Works of Art: Portland Cottages in the Mississippi District

I’ve been obsessed with these tiny Portland Cottages ever since I read about Jeff and Brad’s building techniques on OregonLive.com last year.

Fantastic Tiny Home Tours

I was lucky enough to tour these tiny cottages during my mini-vacation last week. When I arrived in Portland, I sent Jeff and Brad a quick email on the off chance that they might be around and let me tour their beautiful little homes. To my surprise Jeff emailed me back and said yes!

Jeff and Brad are the cottage designers and builders. The couple created these beautiful spaces using salvaged and recycled materials. Brad has been building in Oregon for over 30 years and Jeff has an incredible amount of experience in gardening and masonry.

Plum House

The first tiny home I toured is called the Plum House. It’s between 700 and 800 square feet with a beautiful loft, kitchen, huge front windows and a deck. This cottage is a scaled down version of the main house and is modeled after the early 1900s Victorian home design.

374 Square Foot Cottage

The homes built by Jeff and Brad are truly works of art. Recycling and reusing materials to create such an spectacular space made me smile. Some features in the cottages include:

• Built-in bookshelves;
• A gabled roof;
• Cedar-shake siding;
• Decorative brick foundations;
• Thirteen-foot ceilings that give the small cottage a feeling of spaciousness;
• The kitchens include trap-door wine cellars built into the fir floors;
• The floors are tongue-and-groove fir, but they have been stained which makes the spaces warm;
• Recycled olive oil cans were twisted into the shape of cascading calla lilies;
• Old kitchen vent hoods from The Rebuilding Center became window boxes;
• And two old Dairy Queen benches were made into porch swings.

One of my favorite things about the small cottages is the hidden wine cellar and the recycled olive oil cans out front:

Beautiful Garden and Flowers

Jeff has a green thumb; his gardens are amazing and the colors of his many many flowers were absolutely vibrant. Someday, I’d love to rent one of these cottages. I could totally see myself drinking coffee on the back porch and admiring all the greenery.

Cottage Popularity

I knew the cottages were sought-after, but didn’t realize how popular until Jeff and Brad told me about the numerous people who stop in front of their homes to stare. Some folks even peer into the windows and have walked into their backyard. I know these places are cute, but you would think folks would ask permission first?

Faith…

Jeff and Brad are really sweet people and incredibility kind. Meeting them restored my faith in humanity. It’s my hope that more people will follow their building philosophy: reuse and recycle. The planet is small and there are only so many resources to go around.

Walking…

Jeff made me a cup of coffee for my long walk back to the hostel. I’m so happy that I walked back; it was amazing. I poked my head into the Rebuilding Center and checked out the up and coming Mississippi District. Plus, the view over the Broadway Bridge was truly spectacular.

Photos

You can see all the cottage photos by clicking here.

Tagged as: Portland, recylce, tiny house, vacation