Our family of four (two adults, two children ages 9 and 8) stayed in Jess' laneway house in mid-May 2022. We had a fabulous stay at this cozy and quaint little laneway house. Jess was really communicative and friendly, and check-in was a breeze. When we got inside the house, the first thing we noticed was that it must be newly constructed because there is virtually no wear on it. The second thing we noticed was that the house was really well-constructed and attractively furnished. The third thing we noticed was that the amenities, fixtures and appliances were all top notch. The location of the house is also superb. We were able to get to all the places we wanted to go easily. The house is also located only a short walk (~10 minutes) from Granville St. where there is a plethora of choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner, beverages, desserts, and snacks. We had a car with us and there was plenty of parking on the street located at the north end of the alleyway (roughly 100 m or 300 ft walking distance from the laneway house to street parking). When loading and unloading luggage, we would park temporarily right beside the laneway house to but we made sure to not leave our car there too long as the alleyway is fairly narrow and we didn't want to block any of Jess' neighbours in.
The kitchen, TV, and sofabed is located on the second floor of the house. The bedroom and bathroom is located on the main floor. So as you can imagine, one has to use the stairs frequently while staying in this house, including carrying heavy luggage up and down the stairs. As such, I'm not sure I would recommend this place for my elderly parents to stay at when visiting Vancouver but it was perfectly fine for us.
It was the middle of May during our stay so the weather was moderate. The thermostat was very responsive when we needed heat in the evenings, and when it got too warm during the middle of the day, we were able to cool the house pretty quickly by opening a couple of windows. There is also a portable air conditioner in the house (it was unplugged and unvented) but we didn't use it.
The only niggling quibbles I had with Jess' place was that:
1) There was no live TV available. We were there during the Stanley Cup playoffs when there happened to be 5 game sevens played in a span of two days and I ended up missing them all. But on the other hand, the internet at the laneway house was really fast and we had no problem streaming shows.
2) There is very little counter space in the bathroom so daily morning and bedtime ablutions took a little longer than normal. But it's really hard to complain about this when it is clear Jess was thoughtful about maximizing the usefulness of the space available in the house.
3) The second floor of the house is too bright in the mornings even with all the shades drawn so it's difficult to sleep in on the sofabed. Most of the windows on the second floor have wooden venetian blinds but there is a small frosted window on the southern side of the second floor with no curtains or blinds. It may be a good idea to bring some sleep masks with you if you plan to sleep on the sofabed.
Overall, we are very happy with our stay and felt this house offered great value for what we paid. We would stay here again on our next visit to Vancouver.
p.s. it may interest fans of Canadian literature that the house Joy Kogawa (author of Obasan) lived in as a child is located just two blocks away from Jess' laneway house. One can apparently book a tour of the property. I didn't know about this historical landmark until near the end of my stay, unfortunately.