My wife and I and our 2 y.o. (or 26 month old) son stayed here for a week, and I cannot say enough nice things about Matt's "Best kept secret" basement apartment. The place is well-built, clean, highly functional, great privacy, great access, wonderful location, comfortable, relaxing... we loved, loved, loved it! If the space itself isn't like the perfect little 1 room apartment by itself, Matt and his wife have included the thoughtful little items to make sure the place is fully stocked and it felt like we were home, including kitchen items, stocked bathroom, extra sheets and pillows, couch blanket, Chromecast on an HDTV, and ice trays in the mini-fridge. And since they knew we had a little one, they even left a jar of outlet protectors on the counter with a kind note (just in case we wanted them). How sweet is that?!

Our experience: We only rented a car one day so we could explore waterfalls (and there was plenty of on-street parking). We got around the rest of the week via the bus and light rail to live like the locals. We were able to walk to Fred Meyer's only 3 blocks away and was super convenient (plus there is a Starbucks with tasty breakfast sandwiches!). The bus stop was a 4 minute walk away and the there are 3 VERY CONVENIENT lines that get you downtown and north into NE Portland. The wife and I used care.com to find a trustworthy babysitter while there and had a date night that included 4 bars along Broadway Street (which we navigated all by foot). If we rented bikes a couple of days, it would have truly been like living like a local! Oh, and our little guy played on so many different play grounds as we explored... he never had to play on the same equipment twice!

Laundry: We did laundry a couple times while there (the temps were all over with highs swinging from 102 to 60, plus our son was wetting himself in "trainers"... side note: potty training during a vacation is rough). There is a super cool/trendy laundromat called Spin with a bar and snack place attached (but it's a 25-30 min bus ride each way). The second time we used a laundromat within walking distance (15 min walk) on Glisan St/28th. There are some nice lunch spots close by there too, including Migration Brewing (yes, I indulged). Beware that the place on Glisan has washers that take FOR-EV-ER. A "42 minute" wash cycle ACTUALLY took 65 minutes (time for an extra beer, plan accordingly).