One of the sites involves fixing up a neglected home in the "village center" part of the neighborhood, putting in a basement living space, and an additional cottage (next year). The other site, near the river and away from the bustle, will eventually become a cottage cluster incorporating reuse materials from the falling-down 1922 farmhouse. For now we’ve just started the first stage of work, building a tiny home on wheels and getting things in place for a small urban flower farm next year. Occasionally there is an opportunity to help Eric with carpentry work, assembling pieces or installing custom builds.
  
  *Schedule*
  We ask for 3-4 days a week, 5-6 hours a day of help, with an occasional weekend day or evening (once or twice a month). We’re flexible on scheduling. If your travel plans will limit when you’re available (e.g. taking evening classes, or adjusting schedule to have a week off for travel), let us know in advance of your stay so that we can make sure it's a match with the flow of our household/work hours.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent

  This host offers a language exchange
  Alex taught English while living in Mexico City in her 20's, and gave private Spanish lessons after back to the States. Lessons in either language can be part of our exchange.
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  Accommodation

  We have two rooms available for visitors: A private bedroom on the main floor, with desk, drawer space, and a shared bath, and a private bedroom with private bath in the basement, also with desk and dresser space. There is living space on the main floor, the back deck, and yards for guests’ use as well.
  
  You are welcome to join us for meals. When we cook we’ll always invite you to join us, but be aware we are sometimes out for kid sports or other activities so guests shouldn’t expect a hot meal every day. We eat omnivore style but can easily include vegetarian options. The kitchen is available for cooking any time as well, and guests are welcome to use staples, which we keep well stocked. A small kitchenette setup can be provided in the basement, nothing fancy.
  
  We do our best to give visitors privacy (and space from the family bustle) in guest rooms. Some family items are stored in our guest rooms and we need occaisional access to take things out and return them - not very often. We discourage the kids from knocking and disturbing guests when their door is closed but are not always successful.

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  What else ...

  We’re located near the river, near parks, shopping , cafes, antique shops, and a bird sanctuary. Only a 15 minute train ride to downtown, and we are next to a bike trail that crosses Portland. We have a bike available to borrow, and can provide a car for use when doing household tasks. Our neighborhood is a gem - really beautiful and forested, lots of things to do, and kind, community-minded neighbors.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  Our spare room has good wifi (used to be used as an office) and can have ethernet run if desired. There's a desk and chair, as well as an arm chair. Depending on schedules it could also work for nomads to work in the common space upstairs, or on the covered porch in summer. Printing can be available if folks can cover the ink cost.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  For workawayers who'll be working on our riverside project, we have room for parking, water and power available, and greywater drainage. No sewer hookup.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  Workawayers are welcome to bring small dogs/other pets, if willing to keep pets in the guest room if they don't click well with our small older dog (or if staying in a campervan). Larger dogs considered on a case by case basis.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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