Today Laurel and I, along with neighbors Tim and Jan, trekked up I-5 to Portland to pursue a dream. More accurately, six of them — the new homes featured in the 2010 NW Natural Street of Dreams.
We enjoy looking at fancier houses than ours, as do many other people, judging from the crowded Street of Dreams parking lot, even on a Monday. This seems to be partly a lifestyles of the rich and famous sort of voyeurism, and partly a desire to get ideas for fulfilling homeowner desires.
(Guess that's why this is called a Street of Dreams.)
As you'll see from my photo comments below, Laurel gets turned on, architecturally speaking, by different stuff than I do. I'd forgotten that my camera was set on VGA mode, so the quality of the photos improves after I remembered to change the setting.
In house #1 we thought, "Man, it'd be great to be a kid again who sleeps and plays in this terrific piece of furniture." Bed is up the stairs. Play room and storage is through the "secret" door in the middle.
The master bathroom was about as big as an apartment I had in college.
Amazingly, this was the walk-in closet for the master bedroom. We thought the wood work was overdone. Why not have clothes out in the open where you can see them, rather than hidden away in drawers? (If you can afford this house, you're going to have nice clothes that deserve to be seen.)
In house #2 I really liked this Zen'ish fireplace on the white wall. The flickering flames were hugely watchable, more than the TV placed off to the side, interestingly. Laurel wasn't as enthused.
What gets her blood pumping are walk-in closets, of which we have precisely zero in our 1973-era house. But she couldn't understand why the mirror only showed the mirroree from the waist down, basically.
Could I enjoy this outdoor deck, especially the cool fire feature? Oh, yeah.
In between houses #2 and #3 we couldn't resist taking a look at a maxi-motor home. Jan likes to camp. This is how you do it in style, complete with an outside TV in case the sunset isn't worth watching.
Though this would be a monster to back up and park, compared to our Prius, I felt completely at home driving it while it was standing still.
For a mere $240,000 you can take this baby home. Just be sure to save some cash for the gas bill.
Moving on to house #4… the front porch felt nicely old-fashioned and neighborly.
The kitchen was plenty modern, though. Jan and Laurel found features to lust over.
We liked the open layout of the house, which reminded us of our own home. But this is what divides the master bedroom (and hence, bed) from the living room and kitchen. When the kids are up watching TV, mommy and daddy need to be quiet in their intimate moments.
House #5 was a $1,700,000 Big Kahuna. Walking in the front door, the living room fireplace made a subtle statement.
We liked this chair, which were being used to aid people in taking off their shoes (or putting booties on) before walking through the house. We need to find out who made it.
The lighting above the impressive dining table was eye-catching.
Wow. What a slab of granite, which served as the "informal" eating area in the kitchen. It was in two pieces, but still… some seriously strong guys must have carried it in.
The deck outside the living room had a neat fireplace. Wood beam was a nice design feature.
Great media room. But with two rows of seating, I felt that if I lived here and watched TV by myself, I'd be thinking "where are my friends?" (Of course, if I lived in this house, I have a feeling that suddenly I'd have lots of friends. Or at least, people who wanted to come over to my house and pretend they were my friends.)
An outdoor, but covered, pool fit in with Oregon's climate.
Pretty classy exercise room for a private home. 
I liked how the stones made this bathroom sink look. But brushing my teeth in it would seem so wrong. (Would I have to notify DEQ of an environmental pollution?)
Looking at the master bedroom, Laurel and I realized that our bed is way behind the architectural times.
Spotting this mirror in a bedroom, naturally I had to photograph me photographing it.
Moving from a $1,700,000 house to the final stop on the Street of Dreams (actually several streets, as a van transported us around the Skyline neighborhood), a $148,000 modular house, not counting the lot and installation, restored some yin-yang balance to our tour. Laurel and Jan are admiring a simple water feature.
The house is 1,250 square feet. A couple, or even a small family, doesn't need any more. This is the living room.
The kitchen featured an attractive table made out of recycled glass. The house is called an "Ideabox." It was filled with good green ideas.
Jan and Tim in the kitchen.
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Probably won’t even have a street of dreams next year:
http://www.businessinsider.com/15-signs-that-the-us-housing-market-is-headed-for-complete-and-total-collapse-2010-8
We went to the street of dreams. Skipped the giganto-home because our baby was getting tired, and was strangely turned off by the house staged to be attractive to a young family like our own. Kind of digging on the RV and the uber-modern ones, though.
Do you have any idea who manufactures the bunk bed?
Pam, I perused the Street of Dreams web site and found an email address for a staffer who can answer such questions. Write to Eric:
erics@hbapdx.org
I asked him about the natural wood chair that I took a photo of, and he promptly told me the source (Bali Home Furnishings) in a reply email. So ask your bunk bed question of Eric.