United States
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We live in Portland, Oregon in an 1884 Victorian house that we restored ourselves. We've taken on a new challenge saving and restoring an 1890 Victorian cottage. We love Portland and the Pacific Northwest and try to enjoy it all - the people, the places, the events. We absolutely love living here. Among the things we like to do are hiking, cycling (short to century), canoeing, going to festivals in big and little towns, taking in movies and plays, touring gardens, hanging out in the hammock, gardening, being part of the distilled spirits scene. And, of course, we like old house restoration.
We also love to travel and to meet people from around the world. In the last several years we've hosted over 100 people. We've had such a good time with all these helpers and couchsurfers. In fact, it was a couchsurfer who told us about their experiences with Workaway and convinced us that being a Workaway host would be another good way of opening up our home and connecting with other travelers in an even deeper way.
Gardening
DIY and building projects
General Maintenance
We hope to introduce you to life in the Pacific Northwest of the USA and its many dimensions.
We are restoring an 1890 Victorian cottage. The house was moved 2 miles from its original location in order to save it from demolition. There are many things we must do to restore the house. These include interior framing of the second floor to create bedrooms and a bath; recreating an 1890's kitchen; recreating an open back porch and restoring the front porch including stairs and railings; refinishing woodwork; plastering and repairing plaster; general carpentry and finish woodworking; interior and exterior paint prep work and application; and landscaping. We also would like to chronicle the restoration. We have a bit of video to work with that captures the house move and the beginnings of the restoration.
We also have ongoing maintenance on our 1884 home. This included painting, fence repair, landscaping and the like.
With this range of work to do, we can probably find something for nearly anyone to do. It would be best if you have some carpentry or building maintenance skills. But more than anything, come with a willingness to help, have fun with us, and enjoy helping to preserve part of Portland's history.
English: Fluent
In exchange for helping with this restoration, you will stay with us in our already restored 1884 Victorian. You will have your own room with comfortable bed. There is a bath that, for the most part, is yours, but shared if we have other guests. We are a nonsmoking household - no smoking in or around either house. We remove our shoes when in the house. We can share meals (Kim is an omnivore, Roy is a vegan and we easily accommodate vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, you name it). You can expect a clean and neat house, but we're not neat freaks; just don't be a slob yourself. There is WiFi you can use and a TV if you want to watch something. We do have an indoor cat who will want to check you out. We are not able to host other pets.
We are 3-5 minutes from public transportation, on lots of bike routes and near the Alberta Arts District and the Mississippi Avenue area. Portland is a great home base for just about anything there is to do in the Pacific Northwest - cool neighborhoods, coffee, skiing, windsurfing, wilderness backpacking, fly fishing, winery touring, hiking, drinking beer, music. And you are more than welcome to take day trips with us or maybe we even plan a longer trip somewhere. But even if you want to enjoy the Pacific Northwest on your own, just get out there and enjoy!
We're happy to help others learn or sharpen their English, but we'd also like to learn or sharpen our skills in other languages - Spanish, Japanese, German, French.....
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Two
4-5 hours/day for 5 days
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