Our home is a "villa" style with vaulted ceilings on three floors and a number of french doors opening to the outside. The three floors total about 3,800 square feet (350 square metres) of living space. The bottom floor is a self-contained, tenanted, suite. While the house is relatively new (less than 20 years), it was fully renovated during the summer of 2009.

The house is surrounded by a large yard and garden and is elevated from the street, making it very private. The french doors on the main floor open out to the yard and onto a large patio which is partially covered by a newly built pergola. In the summer, we try and dine outside as much as we can in order to enjoy the weather.

On the upper level is a veranda which two of the bedrooms plus the common area open out onto. On the main level the kitchen, living room and dining room all open out to the garden and the patio. The upstairs floor is wood in the common area and carpeted in the bedrooms. The downstair floor is terra cotta tile, making it friendly for moving to and from the patio.

The bedrooms are all a nice size. The master bedroom is about 400 to 500 square feet (35 to 45 square metres) with a walk-in closet and a large ensuite bathroom with walk in shower and large soaker tub. There are two more bedrooms upstairs which are also a nice size, plus a full-sized bathroom with a large walk in shower. The master bedroom and one of the other two upstairs bedrooms open out onto the veranda. The master has a queen sized bed and the second bedroom a double bed. The third bedroom has a queen size bed.

On the main level is a very airy and well equipped kitchen, which was put in during our renovation. It is a "chef's kitchen" designed for those who like to cook. The design was inspired by a home exchange we did a few years ago!

The main floor is an open plan with the kitchen and living room open to one another. The living room is large, with a piano, big-screen TV, stereo (with an iPod input). There is also a dining room on the main level as well as a fully-equipped office with computer (high speed internet access). We also have a wireless network in the home. If you bring a wirelessly enabled laptop, you can access the internet and email from anywhere in the house.

The dining room, kitchen and living room open out to the yard. The yard is very private and there is a nice patio and sitting area surrounded by flowers and trees. There is also a bathroom on the main level, and two fireplaces.

Our home has a private driveway for the cars and a two car garage as well.

Our friends tell us that our home is nice for relaxing and socializing in and that the villa style reminds them a little bit of being in Europe. They also say it has "good karma". Our past home exchangers have provided us with very positive feedback, so we are pretty sure you will be comfortable.

We live in a very popular neighborhood in North Vancouver called Deep Cove. We are at the foot of Mount Seymour and are only a block from the Pacific Ocean. There are two (very small) neigborhood beaches within walking distance of our home. The neighborhood is very friendly and don't be surprised if our neighbors drop by to say hello.

Nearby is the village of Deep Cove (pictures on the site and link below), a part of Vancouver that sits on the Pacific Ocean. Deep Cove has a public dock, beach and a number of very quaint little shops and restaurants. You can hike, mountain bike, sail, kayak (we have two ocean kayaks available), canoe and windsurf all within walking distance of our home and the village of Deep Cove. Or you can just hang out at one of the coffee shops in the Cove. One of the shops (Honey's) makes the best chocolate donuts in Vancouver, and is a great morning stop for coffee.

We are about a 20 to 30 minute drive to downtown Vancouver, and 10 minute drive to the entrance to the highway which goes to Whistler as well as the route for the Ferry boats to Vancouver Island. We are close to all the attractions of the city yet our little corner of North Vancouver is very quiet, private and safe. This along with the close access to the mountains (there are numerous beautiful rainforest hiking trails within walking distance of our house) and ocean make Deep Cove a very popular neighborhood in Vancouver to live in.

Vancouver is a great city to enjoy a combination of urban living and outdoors. The city has become famous for its high quality, but very affordable, restaurants as there is a wide variety of food styles from Asian to European. The local wines and micro-breweries are quite good as well. A great way to spend a day in Vancouver is to do someting active outdoors during the day, and then reward yourself in the evening with a nice meal.

We have a dog, a Husky/Lab cross named Chiko, but he usually boards elsewhere.

We have plenty of sports equipment including bikes, barbecue and outdoor furniture as we like to spend all of our summer time outside.

Some useful links:

www.tourismvancouver.com

www.vancouver-bc.com

www.experiencevancouver.ca

www.vancouver-travel.com

www.deepcovebc.com

Outside Vancouver:

Vancouver Island (1.5 hours away by Ferryboat):

www.vancouverisland.com

Whistler (1.5 hour drive):

www.tourismwhistler.com

Anytime. Our preferance is for two to four weeks. We have a fair amount of flexibility.

Open to any dates

Open to all offers. We really enjoy Europe and especially France, Italy and Spain. We also love Asia and are interested in Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal, India, China and Japan. We would like to visit Latin America and are interested in Costa Rica, Honduras, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador. We would love to go to Africa, and we also like the Caribbean having successfully exchanged there before.

We like also urban vacations and are interested in apartments in the centre of Paris (especially Le Marais), Rome (anywhere), London (especially Kensington), Manhattan (anywhere), Barcelona (anywhere), Buenos Aires (San Telmo and Palermo Viejo) and other grand cities (tempt us!). .

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We are a family of five. D (aged 54) is in corporate finance and is an iconoclast, and L is a businesswoman, equestrian and bon vivant. We have three highly spirited daughters, L (aged 24), R (aged 20) and C (aged 18). We (at least the adults) love good wine and all five of us love good food which Vancouver has plenty of. We are all very active physically (hiking, biking, horse back riding and kayaking) and love the outdoors.

As all three of our daughters are living on their own (two away at university and one graduated university and now working), there may be only the two of us travelling, or as many as all five of us, when we exchange.

We are experienced home exchangers and we have accumulated some very detailed guides over the years on our house, neighborhood, Vancouver and B.C. to maximize your experience. We also commit to take care of your home like it was our own.

We have a tenant occupying a self-contained, separate, one bedroom suite downstairs. She is very quiet, but is happy to serve as a contact person for our home exchangers and has helped out our exchangers in the past. This suite is separated from the main house and locked in between the two.

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