Sometimes I get adventurous and I try something a little crazy (like an Airbnb Tiny House) on a whim. My kids are on vacation this week and this past Friday I happened to be looking at boston.com, the website for The Boston Globe, and I came across a story for unique Airbnb properties that are available in New England. I clicked through and found this gem in Lincoln, NH:
How cute is that? A smart man in NH bought an old Caboose and refurbished it into a tiny house, plopped it down on his property and now rents it through Airbnb. It’s a good location in New Hampshire (not great like my favorite place in New Hampshire that you can read about here and here), close to skiing in the winter and right next door to a really cute outdoor waterpark called The Whales Tale and another small amusement park called Clark’s Trading Post. We were there in the off season, so neither of those were open, but there is still a lot to keep you occupied if you’re just staying for a night, including gorgeous mountain views, great hiking and a really cute downtown you can walk, shop and eat your way through in Woodstock, NH, the next town over.
The Little Red Caboose is listed here on Airbnb. If you have a child who is into trains, I highly recommend it. The inside is converted to a tiny house, but a lot of the nooks and crannies of the train have been preserved on the inside, so you definitely don’t forget you are staying on a train. For instance, there is a tiny sleeping area in the cupola of the train:
Bedding for the little bunk was available and my daughter slept soundly there through the night. There was also a safety railing that we put up, just in case.
Just below the bunk are the original storage built ins for the train. The were pretty cool and authentic and offered a lot of space for things like a microwave, mini fridge and hanging space for clothing, if you were staying for a while.
There is also a kitchenette with all of the necessities:
The living area, which is included in the kitchen space, includes a small but cushy leather couch that converts into a single bed, a table and chairs and a super cool cow hide bench/coffee table that I wanted to steal really badly.
The bathroom in the tiny house/caboose was pretty fantastic. The walls were tiled and the fixtures were brass, which I thought was awesome. There is even a super cool brass chandelier in the bathroom.
An entire third of the caboose is dedicated to a very nice sized bedroom with what I believe was a queen sized bed.
So, the question is, could I live in a tiny house? Yes, if I lived there alone or with one other quiet, not messy person. And if I were to live in a tiny house, a refurbished train car seems to be a great option. There was quite a bit of space and while the set up was great for someone on vacation, I think if you were to actually live in a train car, you could utilize the space more wisely by taking advantage of the cupola area as a larger loft and not devoting an entire third of the space to the bedroom.
As for Airbnb, I would recommend trying it. The initial set up process with Airbnb was somewhat lengthy as they do require some verification of who you are including a picture id and linking to one social media account. While I found this cumbersome, I do appreciate that the hosts want to to know the person they are going to have staying at their property. Obviously, read the reviews of each property you are considering carefully because they are all owned by different individuals. Our host was great and gave us an initial tour of the ins and outs of our quirky space and then didn’t bother us again. If we needed to, we could have contacted him through the Airbnb messaging service, but we didn’t find any reason to do so. The caboose was clean and had everything we needed and even some extras like snacks and chocolates at our bedside tables for turn down service. My one complaint is that while the caboose was listed as $99 per night, we ended up having additional charges for staying on a weekend, having more than three guests, a cleaning fee and an Airbnb fee. Those added up quite a bit, so make sure you check the details for any additional charges not included in the advertised cost. All in all, I definitely plan to try the service again!
The Kids View of the Airbnb Tiny House, By Will
I thought the trip was great. When we got there the owner gave us a tour. When you get inside you would find a couch that transforms into a bed. Next to it there is a fire place and to turn it on you would see a remote with the fire symbol and then press the up button. We did not do anything on the first day except dinner at a local restaurant. I got a 12 inch pizza and my sister got a chicken parm. Finally, mom and dad got steak tips and chicken cacciatore. On day 2 in the morning we went rock climbing and hiking. We found a huge stick. We also tested out our parkour skills in a rocky river. It was like Wipe Out. After that we went to a candy store with some retro candy and modern candy such as Reese’s and Nerds. Then we went to a Breakfast/ lunch place and I got Bacon, Eggs, And Pancakes. It was really awesome. Even Mrs. Undercover Diyer liked it. We all liked it. I got some Looney Tunes Cards which are basically playing cards. My favorite place was rock parkour in the river where you tried to get to Home Rock. My dad said that was the highlight of the trip.
