TinyHouses are all the rage these days, and so we jumped on the bandwagon! And LOVED IT! You guys sure loved the Instagram photo of the TinyHouse we rented in Portland, Oregon, too. It is my most loved, most appreciated photo so far. And by popular demand, in fact, very demanding demand, here’s a post about our experience staying in the TinyHouse in Portland.
View from the TinyHouse porch – there’s Gelly parked right out front
We intended to camp in one of the nearby state parks just outside of Portland, so that we could venture into the city to explore by day but still camp in our little Magellan the camper at night [see here for details about our camper!]. However, it was the weekend just after Memorial Day that we were looking for a campsite, and everything was booked. Except for a couple of spots available Oxbow State Park; but they lock you in at night and require that you are in your site by sundown. Knowing that we may very well want to have a later dinner and wander around Portland late in the day, we didn’t want to be locked out. So we had to find another alternative. I looked at AirBnB, trying to find the least expensive option for us – after all we’d rather just camp somewhere! And I was lucky enough to come across this TinyHouse listing in the Woodstock neighborhood in Southeast Portland. I don’t know anything about Portland, never been, and so I have no idea if that’s a good neighborhood, bad neighborhood, in the middle of nowhere … but it didn’t matter. I was in love with this TinyHouse and I just had to have it. As long as we could park the camper safely nearby. The host, Becca, who lives just next door to her TinyHouse, assured us that we could park the camper right in front – there’s an elementary school next door to the TinyHouse and plenty of parking along the street. And so we booked it!
From the minute we pulled up, I was obsessed. Becca has planted the most lovely wildflowers near the road, and beautiful flowers and fruit trees just outside of the TinyHouse. There is a tiny porch, with a seat for reading in the sunshine, and the TinyHouse is natural wood with a light sage green paint on the outside. Perfection. The roof of the porch is also lined with a string of little globe lights [which happen to be one of my many obsessions in life]. Our weekend in Portland was rainy most of the time, so some of the photos came out a bit dark, but there are lovely photos in the listing for the house as well.
Inside of the TinyHouse, it is much roomier than it appears from the outside – at least from our perspective. And we may be a little bit skewed, remember we are living in a tiny camper for six months! But I think regardless of what you are used to, it is roomier than it looks from the outside. And the TinyHouse is decorated in such a chic manner with mostly neutral colors accented by fun pops of color – a blue door for the bathroom, a light green loveseat in the sitting room, navy blue bedding, and the texture of the faux ostrich covering on the walls, in a soft creamy brown color – I really was surprised and impressed with the decor! There are also little personal touches throughout the TinyHouse: a little sign hanging near the front door with a lovely quote about gardens (quite apropos given the beautiful garden surrounding the place!), freshly picked beautiful red anemones from the front yard, a “Sweet Dreams” banner hanging over the bed.
Becca has filled the TinyHouse with the most amazing goodies: lovely smelling lavender soaps and lotions, fresh ground coffee and delicious tea, dark chocolate for conquering a late night sweet tooth, oatmeal, eggs, cheeses and yogurts for breakfast, and even some La Croix flavored waters – my absolute favorite! I couldn’t have asked for a better or more thoughtfully stocked kitchen. And the kitchenware was suitably adorable – lovely rustic ceramic plates, a strangely beautiful glass kettle for heating water up for coffee, a retro radio for filling the place with fun tunes.
Beyond the absolutely adorable decor that I loved, we had everything that we would have needed from a utility perspective as well. There is not a full kitchen in the TinyHouse – there is a small refrigerator, a sink and a tabletop burner, but no oven or stove or full-sized fridge. And that’s just fine for us, we were only staying a few days and didn’t have plans for baking huge meals in the oven. It was just enough to heat up some food for dinner, make oatmeal in the morning and enjoy some coffee and other goodies.
Our first impression of this TinyHouse was that it has plenty of space! Again, our perspective is a bit different than many other people given our current living situation, and even given our living spaces over the last decade – all in small apartments in the middle of big cities without extra rooms or yards or garages. But the beauty of the TinyHouse is that you realize that you simply don’t need all that extra space and the extra stuff. We didn’t need to stay in a larger apartment or hotel room for our time in Portland, this was just perfectly sized for the two of us. Now, could we live in a TinyHouse like this permanently? Probably not – at least not for any long period of time. I admire those people who live in these TinyHouses full-time, giving up their worldly belongings and extra space, wardrobe choices and gear. For the gear alone we couldn’t live full-time in a TinyHouse. Where would we fit the piles and piles of fly fishing gear, surfboards, snowboards, wetsuits, scuba equipment, camping gear, etc., etc., that warm our hobby-loving hearts?! Actually I think we could make it work so long as we had a TinyShed to go along with our TinyHouse!
Beautiful wood details throughout the house!
Contemplating a long-term stay here! [A girl can dream, right?]
And so of course much of the weekend while we were exploring Portland we were consumed with conversations about how we can work a TinyHouse(s) into our lives – buy some property and build a bunch of TinyHouses and start a little B&B business? Build a TinyHouse for ourselves and live out of it? The possibilities are endless. I see this in our future!
BY Jackie
LOCATION Portland, Oregon
