The Portland Architecture & Design Festival offers a rare glimpse inside six architect-designed residences through the Design Matters Home Tour. Some are historic. Some are cutting-edge.

Trying to make life beautiful is not a bad way to spend a life, and maybe that’s why I’m so fascinated by Pietro Belluschi who did that so successfully. And did much of it right here in Oregon.  You can see his houses, office buildings and churches around the state.

The  Energy Trust of Oregon is sponsoring The Oldest Fridge Contest to encourage people to recycle those ancient energy suckers, and they’ve made it fun by dangling a $1,000 grand prize toward a new appliance.

Many people don’t realize  you can wander the Pittock Mansion gardens at no cost and even take a picnic on the table or benches over-looking the city of Portland.  The garden is tended to by a volunteer crew who know their way around a flower bed and give free guided tours twice a month. 

Each of the five homes on the Street of Dreams tour includes an accessory dwelling unit or ADU. That’s fancy pants talk for the extra living space formerly known as mother-in-law apartment, guesthouse, studio or nanny quarters.

Over the weekend, my husband and I got the guest room ready. We cleared the clutter. All the surfaces needed dusting. We put crisp, clean, sheets on the bed. I considered buying flowers for the bedside table but worried our guest might think that was a bit over the top. And I wanted to make a favorable impression.

Buildings have power. As a kid, I believed they set the stage for all human thought and behavior. The fab ‘50s ranch house I grew up in, with its light blond wood cabinetry and boomerang pattern kitchen counters, seemed the perfect backdrop for my casual, noisy, thoroughly modern family life.  But then I’d go off … Read more