TH, my dad, and I camped out for a month on our property three years ago to build our cabin. It was so much fun! My dad shared his mad skills and TH became quite the carpenter. I feel proud because we did everything ourselves, except for the plumbing (for when we drill a well someday).
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| Denali's (McKinley's) top is peeking out above the clouds. |
Our cabin is 384 square feet and perfect. (I do feel sorry for my shoe collection, which has to live in a giant tote on the porch.) We do not have water, i.e. no shower, bathroom, faucet, laundry. Our amazing wood stove keeps us toasty throughout the winter. In fact, it's usually so warm that my coconut butter is permanently in a liquid state.
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| Hauling water builds delts! |
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| Princess, our Blaze King |
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| Our outhouse with a view |
When you live in a small space you need to be creative with storage. Our "couch" is actually a bench that TH built.
It's hollow, so that I can store all of my dry, natural goodies that I either order online or purchase when I make the long trek to Los Anchorage (our state's metropolis).
We also have a hollow bed and hollow benches:
TH built me a gorgeous bookshelf above our cupboards, that also serves as a partial wall for our tiny guest loft.
And because he loves me so much, he also created a cute little spice shelf above our stove so that I don't have to waste cupboard/counter space with numerous little containers. It's so handy for (un)cooking!
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| It's actually quite long. |
We feel happy that we don't need a giant house to store all of our stuff. Getting rid of almost everything from our former 1600 square foot place to move here was exhilarating! At some point we will build a larger house on our property, just because it's kind of tight when we have guests. But for now, we love our cozy space.
oh my god, I ALSO love your cozy little space! My husband is in the military, we live in a much-too-big house (just the two of us and our two dogs), and I am looking forward to getting rid of our stuff when WE move! Your place is GORGEOUS! We went to Soldotna one time and stayed in a tiny cabin there for a week once and it was so peaceful and relaxing. Gosh! I am wondering a few things, like it kind of looks like you have electricity, but do you have internet access at home? How close is the nearest store? I might have to look up Talkeetna on a map. We have a friend who lives there but haven't been out to visit! Is your outhouse old-school or do you have any interesting upgrades? I am so nosey! Sorry! I just wonder what it's like! And you're RIDICULOUSLY gorgeous! I'm sitting here wondering how you look so awesome when you don't have a shower. have so many nosey questions and I won't ask them all right now cause I am SO rude! lol! Anyway, thank you for the tour. I am truly envious :)
ReplyDeleteHi Ester Jean! Thanks for your lovely comments! You made my day. :) Yes, our place does have electricity and internet. We have a grocery store about 16 miles away, but it's selection is fairly limited. I usually do my major shopping in Wasilla. Our outhouse is pretty old school, but TH installed a heater for a cozy factor. I get to shower at work.
ReplyDeleteHow do you like Alaska?
Yay! Well I was super excited when I found your blog and you're doin' it like a pro! I'm still learning about this stuff. You seem to have found a great niche talking about your genuinely unique way of life.
ReplyDeleteThat's so great you can shower at work! I am really sorry for my super rude questions. I've always been super nosey. I grew up with Amish friends and I seriously thought the outhouse was The Coolest! I am not 100% positive I would love it now, but the privacy is kind of rad :)
I love Alaska - both of us do. We are both from Michigan and the Army brought us here. We have so not taken advantage of this blessed adventure. How is it that we live in Alaska, which all our ol' pals are jealous of, and we sit around watching TV instead of playing outside? We're so lame and old. We will be moving back to MI when he is out of the Army. We talked extensively about staying here, but we are so going to be poor when he's out, and we would rather be poor with all our friends in MI than poor 3,000 miles away from them and too broke to go visit. So we might have one last summer to soak up all the goody-goodness of Alaska, and then someday if we have little ones, we will bring them up here and force them to camp in the wilderness and we will tell them about how lame we were in our 20s, living in Alaska and sitting inside :)