Add Category![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Elijah sitting in his food cart home. (Picture: Elijah Ray)
Elijah Ray worked 90-hour weeks for two years to achieve his dream of homeownership. Now, he’s gone a step further by moving into a micro home in his backyard and renting out his main house to generate income to cover his mortgage payments.
Ever since he landed his $333,000 three-bedroom house in Portland, OR, in early 2023, he’s been on the hunt for a tiny home.
Ray’s idea comes from wanting to retire early and have a passive income from rentals.
The plan was to rent out the downstairs portion of the main home while he lived in the attic — and that’s what he was doing when he spotted the micro home on Craigslist.
Elijah has managed to pack a lot into his tiny home. (Picture: YouTube/Elijah Ray)
The average tiny home measures about 20.9 sqm. But this unit wasn’t even listed as a tiny house. It was a food cart.
With a budget of $1,500 (A$2,305), Ray negotiated the price down to $1,000. The average cost of a tiny house is around $30,000 to $60,000, and can run as much as $180,000 depending on the size and amenities, according to Realtor.
Reported by The Sun, the tiny house is just 7 sqm, so it is an enormous change coming from the three-bedroom home he’s used to living in.
Despite its small size, Elijah has squeezed an impressive amount into his food cart home, including lots of house plants, pieces of art to brighten up the place and a TV.
“I’m kind of built for living a life like this, a tiny house lifestyle,” he said in a video posted to his YouTube account.
He’s even painted the outside of the home, blue and given the door a bright yellow finish, giving it a very welcoming feel.
Due to the lack of space, Elijah has to sleep on a small massage table instead of a bed.
“There’s barely any room in there so I gotta do what I can,” said in the YouTube video.
“I need a bed so I thought I would just put a massage table in there.”
MORE: One Aussie state making housing crisis worse
Elijah uses pink massage table as a bed. (Picture: YouTube/Elijah Ray)
Above his pink massage table is a clothes rail where he’s hung all of his belongings, and above that is a shelf filled with his shoes.
On the opposite wall to the massage bed is a large TV, so Elijah can watch his favourite shows while tucked up in bed.
A shelf has been built to for shoe storage. (Picture: YouTube/Elijah Ray)
Clothes rail to hang up all of his belongings. (Picture: YouTube/Elijah Ray)
The kitchen in Ray’s micro house. (Picture: Elijah Ray)
MORE: Packer’s ex’s dramatic $4.1m lifestyle change
Elijah also built a tiny kitchen, complete with a fridge, a sink, a hob and an air fryer.
There isn’t room for an oven, but despite the basic set up Elijah is happy with his new home.
“I’m scared, I’ve never done such as huge transition, you know, a three-bedroom house into an 85-square-feet,” he said.
“I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 768 1024"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The compost toilet Ray purchased after learning it would be impossible to install a septic tank. (Picture: Elijah Ray)
Setbacks in owning a micro home
Once he painted the house and got most of the plumbing installed, tragedy struck: a nearby brushfire set the micro house alight.
“That was really depressing. I thought my dream was over,” he says.
Fortunately, the fire scorched only the side of the house without most of the plumbing, so the damage was minimal. With a fresh coat of blue paint, replacement plumbing and wood, and a new window, he was good to go.
Until the next problem.
A $500 8-by-12-foot greenhouse he’d set up in the yard to store belongings and art materials he couldn’t fit into his micro house lasted a few weeks before collapsing.
“It was my worst fear. I couldn’t fix it, and I’d spent so much money on it,” Ray says.
Thankfully, Ray still had luck on his side. Although the greenhouse collapsed during a rainstorm, his possessions inside were not damaged.
The greenhouse where Ray stored his belongings collapsed. (Picture: YouTube/Elijah Ray)
Then a shelf in the micro house holding his Xbox, shoes, and clothes fell down in the middle of the night.
“I hadn’t bothered to look for studs because it seemed secure,” he says.
These minor setbacks taught him one thing: “I’m going to have to trim way down, and sell or donate most of my stuff.”
The upside of micro living
“Moving into a house this tiny has taught me what I really need. I was so attached to things,” says Ray.
It has also given him DIY skills — like installing plumbing.
And, best of all, he will live rent-free while two tenants cover his mortgage. One tenant has lived in a studio within the main house since shortly after Ray bought it. The other — his sister — is moving in soon.
Despite the glitches, Ray says it has been worth it.
“I always try to remember that I might go through hard times, but there’s a reason I’m doing this. I plan to stack my money and retire early,” he says.
Parts of this article first appeared in Realtor and The Sun and were republished with permission.