Can't You Settle Down?

Having just returned from a wonderful trip to Portland to visit our second daughter, Stacey, I got to wax nostalgic for the five homes we lived in and ponder the awful decorating mistakes along the way! Case in point: Our first home in Northridge. If it wasn't nailed down, it got wall papered with a large floral print.

This pickininny collection might be worth hundreds today on eBay. What a shame I lost interest when we moved from here.

See what I mean about the floral overdose?

Our next house in Parc Bethany was a delight. Unfortunately, a friend of mine talked me into selling it to her just 18 months later. We so should have just stayed here.

Trace built this little 'storage shed' for the lawn equipment. Little did we know of the many out buildings to come.

This bathtub was from my grandmother's family home and journeyed with us from Mesa, to Portland to Utah.

I developed quite a liking for hunter green, white and pink. Don't blink because you will be seeing it for a while.

We decided to give downtown Portland living a try. We rented an apartment on the 25th floor of the Portland Center. Living there for 6 months was the funnest thing we have ever done. When we broke the news to our daughters they thought we had gone mad. But when we had to move back to the burbs...they were mad! Sara had gone off to Provo, but Lindsey lived here during her Sophomore year and I drove her to Beaverton everyday to high school.

We loved living downtown so much that we decided to buy an apartment. Finding a 3 bedroom was almost impossible. And the fact that we would have had to pay $10,000 a year to park a car (and we had three) made us scurry back to the burbs.

We owned this cottage in Cannon Beach. Selling it has been our biggest regret ever.

Since we couldn't afford to live downtown, we found this house in Forest Heights that was just being framed. We were able to make all the important decorating choices. We had a very large and private back yard. The house was three levels, with a full walk out basement. Each level had a nice deck on the back of the house. Three of the rooms had a fireplace, which I loved.

The master bedroom started out with a patriotic flair but I became a fan of 'shabby chic' and so most of the house had to have a re-do.

Trace nailed these three old doors onto the side of the middle deck so the neighbors couldn't see us while we dined....I am a privacy freak.

Lindsey's bedroom. When we moved from here I gave this 100 year old bedroom set of my great grandparents to Stacey because she named her first child my maiden name...GRIFFIN.

Sara's room. You can see where most of the items went when I redid the master bedroom.

I called the guest room 'the celestial room' because it had lots of white it in and my wedding dress hung from the wall. This is also the dress my Mother was married in, as well as my oldest daughter, Jamie

The kitchen was all white with hunter green tiles. Hunter green, white and pink were my colors of choice until avocado and raspberry kicked them to the curb. Help me Rhonda!

The basement bonus room had a hot tub on the deck that went out from it.

This is the house we owned in Claremont, just prior to moving to Utah. It was 3500 sq. feet, but didn't seem so. It was built in a golf club development. We backed the putting course and there wasn't a shred of privacy. That is no good for the Skeens.

I have finally put a stop to the chicken theme....well sort of. They reside in Mesa now. I've had them since 1985. They are like family to me now don't you know!

This is the hallway. It was the largest, widest hall I've ever had and I miss it to this day.

And so ends the tale of our many moves in the Portland area. We had such a wonderful time living there with all four of our children close by. I've lived in big cities for 30 years and sometimes I wonder...what am I doing in the sticks!