Wearing jeans, a Hawaiian shirt and a big smile, Nelson Yaple clearly enjoys the life he and his artist-wife Linda Piacentini-Yaple have carved out for themselves here in Astoria. Yaple is a software engineer who spent 14 years at Intel, rising to the highest echelons at Intel before making a quality-of-life move from Portland to the North Coast. “I’m big and uncoordinated. That’s why I turned to computers,” he jokes.

Nelson and Linda were both 17 years old when they met at Disneyland. They were were married five years later to the day. Along the way the pair discovered they had been born at the same hospital in Burbank, Calif., just three weeks apart. Which one is older? “She’s the cradle-robber,” Nelson joked.

In 1996, the Yaples bought a vacation home in Cannon Beach and later spent a couple of years in Seaside. They found their dream house five years ago, a historic residence at the corner of 14th and Jerome. His wife saw the “For sale” sign right after it went up and knew it was meant for them, he said.

For three years they drove up to Astoria from Portland on weekends to work on it, with Linda making the decorating decisions, picking the colors and adorning the serene beige walls of the living and dining rooms with her paintings.

Two years ago, the Yaples, now 48, and their son, Brian, moved to Astoria full-time, along with their pets, a Sheltie named Fonzi, and a cockatiel called Agador after the butler in the movie “Birdcage” who looked like Spartacus. Brian attended Clatsop Community College, where he was president of the student body, then worked for a high tech company and has now decided to become a software engineer like his father. He starts his studies at Oregon Institute of Technology this month. The Yaples’ older son, who uses his stage name Michael Ashton, is married and lives in Portland. He teaches acting, voice and choir at Phame Academy, a school for adults with special needs.

The family can often be seen enjoying the large front porch of their Astoria home, which overlooks a spacious green lawn encircled by a wrought-iron fence. The attractive property caught the attention of Linda Oldenkamp, one of the founders of the Lower Columbia Preservation Society, who drove by one day and asked Yaple to serve on the organization’s board. “I was flattered and said yes,” Yaple said. Although he calls the house a “never-ending time-consumer,” and insists his wife is the one with the flair for decorating, he obviously enjoys the renovation process.

Perhaps his most impressive contribution is one that’s audible rather than visual. The music emanating from an empty antique radio case that fits right in with the family heirlooms isn’t a local radio station’s playlist. Instead, it’s coming from the music library on the computer in Yaple’s basement office by means of a device he invented and patented that uses an mp3 player as a component as part of a dedicated audio network bridge.

Yaple, who has lots of other patents to his credit, operates Astoria Code Works, a software engineering services company from his home office. And he thinks others in the high-tech industry who are searching for the quality of life Astoria has to offer will come here, especially if city leaders put together a marketing campaign to attract them.

“All the fuel is here,” Yaple said. “We just need the spark.”