THE SPACE
The apartment is beautiful! You can tell the owners are creative, talented people. Everything's in lovely wood. In the dining room and living room you look out on the grape vines curling outside the windows and light pouring in.
Everything seemed much nicer than it had to be, and there were so many considerate touches. Things like providing a laundry hamper, and nice mixing bowls. The house has SO MUCH storage (shelving, closets, drawers), so it was very easy to get organized and feel comfortable. I was bringing all my stuff for a permanent move, and was able to store it all without cluttering.
All in all it's an incredibly pleasant and welcoming environment, with everything I needed to cook and work from home very comfortably for a month.
THE AREA
It's a very sedate neighborhood with a family sort of feel to it. It also seemed very convenient to get from Beacon Hill to many places. I did have a car, and as a nervous city driver found it surprisingly easy and low-stress to get from BH to downtown.
There's a pleasant little bakery nearby (Flora), with fancy lattes and croissants and sourdough. There's also a fresh produce stand (MacPherson's) within easy walking distance, that also is fairly cheap! Plus a really excellent Filipino grocery store (Fou Lee) where they have 5 varieties of eggplant and lots of amazing looking packaged treats and ingredients. Those are both walkable, and there's also a Carrs within short driving distance.
There's actually quite nice running opportunities. It's just a block or two away from a fairly extensive biking/running trail, Chief Sealth. Note that it's not lighted, and so best during summer/daytime. I mostly ran down to the waterfront, though, Genessee Playground to Seward Park area. If you didn't want to run it'd be a very short drive. There's also a boathouse there; I didn't try, but I'll bet you could rent kayaks or something. Oh! Jefferson Park is also in walking distance. It has a track, if you preferred doing laps.
The only negative is that while it's very people-quiet, there is a fair amount of car and plane noise. My very kindly provides earplugs, but if you have your own sound-blocking nighttime stuff you should bring it with you.
HOSTS
My was so incredibly kind throughout the whole stay! It felt like living in my own beautiful apartment for the month, but with the nicest and most helpful neighbors ever.