Couple who fled NYC for slower life in Oregon get rude awakening when their tiny house dream falls apart

A mates who fled New York City for a slower beingness successful Oregon got a rude awakening erstwhile their tiny-home imagination fell apart.

Soo Jae Lee and Jeffrey Castro gave up their 400-square-feet workplace successful Manhattan successful 2019, aft they were inspired by tiny-house videos connected YouTube, arsenic reported by Business Insider. 

In 2020, they bought 1 connected wheels from Facebook Marketplace for astir $60,000 and parked it connected a batch they leased for $675-a-month connected Sauvie Island, astir 30 minutes from Portland. 

'In retrospect, we recognize that we had jumped into the heavy extremity earlier afloat grasping the conception of "living tiny,"' Castro said, adding it took a fewer months 'to truly descend successful that this surviving concern was not what I expected.'

Lee and Castro, who made a surviving by selling their crafts, spent nether $2,000 for immoderate updates including installing a ablution strategy and a caller overgarment of paint.

But the location was successful a wildlife area, which made their net transportation spotty, forcing them to trust connected cellular WiFi, which was 'unreliable and dilatory astatine best.'

The mates often experienced powerfulness outages, peculiarly erstwhile it was turned disconnected during occurrence season.

And erstwhile wintertime came, they had frozen pipes, with Castro sharing that sometimes they faced h2o shortages for days.

Being successful the wilderness besides meant the mates were near exposed to the elements, and erstwhile wildfires broke retired successful Oregon successful 2020, they said they were nether hazardous breathing conditions for weeks. 

'When the wildfire fume engulfed the island, it kept america locked wrong the tiny location due to the fact that of the precocious toxicity levels,' Castro told BI.

'Stepping retired the doorway required an N90 mask, the aerial was horrible-smelling, and we saw nary sunlight that full time.' 

Because the wildfires happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, the mates had obscurity to tally to. 

'Our tiny satellite had go adjacent smaller and dangerous. This concern felt wholly beyond our control, and that was terrifying, Castro explained.

Then, the adjacent summertime they went done a vigor question that saw them unrecorded successful temperatures up to 116 degrees Fahrenheit without a cooling strategy oregon adjacent ice.

The mates was amazed to find that beingness successful the wilderness does not needfully mean little work. 

'To our astonishment, we didn't dilatory down. Mother Nature genuinely keeps you connected your toes,' Castro said.

'There was ever thing to hole for surviving connected the farm, and each of it felt similar a choky deadline.'

After 2 years successful their tiny home, the mates sold it and moved to an apartment.

Then, successful 2023, they moved to into a rental location successful Portland. 

'Honestly, I didn't participate this travel with a wide consciousness of aforesaid oregon my capabilities,' Castro said of his clip successful the tiny home.

He added: 'I'm arrogant of however Soo Jae and I overcame the obstacles we enactment ourselves through.'