#ThrowbackThursday: Float Cabin Tours - Bathroom and Guest Room

Last week I shared the remodeled kitchen in our float cabin. From Summer 2011 through Spring 2012, with the help of our good friend John, we completed several float cabin improvement projects. The most involved was the addition of a bathroom and side porch.

Follow these links for details about the construction process.

Framed next to guest room.

Under Construction schematic video
Up Goes the Frame
Site Supervisor
Night Watchman
Bathroom and Porch

There's a compost toilet, tub, a pantry and a repurposed nightstand for storage. And now there's no need to climb the cliff to an outhouse.

The new bathroom.

It's nice to have indoor "plumbing" after all these years. Our kitchen sink hand pump for water and the woodstove for heating it are still integral components of our new bathroom.

But the most welcome addition is the compost toilet. An added bonus is that it is an approved black water solution that meets our water lease requirements.

A room for guests.

While we were at it, we remodeled the adjacent downstairs guest bedroom. The old window became the doorway into the bathroom. For a new window to let light into the room, John cut a hole in the back wall with his trusty chainsaw.

A new window.

We don't have many overnight guests, so the extra "bedroom" is a handy place to keep several days of wood in an indoor storage shelf.

It's also a good place to keep my books and crafting supplies, and as a nice spot to lounge in the sun to read, thanks to the new window.

Come take a YouTube video tour to see for yourself.

To read more about off-the-grid life in a float cabin, check out two of Wayne's books in the Coastal BC Stories series. -- Margy

Up the Lake -- Print for $9.95 or free Kindle introductory offer in most countries or $.99 USD elsewhere. Other free e-book offers are available at Smashwords and other online booksellers.

Farther Up the Lake -- Print for $9.95 or Kindle for $1.99. Other e-book formats are available at Smashwords and other online booksellers.



Thanks for visiting part of my world this week. For more great posts from Our World Tuesday, click here.

And also a meme called Through My Lens by Mersad.

I'm also posting on Travel Tuesdays at Intelliblog.

Posting to Friday Favorites at Condo Blues.

Hop on over to the Simple Life Mom for Homestead Blog Hop and see some great ideas for homesteading and simple living.

Want more ideas? Try The Green Acre Homestead's Our Simple Homestead Blog Hop.

Stop by and take a look at a meme called All Seasons.

And a Wednesday linkup My Corner of the World at Photographing New Zealand. 

"Off the Grid" by Wayne Lutz

Our float cabin on Powell Lake is the perfect home for Wayne and me. And its water access only location 25 minutes up Powell Lake makes it totally ...

Off the Grid

Coastal BC Stories

from
www.PowellRiverBooks.com

The 10th book in the Coastal BC Stories series by Wayne J. Lutz lets you know more about what it's like to live off the grid. We were true city-folk when we bought our cabin, but have learned how to generate our own power, use propane for appliances, maintain a kitchen garden, live in harmony with nature, and exchange our hectic lives for a more simple lifestyle. If you've ever dreamed of living away from town in an off-the-grid cabin, you'll enjoy reading Off the Grid.

Print for $10.95

Kindle for $2.99
E-book for $2.99

Check here if you need a Kindle or Kindle App.

Or go to PowellRiverBooks.com for more ordering information. -- Margy

#ThrowbackThursday: Float Cabin Tours - Kitchen Kapers

Welcome to my next installment of float cabin tours. You've been welcomed aboard and you've seen our cabin's floor plan. Today I'm taking you through the kitchen we remodeled in 2011. The biggest changes were new propane appliances and extra storage space.

Float Cabin Kitchen

We kept our L-shaped counter and sink with a hand water pump. With limited electric power, having manual and propane appliances helps.

L-counter with sink and hand water pump.

Because we live in an area with off-gridders, propane appliances are available. We upgraded to a home-sized Unique brand propane refrigerator and a larger Premier brand propane range. And John built us a custom shelf for our electronics and the storage of large pots. Here are links for more detailed information:

Delivering appliances up the lake.
Selecting a propane refrigerator.
A new propane range.
A custom kitchen shelf.
Hand-powered water pump.
Dining al fresco in all seasons.

Dining al fresco in all seasons.

To save space, we eat at the picnic table on the front porch or on TV trays in the living room.

If you ask Wayne, he'll say the best upgrade is the refrigerator. We have plenty of room for milk (Wayne loves milk and cookies) and freezer space for ice cream.

Thanks for taking the tour today. Come back next week and see where guests can stay and our bathroom addition. -- Margy

Hop on over to the Simple Life Mom and see some great ideas for homesteading and simple living.

Want more ideas? Try The Green Acre Homestead's Our Simple Homestead Blog Hop.

Shared with Your the Star at Stone Cottage Adventures. And Tuesdays with a Twist at Stone Cottage Adventures.

Stop by and take a look at a meme called All Seasons.

"Off the Grid: Getting Started" by Wayne J. Lutz

This is the newest and thirteenth title in the Coastal BC Stories series. Unlike previous books about adventures and life in a float cabin home, this book is a how-to guide for people interested in moving out of the city and off the grid.

