Welcome to the Poplar Cottage!

THE POPLAR COTTAGE

We’re the proud owners of a new (old) rental!!! I really can’t put enough exclamation marks on that sentence, because I’m that excited about this cute little house.

The Poplar Cottage is tiny (575sf) and quaint and just feels good. It was built in 1940 according to city records, but I suspect that at least part of it is older. It’s located in our small town (Ellensburg WA), which is a college town with a pretty robust rental market. Of course the house needs a little work, too. But you probably already guessed that.😉 Before we kick off any renovations I wanted to give you a little tour of this little house.

The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Exterior 1.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Kitchen C 4.jpg

a video walkthrough

Garrett put together a 4-minute video about this little house and our plans for it. Please forgive all of the fast-forwarded talking. Originally we planned to share an iPhone walkthrough, but in the end we wanted to share more. Hope you guys enjoy this one!

having patience and full plates

We’re not getting the demo tools out just yet. This renovation is one of those ‘have patience’ situations. Our plates are full right now with our Farmhouse - we’re getting back into the kitchen/laundry/pantry renovation right now and there’s still the upstairs bathrooms and plenty more - so we’ll be renting out the Poplar Cottage as-is for a year. That should give us time to plan the renovation and wrap up all (okay, some) of our Farmhouse projects. At least that’s the plan right now.

Whatever the timeline looks like, Garrett and I are really excited about this little house. We’re excited to dip our toes into the Ellensburg rental market. And excited to renovate. When we do get around to working on this tiny house, we’ll be doing our usual budget-friendly-with-natural-materials-and-timeless-design overhaul of this space, but on an even tinier budget than usual. Ellensburg isn’t Seattle and we don’t want to sink too much into this tiny house and end up underwater. So we’ll be pulling out all the budget tricks for this one.

photo tour

Here are lots of photos of the Poplar Cottage. Well ‘lots’ may be overselling it. The house is only 575sf after all 😉

Exterior

The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Exterior 2.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Exterior Door.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Exterior Laundry Rom Door.jpg

For the record, that screen door sold the house for me. It’s just such a charming welcome.


living room

The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Living Room 5.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Living Room.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Living Room 9.jpg

We’ll be addressing the heating before renting the house out. Currently that electric stove is the only source of heat for the entire 575sf.


kitchen & Dining

The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Kitchen 3.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Kitchen 4.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Kitchen 1.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Kitchen Sink.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Dining 1.jpg

I have big plans for this little space!


Bedroom

The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Bedroom 1.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Bedroom 2.jpg

This is a pretty good sized room for such a little house and I’m excited to see what we can do with it.


bathroom

The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Bathroom 3.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Bathroom 1.jpg

She’s blue! Not much more I can say about that…


Laundry room

The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Laundry Room 2.jpg
The Grit and Polish - Poplar Cottage Laundry Room.jpg

It feels like a luxury to have a separate laundry room in such a small home. I plan to make the most of it!


Goodness I’m excited about this house! It’ll be awhile before you see it again, but in the meantime, let us know if there’s anything you’re curious about or want us to cover in a post. This is going to be fun!