Lately I’ve been hankering for a woodsy, off-the-grid, no-screens-allowed place to escape to—no text messages, no email, no Netflix, just a paperback and someplace to float. Which has me revisiting the cabin in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region that Alice Saunders and Greg Ralich found on Craigslist and fixed up, DIY style (and which we featured on Remodelista).
The cabin—which is about as rural as it gets, down the end of a class IV road—might not have running water or electricity, but it has simple summer pleasures: a hand-built dining nook/game table, a bright kitchen, a simple and sumptuous-looking bed, even an ad-hoc outdoor shower. It’s hands down the best-looking totally off-the-grid place we’ve seen (no surprise; Saunders is the founder and designer behind Forestbound Bag Co.). Our favorite detail? The couple needs to paddle out to the center of the pond just to get a hint of cell service. Unplugged weekends indeed.
Recently we spotted that the couple had taken on another DIY project at the cabin: a boardwalk. “While fairly simple, it might be my favorite project to date,” Saunders wrote on Instagram. “It feels like a small way to highlight and appreciate the beauty of our land. Plus Greg and I finished this in one afternoon and didn’t get in any fights along the way, a true win when working on home projects with your partner.”
Intrigued, we asked Saunders how this old-school, summer-camp-style boardwalk came together in just a few hours. Here’s the rundown.
Photography courtesy of Alice Saunders.
Watch and learn.
“Our goal was to build a very simple wooden boardwalk that wouldn’t take the focus away from the beauty of our land,” says Saunders. “We didn’t want something overbuilt and technical; we sought to make something that became part of the landscape and that, in time, it would just look like it was always there.
“It was especially important to watch how the land and water and light changed over the year and years before I felt confident building something in this exact spot. It’s definitely the focal point of the view from our porch, so I was nervous, but this year I was ready to take on the challenge.”
(Gently) create a path.
“Before starting the project, we prepped the area by transplanting any ferns and other plants that were in the area we planned to build on, leveled out the soil (or well, mud), and cut back a large stump that the boardwalk would hug on its slight curve,” says Saunders.
