Life Off The Grid : No Electricity, no landlines, no problem

 No, we haven't pulled up stakes here at Dandelion House and headed for parts unknown. Not yet! But, we do runaway to our 3 season off-grid summer cottage every chance we get! By today's cottage standards, it's small. Under 2000 square feet is small in " house terms"  if you go by builders standards. I happen to love smaller homes. They have a certain charm and intimacy that larger homes sometimes lack. But, as I said, this isn't a beach house, or even a house. It's a COTTAGE. Topping out an just under 400 square feet it boasts one bath, one bedroom, one sleeping porch, one tiny kitchen and eating area and one outdoor solar shower! That's it! And, we love it! It's simple!

 One of the highlights of this summer was having our cottage and our unique off-grid beach community featured in a local magazine. The purpose of the feature was to share the charm and history of our area. There are many larger, more beautiful homes there that would certainly be worthy of a glossy magazine feature, however, the editors were more interested in the history of our neighborhood and our tiny cottage, the Sea Horse.

The top photo shows part of the 6 mile long dirt road we take to get to our cottage but don't try and sneak out to visit. Only residents and guests are able to drive through! 

On the left, our sleeping porch and the right is our cheery tiny kitchen.

As a blogger and writer I'm used to being behind the scenes when it comes to creating magazine features, so it was quite a treat to experience what it's like to be the one on the inside of the pages!  We met with the writer  ( Jane Spitz) one rainy day in April. A 4 wheel drive is necessary to get to our cottage so we picked her up at a nearby parking lot and drove her out the long stretch of beach road pointing out some areas of interest along the way. Although she lived nearby, she had never visited our area! A city girl at heart; it's not soft sand and waves that tug at her heart strings, but we did our best to make her a fan by the end of our visit. The cottage wasn't officially open for the season and we had to fire up our portable heater to keep our tootsies warm! As we sat in our little kitchen and watched the rain fall outside we shared our story over cheese and crackers.

 When photographer ( Rosemary Tufankjian ) came a month later ( with hubby and kids in tow ) it was the end of May and time to open the cottage for the season. I had already been planning for her visit so I did some sprucing up in the cottage to get things ready! They were such a nice family and quite taken with our area. While she snapped lots and lots of photos, her family built sand castles on the quiet beach in the late afternoon.

 

Would you believe both of our  kids had obligations that day they couldn't get out of? So, just my sweet hubby and I and our third child, Max posed for pics!

South Shore Living

What magazine you ask? South Shore Living! It's one of our favorite magazines for featuring local areas of interest, businesses, restaurants, and events!

 I wish I could link to the actual article for you, but I can't find it online anywhere! Below are a couple of links for you to visit if you wish to learn more about how we landed off grid on the shorelines. 

Want more cottage pics? Go here! 

 Visit the Beach Farmgirl Blog for my introductory post titled Sagebrush to Shorelines! 

BEACH Cottage Reveal!!!

Before I get going on my cottage tour I want to thank everyone who linked up and shared their fabulous sewing projects during the month of May! You kept me inspired to finish up some sewing of my own so we would be ready for a photo shoot for our upcoming feature in South Shore Living Magazine. Nothing like having a professional photographer come to your house to get you on your decorating toes! So, without further adieu, come on in! The Sea Horse is open!

 The top photo ( inside that cute new frame ) was taken a decade ago. It's so hard to believe our little beach bums are young adults now. I'm here to tell you that you don't need a lot of square footage, the latest in coastal trend decor, or even an indoor shower to enjoy family time at the beach. In fact, we prefer the rustic conditions of our solar powered beach cottage.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE AND THE BEACH! 

This view is from our bedroom looking out into the sunny kitchen. The cottage is small and scarcely decorated to keep things light and airy! It's anything but when you add 4 grown people and one hairy Corgi! Many of our items we have crafted or painted ourselves over the years. I painted the kitchen table, the dresser and the top of that little blue table my hubby made from an oar. I also made the curtains with a sailing them in mind.

I made the valances so they would hang flat, rather than bunched and inserted grommet in the top corner of each panel. Then with a twist of a large sized cup hook they were hung in an instant. 

To make a valance like this one. Measure the width of your window and add enough to make a half inch hem on both sides. To figure out how tall to make your valance, measure the drop from the top of where your valance will hang and add enough on the top and bottom for a half inch hem. You don't even need to sew a pocket in the top since you aren't using a rod for hanging.

I made a similar valance for our bathroom window but this one has a 2 inch rod pocket at the top. 

 

 Most of the pillows are new ( great bargains at Home Goods) but one is handmade and special...

Can you tell which one it is? You guessed it! The floral pillow was a vintage table cloth. I loved the colors and with all these stripes, I just had to have some flowers somewhere!

We have two futons on our 9 x 16 sleeping porch. I opted out of the matchy-matchy look and went with different pillows and a bright coral herringbone throw for this one. My mom painted the pretty yellow cottage painting and my hubby took the other photograph.

We have one wall shingled inside the porch so it feels as if it's part of an outdoor room. 

I found the mirror with hooks at Walmart several years ago and I love the double duty it provides in our small space.

 

This little cabinet was a road side find. I paid $5.00 for it and it fits in this space perfectly.

Isn't this a great pic of our daughter? What can I say? Moving right along...

 

Our small vintage dresser sits at the foot of our bed and serves as dresser and sideboard for books, candles, sunglasses, phones and what ever else may get dropped there during the day. In this picture it's nice and neat for you!

Our room is so small book shelves take the place of traditional nightstands. Which at the beach, is perfect!

 

 

 I made the ticking curtains too! Same principle as the valances but if you want them to bunch up then double the width. At 423 square feet you might say our little beach cottage qualifies as a tiny home. It was originally built in the 1950's then survived a decorating attack in the 1970's and over the last twenty years we ( along with our family ) have brought back some of it's original charm and kept its retro spirit with out getting too theme specific.

Now, who's ready for a little sumthin', sumthin' to eat and drink?