Barn Loft Guest Apt - Collage

This a collage of the studio apt we built in the loft of our barn. It's just one part of a whole 'off-grid backyard retreat' we're working on. We'll be adding a bathroom to the barn and a funky greenhouse/outdoor shower that can use conventional or solar hot water. Someday we plan to build us a tiny sustainable off-grid home, so in the meantime we're learning and trying to become more sustainable here. We've been hit by two hurricanes since we moved here - both times going more than five weeks without power. We'll add a few more tiny cabins/sleeping quarters that use solar and other alternative energy. In the aftermath of another hurricane and power outage we'll move out of the big house, and into our backyard retreat, where we can efficiently generate enough renewable energy to keep our tiny cabins lit, cooled, completely functional with or without city utilities.

More photos here...

I love Pickmoney it's a photo editing site. You can create collages and nice Pinterest pins too. Here's another using the same photos.

My 'Hide A Camper' Cabin

I've been toying with the idea of building a false front to disguise a camper trailer to look more like a cabin. I see cheap campers I could gut and remodel if necessary, but they are usually really ugly outside as well. My thinking is a deck and false front would hide the ugly exterior and a covering over the whole thing would resolve any future leaky roof issues and serve as additional 'living' area if I screen it in. I did these drawings using SketchUp from Google, it's free and easier to use than expensive cad programs. 

I'm sure there are ways to build something like this to fit most any camper, maybe larger screened windows on the false front? If this were on a vacation property somewhere I could imagine adding a bedroom, maybe even a funky semi-outdoor shower. We could pull a small camper up and basically 'dock' to our little cabin in the woods. Just thinking out loud.....