I've AirBnB'ed here and there around the world, but this was my first time doing a "private room" in a home as opposed to "entire place." As such, I was skeptical, but I was really trying to do a budget solo trip and the reviews of the local budget hostel left my squirming with memories of dank (the bad kind of dank), debauched, dreadful dorms I've found myself fleeing from in the past.
As the description said, bedroom is in the basement (there is a window that lets in sunlight thankfully) and the bathroom is on first floor, with the shower being on the second floor. None of this presented a struggle or frustration for me, and Tricia's family was very relaxed and accommodating with this shared space. I was never woken up by the sounds of anyone walking around on the floor above me. There are pets in the home as described. I was warned to keep my luggage closed so it doesn't become a cat's cradle - which was no big deal. In fact, I just kept the door to the room closed. I know other guests have enjoyed the cat company and have left the door open. The home was clean, cozy, and hosts interacted as little or as much as I wanted as I went back and forth. The few times I walked past their adult children at home, they were also very cordial and genteel.
My second day (3/13/19), I went out into the freezing rain that was to become a blizzard within the next hour. I asked to borrow an umbrella and they kindly obliged with a smile - which is the kind of thing that really impresses me with hosts. Side story: The umbrella immediately snapped in the wind about a block from their home. I replaced it.
On my first day, I left at sunrise and had an oversized breakfast burrito at Pete's Diner (American/Greek diner), watched the sunrise in silence (except for geese honking) at Cheesman Park's pavilion after doing a loop around the grounds, walked the Botanic gardens (Tricia gave me her pass) to say hello to amorphophallus titanum as well as enjoy the art amongst the patches of snow, got some polynesian Kava while chatting up the bartender at Kavasutra, saw the Molly Brown house, the State Capitol building with its golden dome, and the US Mint, before people watching at 16th street with a bull-testicle beer in hand. This was all walkable from the hosts' home.
By scooter distance from their home, I hit up some microbreweries in RINO, had a cocktail with 17 liquors at Mario's Double Daughter Salotto, had a martini at the bourgeoisie Cruise Room (Oxford Hotel) which was modelled after a room on the Queen Mary, and went to what I thought was a jazz club, but turned out to be a diviest of dives full of broken bathroom doors and funkadelic beats (apparently Jack Kerouac and other beats chilled here) at El Chapultepec.
That's just the tip of it really... My point being that their home was very accessible to a number of dines, attractions, and unplanned adventure.
Beyond all the praise for the premises and the location, there were other special touches such as being offered tea in the evening, breakfast in the morning, David reading poetry to me as I arrived home in the late evening, and being able to have a good chuckle with your hosts.