What a beautiful, serene home away from home Donna provides at the Carkeek Retreat! We stayed with Donna for a month while we were househunting after relocating to Seattle for a new job. The space was just as pictured, and everything we needed. Donna is a kind and friendly host who will respond quickly to any question and give you all your privacy. On the night we arrived, worn out from our move, she even brought us a pot of soup from the batch she had just made!

The location is splendid for walking (the Carkeek Park trails entry is at the end of the street! you can walk to the grocery store through the wooded park!), biking, busing, and for driving around town. The reserved off-street parking space is a big bonus.

Note that none of the windows have curtains, and the door to the bathroom is glass with privacy film on the center 1/3, so you may feel a bit "exposed" when you first get there. The space is arranged, however, to give you total privacy in terms of who can see in (we quickly adapted). The Retreat is light-filled, quiet and very restful.

Our own laundry machines were another bonus, and also the espresso machine and the high-end electric coffee grinder. You have everything in the kitchen you need (unless you need a dishwasher, which of course we didn't). Donna obviously put a lot of intelligence into the design of this space, as well as an artistic sense that offers her guests a heightened comfort. Ask her about her gardens! She is doing some really fun things there.

In our first week we had problems with the wi-fi dropping connections, but Donna provided us a key to the closet where the router lives (which she deliberately placed in a closet with an external door for her guests) so that we could reset it if needed. The wi-fi settled down, and was strong and reliable for the rest of our stay.

Many thanks to Donna for providing such a haven for our migration to Seattle!