My husband and I have been living in a small home rental in Portland, Oreogn for the past year and a half. Our cottage is about 450 square feet. It feels quite spacious to us. Both of us grew up in very large homes full of family, friends, and fun and we loved it, but prefer a smaller space for ourselves.
We got married in Maine (we used to live in Boston/Somerville) and packed our small Honda Civic with all of our possessions and leisurely road tripped to Oregon.
We found this house on Craigslist soon after moving to the area. Because we only brought our clothes and some personal items, we wanted to find a small place that would be easy and cheap to furnish. It took a few weeks, but we were able to get everything in our home (except TV and bed side tables) from Goodwill, Craigslist, and garage sales. It was quite an adventure!
Our house was originally a guest house for the large home next door, but now they are owned by different families. We truly love our cozy cottage. It has lots of built in storage space and beautiful windows.
We are within walking distance (if you don’t mind some hard core hills) of downtown, NW Portland, and Portland State University. And we are very lucky (if it’s not raining!) to have patio space that gets late afternoon sun.