I came to Chicago post-college seeking everything a big city has to offer and man did it deliver.
Fast forward 10 years a husband and 2 kids and I found myself in a life where we were doing more keeping up than living. My husband and I knew that the pace we were moving was not ideal but we were happy, had great friends and loved our urban life.
We often talked about what we would retrofit in order to make life more manageable. Then we started talking about what we would look for if we made a bigger change. What if we blew it all up and started over. What would we look for in a place, in jobs, in life. What life would we build if we started with a blank slate?
What started as casual pillow talk turned into a list that would help us evaluate opportunities.
Equal or lower cost of living
Quality schools
Urban environment or at least a walkable downtown
Shorter commutes
Warmer weather
Charming houses
Just as casually as our list started a conversation started with a company in Portland, OR. Neither of us had ever been to Portland at the time. In the end we blew it all up. We’ve Portlanded and now we are putting the pieces of life back in place in one of the quirkiest cities in America.