Thinkcorps

It definitely rains a lot here. Which is a change from California weather, but not as bad as everyone says. First off, it’s water, people. The same stuff that washes over you in the shower. Second, it’s usually pretty intermittent and of the light shower variety. So you can let the rain imprison you in your home if you want, or you can get a jacket. Your call.

While our current rental does lack that old-time historical charm (being built in the 70s, when our neighborhood was apparently lower middle class), it does have a few amenities that I think are key in any house—and especially one here in Portland. I learned a harsh lesson back in the Bay Area, when our SF apartment was sold and we moved to Albany (by Berkeley). The “flow” between indoors and out is very important in a house. Since houses are built to keep the outdoors out, getting good “flow” is not necessarily easy. The more barriers you have, the more you’ll feel trapped in your house.

Personally, I hate this feeling. It incubates the culture of fear running rampant through American society and evidenced in our fences, SUVs, etc. We think that mediating our lives will protect us, but it doesn’t.

So—flow is important to me. We have a little back patio that looks out over the NW industrial area. There’s even a little yard engine that passes by on the train tracks nearby every few days. You can hear it chugging and whining. This probably bothers some people, I love it. The important part, however is that we have a little porch out front. It’s nothing fancy, but we can set a couple chairs out there and sit while it’s raining (or we will when it warms up a bit). We can see the trees of Forest Park above the neighbors’ houses across the street. The back and front of the house are very different, but they bring us two very different dimensions of the city.