Hello, I'm a busy Mom of four kids ages 18 through 11 recently transplanted from central New Jersey to Oregon! My past job experiences have included teaching community college and co-founding one of the first parenting websites, Moms Online. Over the last ten years I've gotten involved in managing rental properties here in NJ/PA, volunteering (Girl Scouts and PTO), and working as Editor in Chief for fitsmi.

Katharine de Baun purchased this house in 2005

My husband and I bought this house as a bit of a lark - it was featured in a NYT piece in the Friday 'Escapes' section on Feng Shui homes. My mother-in-law was increasingly unable to travel and it just made more and more sense as we talked about it: why don't we buy it so we have a place for all of us to stay when we visit her? I did a little research about VRBO homes in the area and, at least at the time, there wasn't much competition (there's more now but we're still doing okay). We set up the house to please ourselves and our guests at the same time. It was a lot of work, and a lot of fun too.

We love, love, love the view at all hours, from watching the sun come up over the mountains early in the morning to dusk shadows and then sometimes a beautiful moon over the pass. My husband and I also love walking the Mt. Esther trail every morning we can (the head of the trail is a 10-minute walk away). When we're at the house, we enjoy complete privacy and the sense that we've gotten away from it all, but we also love the convenience of driving 20 minutes or less to many shops/attractions, from Colorado Springs to Manitou Springs, Woodland Park, Green Mountain Falls, Cave of the Winds, the local Rock Shop (our kids take forever to spend $5 in there!), Pike's Peak cog train, and more.