Sure, spending your retirement in a remote, solar-powered floating cabin with a composting toilet may not be for everyone, but Mar...
Sure, spending your retirement in a remote,
solar-powered floating cabin with a composting toilet may not be for
everyone, but Margy and Wayne Lutz of Powell Lake, B.C., wouldn't have
it any other way. [article from MNN]
Everyone has a different idea of what kind of home they’d like to live
in when retirement comes a knockin’. Some may envision a spacious
apartment in the city while others may opt for downsized ranch house
(goodbye stairs!) on a suburban golf course. And, of course, there’s
always the option of sharing a four-bedroom pad in Miami with two of
your closest friends and a wisecracking octogenarian from Sicily. Me? I
have a long ways to go, but I’m mighty intrigued by this ambitious eco-development in the California desert.
Los Angeles expats of a certain age Margy and Wayne Lutz took a decidedly unique route when
selecting where exactly to hunker down after taking an early retirement
from their careers in education. In 2001, they got the hell out of
Southern California and relocated to coastal British Columbia’s Powell
Lake, a pristine and somewhat remote (it’s only an hour or so northwest
of Vancouver, but getting there is somewhat tricky and time-consuming)
body of water famous for its abundance of float cabins, permanently
anchored structures that float above the water on wooden platforms.
Originally used as portable bunkhouses for loggers and weekend getaways for mill workers in the nearby city of Powell River, float cabins are now popular rental retreats for vacationers who flock to the Sunshine Coast
region every summer for a little R&R. Having vacationed in the area
a few years prior, Margy and Wayne Lutz weren’t looking for a rustic
floating cabin to spend a few summer weekends in. They were looking for a
full-time floating residence that would allow them to go completely off
the grid.
And so as the story goes, Margy and Wayne purchased their very own float cabin
to the tune of $35,000 Canadian dollars ($25,000 USD back in 2011) and
began the process of converting the structure into a self-sufficient
floating retirement paradise with the help of a local float cabin guru
(also the home's builder) named John. Accessible only by boat, the
420-square-foot home (plus a 200-square-foot sleeping loft) is powered
by solar, wind, and thermoelectric energy with some additional help from
propane during the winter months.
Explains faircompanies:
They have 3 main solar panels, each one for a specific function. Two panels (200 watts & 125 watts) feed into the main cabin, charging six 6-volt batteries (wired in serial pairs to produce the requisite 12 volts they need to run most of their cabin. There’s also a 300 watt panel on top of Wayne’s floating ‘writer’s retreat’, a boat called Gemini (it can be switched to feed the boats’ needs or the cabins’).For heat, they rely on a wood stove (fueled mostly with driftwood) that has been rigged with an experimental thermoelectric system that uses the cold water from the lake for a good differential in temperatures. Whenever the stove surface is about 300 degrees C, they are generating a trickle charge to their batteries.
As for the facilities, Margy and Wayne installed a composting toilet
within the dwelling after hiking up a granite cliff to use an outhouse
provide to be too burdensome. In the absence of a conventional water
heater, the Lutzs boil water on the stovetop. When it's time to do
dishes, water in the kitchen sink is hand-pumped directly from the lake.
The couple also grow much of their own food in a floating vegetable
garden that's adjacent to the cabin. In addition to the contents of the
toilet, all waste generated by the couple is composted as there isn't a
garbage barge that services the area. It's also worth noting that Margy
and Wayne lease their "lot" for $500 a year from the B.C. government.
Says Margy: “Living off the grid makes for a very simple life ... just
all the things I don't need is what I think about when I'm here. I
don't need a lot of light, I don't need a lot of electricity. I need a
little propane to cook with. So I'm not without comforts of home I guess
you could say. But I'm with all the comforts of living in the middle of
nature.”
Take a tour of chez Lutz in the faircompanies video tour that I've
embedded below (the video was shot by Margy herself). It’s also worth
spending a few moments checking out this blog maintained
by Margy where she waxes on the myriad joys — and occasional hardships
— of living detached from the grid in a floating cabin in remote British
Columbia. As for Wayne, an amateur astronomer, pilot, and prolific
author, he spends his days writing books for his own publishing
company, Powell River Books.
While Wayne primarily pens nonfictional accounts of life on Powell Lake
through his “Coastal British Columbia” series, he also has a soft spot
for sci-fi as evidenced in one of his newer releases, “Anomaly at Fortune Lake.”
We’d love to know what you think of the Lutz’s set-up in the comments section, below.
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