Tiny, but Mighty: A Tiny Home Community Brings Big Living to Bend

Tiny, but Mighty

Inspired by the tiny house movement, a small-scale cottage development pops up in Bend

written by Melissa Dalton | photography by Thomas J. Story

BASHA MCDANIEL’S home gives shape to her days. In the morning, the retired cranial sacral therapist sits at one of her kitchen counters and writes, gazing over her back porch at a pond and garden she shares with neighbors. There’s enough floor space to dance or work out, or McDaniel hits the river with her kayak. If she has to clean, it only takes two hours to finish her entire house. “As a young girl, I watched my mother and her friends spend their lives taking care of houses, and I knew from a young age that I didn’t want to do that,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel’s home in Bend is 598 square feet, far below the national norm of 2,509 square feet last year. That square footage has trended down incrementally since 2015. According to the National Association of Home Builders in a 2020 report: “The majority of both first-time buyers and repeat buyers would rather have a smaller home with high-quality products and services than a bigger home with fewer amenities.” It’s a cultural shift that Jesse Russell, who founded Hiatus Homes and built McDaniel’s cottage, has long seen brewing.

In Bend, The Hiatus is reimagining what neighborhoods can look like.

Basha McDaniel’s home allows her to prioritize quality over quantity.

Russell grew up in Bend, but didn’t appreciate it until he left. “Once I got out of high school, I wanted to get out of Bend as quickly as I possibly could,” Russell said. He traveled far and wide, from cooking in Antarctica to crewing a schooner boat in Australia. “At some point, I realized that I had lived in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and started coming back,” Russell said.

Five years ago, Russell was a reality television producer in Los Angeles dissatisfied with his career, when he met with the FYI Network and heard about a show called “Tiny House Nation.” “I didn’t even know what a tiny house was, but I went back to my office and I looked it up online,” Russell said. “I saw these great photos of houses built on trailers that were so innovative and beautiful, and the people seemed to have a different way of looking at housing and lifestyles.”

Hooked on tiny homes as a means for living with less and reducing environmental impact, Russell sold his belongings and returned to Bend for good in 2015, crashing in his friend’s shop to build his first tiny house. That October, they debuted it at the Bend Design Conference, and were greeted enthusiastically by long lines of people wanting a tour. Encouraged, Russell met with the city about installing several tiny homes on a standard residential lot, but the idea didn’t fly. Since tiny homes are usually constructed on trailers, they can be classified by municipalities as recreational vehicles (RVs), which typically cannot be occupied fulltime on a residential lot.

I didn’t even know what a tiny house was, but I went back to my office and I looked it up online. I saw these great photos of houses built on trailers that were so innovative and beautiful, and the people seemed to have a different way of looking at housing and lifestyles.

In 2015, Bend passed the “Cottage Code” to promote density in the fast-growing city and increase affordable housing supply in an expensive market. A cottage home measures 1,200 square feet or less, and there’s no minimum lot size. The code enabled Russell to adapt his original proposal. “It wasn’t the wheels that I believed in, it was the reduction of the overall square footage, and the innovation that comes from living in a smaller place,” Russell said. He built The Hiatus as a cluster of twenty-two homes, most just under 600 square feet. “It took us at least a year just to get through the land-use portion of the development and get the city to agree to what we were trying to do,” Russell said. “Overall the city was super supportive, but we were all trying to figure this out for the first time.”

Outdoor community spaces, like a garden, provide more space for cottage dwellers.

Living spaces feel spacious despite the square footage.

The Hiatus site is part of a development once called The Shire, which envisioned an enclave of Tolkien-inspired architecture across fourteen lots on 6 acres. When the 2009 recession curtailed its completion, the undeveloped land sold. The 3.2- acre parcel for The Hiatus retains The Shire’s existing landscaping, including mature Ponderosa trees, paths and ponds, as the features proved an excellent backdrop for the community. Under the “Cottage Code,” houses don’t have to face the street. They can be clustered around shared green space instead, an idea championed by Washington architect Ross Chapin’s concept of “Pocket Neighborhoods,” which also influenced Russell.

A tight building envelope and Energy Star appliances facilitate less energy consumption in the homes, and one is zero-energy compliant. Inside, the layout feels spacious. Local designer Christian Torchio worked with Russell to calibrate the scale, including a standard tub in the bathroom, 6-foothigh ceilings in the sleeping loft and an ample island in the kitchen. “We didn’t want this to feel like a tiny house where you’re crouched underneath a loft to wash your dishes,” Torchio said. The bigger kitchen and bathroom allow the hangout spots, like the two lofts and living room, to be cozy. Torchio’s wife, Mallory, an interior designer, chose finishes for a simple, neutral palette. “Since it is such a small space, it could easily be overwhelmed if we did too much,” she said. Most importantly, every Hiatus home sits on a foundation on its own plot of land, sized between 1,700 and 3,050 square feet, just 2 miles from Bend’s Old Mill District.

Russell worked with Mallory and Christian Torchio on design elements.

The sleeping lofts have 6-foot ceilings.

Kitchens have large islands to accommodate cooking.

The homes hit the market in 2019, selling from $229,000 to $306,925. Their size, price and location were just what Andrew Wellman and his wife sought when they relocated to Oregon last year with their two children. “The whole idea piqued our interest right away,” said Wellman, who was born and raised in Indiana. “The Midwest doesn’t have anything like that.” Four years ago, Wellman was 30 years old and remodeling a three-story Victorian when he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer. The family sold everything to pay mounting medical debt. “What we realized through getting rid of all that was it was not a loss,” Wellman said, noting they have since adopted a minimalist lifestyle with the motto “Pack Light, Love Big.”

With so much public interest—the FYI Network now has three shows on tiny homes—it’s easy to label living small a passing fad. Watching residents move into The Hiatus, Russell sees it differently, and plans to bring this small-scale development model both statewide and national. “The design of the house, it improves people’s lives,” Russell said. “It’s not just one type of person. We have a real diversity of people that are choosing to live this way.”

Modern Middle Housing in Oregon

“IT’S NO SECRET that we’re in a housing crisis here in Oregon, and it’s not just a Portland issue,” said State Rep. Julie Fahy (D-West Eugene and Junction City) in a July presentation on “middle housing.” What’s that? Experts define it as a range of housing types that contain multiple units, are more affordable, and located in desirable city neighborhoods, while remaining compatible in form and scale to traditional single-family homes.

In 2019, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 2001 to allow multiunit housing in residential zones once earmarked for single-family homes. For cities with populations above 25,000, instead of one house, such lots might now host cottage clusters, duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and ADUs. Local jurisdictions will decide how to implement the bill, which could stimulate creative approaches from builders and developers. “One of the reasons I was such a supporter of House Bill 2001 is that the status quo is not working in Oregon for too many people,” Fahy said.

Take Tillamook Row in Northeast Portland. For it, five buildings with sixteen units are clustered on five previously vacant lots. Zero Energy construction from Green Hammer means no electric bills and owners and renters enjoy stylish interiors by Dyer Studio. Now, balconies, front porches, and kitchen windows overlook a shared courtyard, which has enabled neighbors to socialize comfortably during the isolation of the pandemic. “Sometimes I think increasing density is something that seems scary to people, but the community side of it is so important,” said Erica Dunn, director of design at Green Hammer.