Imagine a place so off-the-grid that, if you wanted to make a phone call, you’d have to amble down to a pond, pull a canoe from the muddy bank, row quietly across the surface, and float in the middle of it—oars pulled in—to get enough service.
Photography by Alice Saunders.
When I saw this cabin pop up on Craigslist I knew immediately that it was special.
After
The cabin, tucked in the New Hampshire woods.
Ninety five percent of the pieces in the cabin are from the antique store in our town flea markets estate sales Craigslist or the swap shop at the town dump It definitely takes much...
...longer to outfit a space this way but I would much rather take my time and find pieces that mean something to me than buy something online just to fill a space Saunders says
“I also need to be mindful that while our cabin is beautiful and cozy, it’s also an uninsulated cabin in the middle of the woods. It gets very damp and cold, so I try to bring in things that can hold up well in that environment.”
Inside the small cabin, with the newly rehabbed kitchen straight ahead.
They stripped out the particle-board cabinets, countertops, vinyl-tile flooring, and sink; added DIY tongue and groove cladding (made by cutting plywood into strips, which was cheaper than buying individual boards); and sanded, primed, and painted the plywood subfloor in Sherwin-Williams’ Perilous Grey.
The simply fitted kitchen belies how hard-working it has to be to account for the lack of running water and electricity.
For water: “We bring all of our water in eight-gallon jugs that we fill up from the spigot at our apartment in Boston. If we go through our water supply, which can happen on a very hot long weekend, we have a few natural springs within an hour where we can fill up,” Saunders says.
The curtain below the kitchen sink conceals a six gallon portable Pressure Shower by Nemo Equipment which the couple uses in lieu of running water in the sink It has a...
...foot pedal to pressurize and a nozzle so we just thread the nozzle up through the counter and it looks and functions just like a normal sink spray nozzle does
“Almost all of the glasses, cutting boards, and cutlery came from the dump swap shop,” Saunders says. Note the metal Berkey water filter propped up on a retrofitted drink stand.
The cabin’s living room, with a futon by KD Frames. The cabinet on the back wall, by the window, is the one that inspired much of the interiors.
The dining nook is the couple’s proudest DIY.
Into the bedroom, which is kept bright and spacious with white walls and linens.
The bedroom is set for an off-the-grid weekend away, with bedside candlesticks collected from a nearby antique shop and a peg rail from The Foundry Home Goods.
“It’s super easy to maintain, does not smell, and makes it so you don’t have go outside to use an outhouse in the middle of the night or when it rains.”
The deck is a quiet place for reading or relaxing in warmer weather.
Nearby is a lushly outfitted bell tent, which the couple uses as extra lodgings when friends come to stay in summer.
A canoe is always ready by the pond for a picnic—or a paddle out to get service.
It gives us the opportunity to be fully present and focus on the tasks we’re tackling that day, or focus on each other and the woods around us without any sort of screen distraction or text notification.”
Before
The kitchen, before being greatly improved.