Welcome to Tiny Homes, an idea that is more popular with minimalists than with neighborhood associations and zoning boards. We'll point out the fun parts. You'll have to check out the logistics and legalities - but Nature hasn't moved it, and the house is older than most of the officials. Claim seniority.
Rivendell was hidden from view. You had to go looking for it, and you might walk past it because it blended into the scenery so well, until you got close enough. Here's a cabin that's been around long enough for the moss to have camouflaged it. If you want a small place where you get away from it all, a 360 square-foot cabin with 1 bedroom and -- bath is priced at $249,000. A fishing cabin with 75 foot of waterfront, excellent. Hey, wait. What's this about a "--" bath? The listing is a little lacking about a feature some would call vital.
It may be mossy on the outside, but the inside looks like Eddie Bauer, Lands End, and LL Bean battled it out to decorate the place. All wood construction brings warmth, at least visually. Walls, ceiling, and flooring were all living at one time, and that's appropriate for a cabin built in a (temperate) rain forest. Trees are so prevalent that the one acre lot is OK'd to be logged for timber. That's the way cabins were originally built.
Amenities are minimal, which also means they are less distracting. The fireplace probably does more than provide ambience. The grill on the deck could be a major component of your cooking strategy. There is wood heat, or at least electricity and water. Septic or sewer; or maybe that little building outside? Maybe that's the well house.
Decades ago, cabins were built for amenities like protection from the wind, rain, snow, bugs, critters, big critters, bigger critters, and as a way to keep the heat in and store stuff. LIfestyle inflation makes most people expect things like running water, a toilet, and wi-fi. Of the three, wi-fi may be the easiest to achieve if the phone or cable lines are in. That little building probably provides one of the other two.
The appeal is the refuge and sanctuary, and a distancing from the complications of technologies a few decades more modern than electric lights. This cabin is not for everyone, but then, a condo in Belltown isn't for everyone, either. A small place in the woods by a stream that blends in from the outside, but is warming on the inside is more than enough for someone.
But check out that toilet situation, and check the flood plain, and go find out the story behind that classic car that's probably got mushrooms for upholstery. Oh yeah, and check for elves and ents. Who knows what lurks in those woods. Hello, Sasquatch.
· 7125 Moon Valley Rd SE [Zillow]
· All Tiny Homes coverage [CS]
Written by Tom Trimbath