A Tiny Off-Grid Raft House on Powell Lake
In 2011, we had John add a 6X10 bathroom and covered side porch.
Our bathroom includes a composting toilet, bathtub (no running water, we boil it in pots on the wood stove), a storage cabinet for canning and cooking supplies (it is the coolest room in the cabin), and a shelf and nightstand with drawers. The bathroom comes off our downstairs guest room. We love our composting toilet. It’s easy to use and we no longer have to climb four flights of stairs to get to the outhouse on the cliff.
Construction began with lashing cedar logs together to create the floating foundation. Next came the deck, and then the cabin was built on top.
Our bedroom is upstairs in the loft under the peak of the roof, and when the wood stove is going in winter, it’s the warmest room in the cabin. There are windows for light and a view. Two twin beds make into a king in the middle of the room, with clothing storage along the short sides.
The guest room has space for me to keep my books, paints, and craft supplies. We also have a wood storage shelf that holds about four days of dry wood for the wood stove. That makes stoking the fire easier on rainy nights.
We remodeled our kitchen in 2011. Now that we live in the cabin most of the year, we wanted better appliances. We never used our kitchen table, so we had John build us a custom shelf for more storage. We now have a 13 cubic foot Unique brand home style propane refrigerator with a large freezer. We also upgraded to a Premier 30” propane range. Both of these appliances are quite efficient. Including our propane lights, a 40-pound propane tank lasts about 25 days. Propane is a dollar a pound here including taxes. The sink has a hand water pump that draws water up from the lake. We are very careful with our discharge because we drink our lake water after boiling.
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