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At 700 square feet, Adam’s midtown apartment includes a cozy living room, a bedroom, a bathroom, and an outdoor terrace.

Jeff’s practice is on the lower level of the house, where it opens up to the private terrace.

Picture rails make it easy to hang photos and prints, and the couple can quickly swap them out without leaving holes in the wall.

Secondhand furniture helped bring together the home on a tight budget. Jeff found a set of eight Danish teak dining chairs for around $400, and he refurbished them one by one. “They came with this beige fabric, but I know Kim would much prefer color so we bought a deep indigo fabric and I reupholstered them myself,” he says.

Some feel like renting is a compromise while they wait to hook onto the property ladder, but for Jeff and Kim, it was their first chance to lay down roots.

The rug is from Kat and Mouche, a Portland store.

When the couple bought the home, the yard had mature native Ash, Oak, Cedar, and Douglas Fir trees, and a Japanese-inspired garden.

New speakers

"We really love the house now,

“We got creative with the triangulated roof. It starts at nine feet at the base of the triangle, and then slopes up to thirteen feet high at its peak,” says Lee.

The unit is positioned about 30 feet away from the house, which is far away enough that you can’t hear the kids if they’re being loud, says Sarah. (Her son recently hosted a karaoke party for 10 friends in the studio but it wasn’t disruptive, she says.)

In the dining room, Mies van der Rohe chairs surround a custom-made cherry table. Black-and-white photographs of Sasseen's children and grandchildren are arranged systematically on the back wall.

A wood-lined outdoor shower adds a modern touch to one of the decks.

Sliding doors open to the balcony off the enlarged living room where a work by Sol LeWitt hangs. When the panels went up, the house became a curiosity in the neighborhood. “People actually stand in front of it and try to figure it out,” says Roxana. Charles adds: “This guy that we’d been neighbors with for probably eighteen years at that point—we never said a word to each other. But when the new stairs were built, he came over and started talking about how much he loves them.”

A glimpse of Heva's interior and deck.