redneck-home-improvement

Guest Post by Tammy Strobel

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 Tour

I was lucky enough to tour these tiny cottages during my mini-vacation a few months ago. 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.

374 Square Foot Cottages

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.

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?

Reuse and Recycle…

Jeff and Brad are really sweet people and incredibly 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.

You can see all the cottage photos by clicking here.

Photo Credits: Tammy Strobel

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