In 2017 we made the decision to move our studio and life from Seattle to Portland. We had fallen in love with the vitality, openess, creativity and beauty of Portland. And in making the move we also wanted to combine our studio and home (having always had them separate). So we went about searching for a building that would allow this. On our first exploratory trip down to Portland we stubmbled upon what Anna called "a unicorn" of a building - it was large enough for our purposes, it had a full city lot sized garden in the back, and it was in a lovely quiet neighborhood. 

Many years prior the building had been the neighborhood grocery store called Newhart's, where some of our now-neighbors stopped by as children for penny candy. More recently the building had been inhabited, however it needed some major love and attention.  

Three months after our initial exploratory trip, we were living in Portland and the (seemingly mammouth) task of designing, renovating and building our new studio and home had begun. 

Working with Minarik Architecture and Tall Firs Building Company we embarked on a really fun (and really hard) year or so to turn this dream into a reality. Here's some pictures and videos documenting before, during and after construction. 

There's also a nice feature in Dwell Magazine you can find HERE.