Padlocks on Portland Bridges Display LOVE The tradition of showing off a couples love for one another has been demonstrated all over the world. Portland bridges that span the Willamette river are no exception and during a recent river walk we took pictures. It seems that most of the locks with names and dates are recently added and crews regularly remove them. The ones that are left hanging are routinely painted over when maintenance teams comes through and slap paint on the metal fencing. I have never thought about locking my own terms of affection to a fence. To be honest...I had never heard of locking love to a bridge. Does that make me out of touch, less romantic or non committal?  NOT at all! I simply was uneducated in this gesture of everlasting love. Now that I have been enlight... 06/04/2014

Last September I wrote about the World’s Smallest Park “Mill End Park” in Portland, Oregon. I had some fun with it and my daughter, but today it really is sad. We have been having some major wind in the Portland area and that wind was enough to take out Mill End’s only tree. Despite the tree only being about two feet tall, the wind was enough to tip it over. So, hopefully the city will be able to restore the tree and the park to all its small glory soon. 02/06/2012

Now, this amazed me. Even though I write about Beaverton, Oregon, and Beaverton, Oregon, Real Estate, this park is actually in Portland. It amazed me so much when I heard about it I had to see it for myself. As you know, my family is always on the lookout for parks to take the kids so we can tell other families about them. Well, when we came across Mill Ends Park on the list we knew it wouldn’t be much fun for the kids, but when it was named the smallest park in the world at only 452 square inches, we knew had to go to it and take a picture. Yes, 1 picture. Can you really take more than one if the park is only 452 square inches? Ok, I guess I could have walked to the other side of the park and taken a picture, but that seemed like overkill. We asked the kids if they wanted to get out a... 09/17/2011

Imagine it's the day after Thanksgiving and all the guests have left, you grab a leftover sandwich packed with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and lettuce and decide it's time to get ready for the next holiday. Well as chance would have it, the tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland has marked the beginning of the Christmas season for 26 years on the day after Thanksgiving (11/26).  So grab your leftover sandwich and join the thousands of people that gather in Pioneer Square (701 SW 6th Ave) to celebrate the kick off of Christmas at 5:30pm. The 75 foot tree is an amazing spectacle so bring the kids and make a day of it.  There are lots of things to do downtown so have fun and feel free to join in with the community sing along.   To learn more about Loren or eXp Realty here. 10/21/2010

Condo units are generally more challenging to stage than houses because of the logistics of elevators, restricted hours, loading zones, and long hallways.  Our Portland home staging company has staged several units in the Eliot Tower and the experience at this building has been very positive for us and our clients. Most recently we staged a condo unit on the 2nd floor which has a great feeling as it is just above street level and you feel like you are right in the city.  This unit had previously been used as an office, and now that the owners wanted to sell it, staging it as a home was key. We used a mix of furnishings and decor that would cater to the target buyer looking for upscale living in a downtown Portland high end building.  Now it's just waiting for the perfect buyer! Here are... 08/22/2010

Director Park Downtown Portland Director Park is a beautiful urban public park, but sans the normal grass and trees of a typical "park."  It was designed to be a street level oasis, which sits atop a 700 space, below-ground parking garage.  When condo develops, businesses, offices and entertainment complex (Fox Towers) warranted additional parking spaces for downtown, plans were set in motion. Rather than build another hideous looking parking structure above ground, Director Park in Downtown Portland was designed, thankfully, to hide that under the rug Director Park. At night Director Park lights up, and is all pretty basking in the illuminations.  I'll try to get some nighttime pics, the glass canopy is amazing.  The water feature (seen in the center, as the half-circle), is a beautifu... 08/08/2010

Vancouver Washington : How do You Beat the Heat? Could it be that just one short week ago we were being soaked with a rare late-June down pouring of rain that soaked our quick getaway to the Beach? With the thermometer's temperature now soaring into the 90's we thought we'd come up with some ideas on where someone from Vancouver would go to quickly and conveniently cool off! Our first trek out was to visit Portland Oregon's own Ira Keller Fountain at the southern end of downtown. This was our first trip across the river after the new and much awaited third lane on the I-5 slough bridge was opened. We saw a definite improvement in traffic at this perennially slow choke-point. After making a loop past the fountain we were able to find a parking spot on 5th Avenue and walk over to the fou... 07/09/2010