Lois & Santino’s place is a fun, second-storey apartment in a building in which the downstairs space is a retail space (creative studio). It took us a while to figure out where to enter from, but once we did and got up the long flight of stairs, we were welcomed into a beautifully curated space that’s clearly a labour of love for Lois and Santino! We were also super thankful for the air conditioning in every room, since we were travelling on days on which it got fairly warm (though not heatwave hot!) and the cool, air-conditioned space was a nice relief to walk into. As a tech person, I will also note that they have really fast Wi-Fi :)
The living space is open concept, going from some really comfy couches on the west end to a dining table, kitchen and outdoor patio on the east end. Everything is clean and modern with some industrial accents added as part of the décor and appliances. The building is 100+ years old, which means vintage doors and flooring that are charming but are also going to be on the loud side, if members of your party need to take nighttime bathroom breaks, for instance.
Accommodation-wise, we were travelling as two couples plus a baby, and I’d say that that’s probably the most people you’d want staying at this place at a time because there’s only one bathroom, and the sofa bed — while a good option for a small kid — isn’t going to be super comfy for an adult.
Location-wise, it’s really hard to rate. On the one hand, it’s right next to Fred Meyer which is super convenient. It’s also a 15-minute walk away from a ton of amazing eateries on NE 28th Ave, and we made that walk several times during our brief, 2-night stay for breakfast, dinner, and ice cream. On the other hand, the area is a bit rough and dirty; there’s a children’s playground but we never saw any parents bringing their kids there because it’s dirty and has litter everywhere with overflowing trash cans. Overall, we enjoyed our stay in this neighbourhood because of the quick walk to a more interesting part of town, but others’ mileage may vary.
Lastly, knowing that this is a place that Lois and Santino clearly are always working to improve, here are some of our suggestions to make this an even more amazing space for future guests:
(1) We like the shoes-off policy (which is what we do in our own home) but didn’t find the floors to be clean enough to enjoy barefoot. So, a great way to get the best of both worlds might be to have disposable slippers for guests. This would also help with the balcony patio, which definitely isn’t clean enough to use barefoot and it’s hard to keep an outdoor space that clean.
(2) We ended up using the outdoor patio for dinner on both nights because it’s really comfortable in summer evenings, being on the shady, east side, which makes it the perfect temperature. I think it’d be super cool to add more character to the patio and bring some of the design elements from the inside space to the patio, so that it’s just as fun and engaging.
(3) We always appreciate not having to worry about keys. So, we really liked the fact that Lois and Santino had installed a passcode lock. The one fix (hopefully a quick one!) we’d suggest here is to get the door jamb properly aligned with the lock. Except for me, everyone else in our party of four adults found it impossible to lock and unlock the door and asked me for help every single time.