Bainbridge islanders crossing High School Road have watched this quirky structure slowly come to form over the past couple of years. What has affectionately become known as the “Hobbit House” is now finished, and its owner has plans to put it to good use.

“I’m getting things cleaned up and putting stuff in the kitchen, getting it ready to go,” said Chris Whited, who built the structure on the edge of his High School Road property.

“A lot of people wonder what it is,” he said. “Some people think maybe it’s shop or a coffee shop or an office building, but no, it’s a little cottage.”

The cottage is now a vacation rental for visitors to the island. Whited will soon list it on the market.

The vacation rental is located just outside of downtown Winslow, on Bainbridge Island.

The 800-square-foot cottage, with additional 470-square-foot garage, has garnered attention from local and international press for its sloped roofs, outward leaning walls and storybook appearance complete with a waterwheel.

“When I was drawing up the plans I decided to put a waterwheel on it,” Whited said. “I just like waterwheels and when I was a kid I saw a waterwheel when I went out to the coast and I liked it.”

“The neighbors called it a ‘Hobbit House’ and it stuck,” he said, noting that he reminds folks that Hobbits live in underground homes. But despite the reminder, “Hobbit House” is what has stuck.

“(There was) a newspaper article in London,” Whited said. “People were complaining (over there) that it’s not a ‘Hobbit house.’”

The finished cottage wasn’t what Whited initially planned. He started out with aims to build nothing more than a chicken coop.

“When I started building the chicken coop I had been down in Cannon Beach. Somebody had a garden shed behind their house and the ridge of their roof sloped down to the middle,” Whited said. “I took some pictures of that, and I liked that style. When I did the chicken coop I sloped the walls out and did the roof.”

Whited wanted to build and sell the coop as a fun project, but the coop didn’t sell.

“I had it for sale for a while and people said if it was bigger it would make a great playhouse, and so I built that,” Whited said. “I couldn’t sell those. So I thought it would be nice to make a full-size one.”

From chicken coop to cottage, locals have kept an eye on the progress, and off-islanders have journeyed to check in as well.

“People are coming up from California and Nevada and said it was in their local paper,” Whited said. “If they are in the area, they stop by and check it out.”

“A couple years ago the Chamber of Commerce had a tour bus on the island. People were asking about the house,” Whited said. “And they changed the route. One morning I looked out from our house and there’s a tour bus with people checking out the (cottage).

The cottage has attracted so much attention it now has its own Facebook page, www.facebook.com/HobbitHouseon BainbridgeIsland.