Off the Grid: Getting Started

Wayne J. Lutz

From the author of the Coastal BC Stories series, Off the Grid: Getting Started provides more detail about what it's like to live off the grid. What are the essentials you’ll need and how do you get started? This practical how-to guide considers all aspects of remote living and moving off the grid, including site selection and the creation of your own utilities. Investment and ongoing costs of backwoods living are evaluated based on a  building-block approach. This book is designed for those who seek an evaluation of basic remote lifestyles and how to make it happen. If you've ever dreamed of living away from town in an off-the-grid home, you'll enjoy reading Off the Grid: Getting Started.

Print for $9.95

Kindle for $4.99
Kobo for $4.99

Smashwords ebooks for $4.99

Click here if you need a Kindle or Kindle App.
Also available from additional online vendors.

Or go to PowellRiverBooks.com for more ordering information. -- Margy

#ThrowbackThursday: Float Cabin Tour - Cabin Floor Plan

The living room side of the greatroom.

Before I proceed with the video tour inside our float cabin home, here's an overview.

Our cabin is the third John built, so it's called Cabin #3. It's small enough (675 sqft) to easily maintain but large enough not to be cramped.

First Floor

The first floor has the most living space (500 sqft). There are two small bedrooms (7'x10'), one for guests (which we rarely get) and one for storage. We keep a week's supply of firewood (Wood Storage Shelf Construction) in the guest room. That's especially handy in winter.

Sink with hand pump and propane fridge.

Downstairs is greatroom style. The kitchen with propane appliances is on one side and the living room with a woodstove on the other. We have a portable TV for Internet streaming. It's compact and functional.

Compost toilet, tub and storage.

In 2011 we added an indoor bathroom off the guest room to replace our outhouse four flights of stairs up the granite cliff. This one change to our cabin made full-time living much easier.

Second Floor

The loft master bedroom with a king bed and view.

The second floor is a sleeping loft. Two twin beds together make a king. The loft and high ceiling over the living room make the cabin feel spacious. A window high on the opposite wall gives us a captivating view of Goat Island.

If we had more space it would feel like work to keep it clean and maintained. If you are planning on building or purchasing a cabin, think about that. Bigger isn't always better.

Come back next week for the next installment of the video tour. See all that we can do in a kitchen with just 130 square feet. -- Margy


Stop by and take a look at a meme called All Seasons.

Hop on over to the Simple Life Mom and see some great ideas for homesteading and simple living.

Want more ideas? Try The Green Acre Homestead's Our Simple Homestead Blog Hop.

Available Online: "Farther Up the Lake"

We're don't get many visitors up the lake, but when we do we like to share stories about float cabin living. John taught at Mt. San Antonio College with Wayne before our retirement. He's the person who coined the phrase "complicated simple life."

Are you interested in off-the-grid adventures? Farther Up the Lake is filled with stories about living in a remote water access floating cabin on Powell Lake in Coastal BC.

A Great Book
for the Outdoor Enthusiast

Farther Up the Lake

Coastal BC Stories

Want to know more about float cabin living? Following in the footsteps of the most successful book in the Coastal BC Stories series comes Farther Up the Lake. Head up Powell Lake to experience life in an off the grid float cabin, experience winter on the lake, spend the night up at the head, go beachcombing for logging history, and much more. Read Farther Up the Lake by Wayne Lutz and see how much fun it can be to go up the lake. 

Go to PowellRiverBooks.com for more information.

Available online in print and ebook formats
from Amazon and many other book sellers.

#ThrowbackThursday: Float Cabin Tour - Welcome Aboard

In 2001, Wayne and I discovered our float cabin on Powell Lake in Coastal BC.  In the beginning, we could only be here on school holidays since we were both educators. Retired we can be in our off-the-grid cabin home about 75% of the year in all seasons.

Logging Camp Photo: Powell River Museum

During the heydey of logging along the BC coast, floating cabins and shops were common. They were used for remote camps to provide homes and work platforms up rugged inlets and on large lakes. Today, float cabins are used on fish farms and for off the grid living.

Float Cabin Photo: Powell River Museum

On Powell Lake, the original float cabins were simple homes, economical getaways for mill workers, or logging camps dating back to the early 1900s.

Currently, there are about 250 float cabins on Powell Lake. They're spread along the 480 kilometres (300 miles) of shoreline. That makes most locations private.

Why did we choose this lifestyle?

• It's unique.
• Float cabins are a part of coastal history.
• We wanted a place to retire that was different from our city life.
• It's remote and uncrowded.
• We are surrounded by nature.
• We get to enjoy the seasons.
• We are off the grid.
• We can live a simple, tiny home lifestyle.
• We like boating to our water access only home.
• Town is only 25 minutes away for resupply.
• There's a distributed community for support and friendship.
• It was love at first sight.

Several years ago I created short video tours of our float cabin home. Here's the first in the series called "Welcome Aboard."

Since this video was made, we no longer have a stairway up the cliff and the shed on shore has been removed to comply with British Columbia water lease rules.

If you would like more information about float cabin living, here are some quick links:

Float Cabin Living
Float Cabin Construction
Cabin Accessories

Also check out Wayne's book Up the Lake. It's free for Kindle in most countries and most online booksellers. See the next post for more information.

Have you ever discovered a place that has captured your imagination and heart? Tell us your story. - Margy