Aaron and Cara Lutze
What’s your 9 to 5?
I work for Red Bull as the Field Marketing Manager for Oregon, Idaho and Montana – based out of our Portland office. My wife Cara works at Adventist Hospital as a Hospitalist.
It’s impossible to narrow it down to one event, but Red Bull Flugtag is always a fun event to put together. The excitement from everyone around the event is contagious, and the creativity that the teams put into each craft is incredible. My other favorite is an event that I did in San Francisco (prior to taking the job in PDX) called Red Bull Ride + Style. We brought in artists from all over the world to paint bike ramps – then held a fixed gear bike contest (race and freestyle) on the course.
Cara and I both love the kitchen. When we walked into it during the showing, we instantly looked at each other and said “this is it”. The kitchen is huge and has plenty of room to entertain – but it also connects directly to every other room on the main floor – so it ties the whole house together really well. We also share prepping/cooking duties at dinner, so there is enough room for us to both move around the kitchen without getting in each others’ way.
For the uninitiated, a “pumptrack” is a dirt course that you can ride your BMX or MTB bike around – and the idea is to “pump” your bike, instead of pedaling it. By pumping, you create speed, and if you can create speed without pedaling, you’ll be that much faster on the bike when you actually do decide to push the pedals. I used to be a professional mountain biker, and previously owned a house in North Portland where we built a much smaller pumptrack. I knew that my next house needed to have one. It’s an easy way to sneak in 15-30 minutes of exercise – or a good excuse to have a bunch of friends over for a weekly BBQ/riding session. I knew that Cara and I had really similar desires for the actual layout and style of the house, so I exchanged my input about the house and just said, “the only thing I care about is having a yard big enough for a pump track”. I think it worked out well – we got exactly the house we wanted, and we have a great place to ride in the backyard!
Bricks and Mortar 