Seeking people interested in forming an intentional tiny home community just outside of Portland
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Erin Schneider
May 13, 2016, 2:32:27 PM5/13/16
to Tiny House Network
Greetings Tiny Home PDXers-
We are looking for interested people who want to explore the formation of a tiny home community on a piece of property, likely around Washougal or east/north of there.
We are a group of several professionals in our 30s who want to co-own a piece of property, have an investment, and live in community. We are all based in Portland and want to keep a foot in Portland for work purposes (possibly sharing a rental in town) but want to live primarily on a piece of rural-zoned land outside of Portland. We are envisioning a parcel 10-15 acres, with each person having a tiny home and plenty of space, plus a larger community house on the property for socializing, entertaining, big kitchen, hot tub/saunda, laundry, storage, garden, etc. The idea is to live "in community" but on your own terms and schedule- and in separate dwellings. This would likely take the form of an LLC with equal ownership shares and responsibilities for the land, main house etc., and each partner buying/building and owning their own tiny home separately.
The details are not worked out, but we are starting to look into all the logistics. So far we have 3 people interested, and are looking for 5-6 total. Very rough numbers suggest $100K per person (not including the tiny home), to buy the land, build the community facilities, and all associated legal costs, etc, but this could go up or down depending on whether we find property that already has utilities and a house. While this sounds like a large sum, imagine what that amount of money could buy you in the Metro Portland area. Those of us interested are at a crossroads- none have purchased a home, we all have capital for an investment, and would like to choose a different way of life- in community, as well as own something greater than what we could for an equal amount of money in Portland. Message me back if you would like to meet/talk- Thanks! Erin
We are looking for interested people who want to explore the formation of a tiny home community on a piece of property, likely around Washougal or east/north of there.
We are a group of several professionals in our 30s who want to co-own a piece of property, have an investment, and live in community. We are all based in Portland and want to keep a foot in Portland for work purposes (possibly sharing a rental in town) but want to live primarily on a piece of rural-zoned land outside of Portland. We are envisioning a parcel 10-15 acres, with each person having a tiny home and plenty of space, plus a larger community house on the property for socializing, entertaining, big kitchen, hot tub/saunda, laundry, storage, garden, etc. The idea is to live "in community" but on your own terms and schedule- and in separate dwellings. This would likely take the form of an LLC with equal ownership shares and responsibilities for the land, main house etc., and each partner buying/building and owning their own tiny home separately.
The details are not worked out, but we are starting to look into all the logistics. So far we have 3 people interested, and are looking for 5-6 total. Very rough numbers suggest $100K per person (not including the tiny home), to buy the land, build the community facilities, and all associated legal costs, etc, but this could go up or down depending on whether we find property that already has utilities and a house. While this sounds like a large sum, imagine what that amount of money could buy you in the Metro Portland area. Those of us interested are at a crossroads- none have purchased a home, we all have capital for an investment, and would like to choose a different way of life- in community, as well as own something greater than what we could for an equal amount of money in Portland. Message me back if you would like to meet/talk- Thanks! Erin
Ross Kevlin
May 19, 2016, 7:15:24 PM5/19/16
to tiny-hous...@googlegroups.com
Hi, Erin!
I imagine you got a lot of responses to this proposal -- it's a really neat idea and should appeal to a lot of folks out there. Over the last couple of years I designed and now am nearly finished building an ADU on my property in Portland, and a couple of money-saving building techniques that wouldn't work for me might work out for you guys (because Portland's plan review standards are far more onerous than in jurisdictions like Washougal).
One is the use of SIPs (structural insulated panels) to build your "big house," and the other is to use ground screw anchors (like are commonly used to anchor mobile homes and other pre-fab buildings) instead of a conventional poured concrete foundation. SIPs are a great product -- energy-efficient and high-quality -- and they've been used in Europe for decades and in Portland on some larger-scale projects. They're built in a shop per your design specs, then trucked to the site and assembled, so a pretty large structure can be up in a single day. If I could've used SIPs, the cost of my ADU rough-in would've been cut in half -- but the engineering certification Portland requires would have been so expensive it would have negated the savings. Similarly, Portland's geo-technic engineering requirements for non-standard foundations like ground-screw anchors was cost-prohibitive. I imagine development permitting in Southwest Washington is far less restrictive, and you might have an easier time getting innovative construction methods approved there -- although that's certainly something worth researching if you're interested.
If you'd like to know more about this stuff, my architect is Matt McCune, and he's quite knowledgeable on it. He's at (503) 789-5086, and I'm sure he'd be happy to discuss.
Good luck on this development -- and keep us posted on your progress via the tiny house network!
-- Ross Kevlin
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Jamie D
Aug 19, 2018, 6:22:05 PM8/19/18
to Tiny House Network
Hi Erin, were you able to do this? Thanks! I'm moving to PDX and I'm looking for a spot for my NOAH cert. tiny.
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