Red-and-white Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse sitting on a stone breakwater in Lake Erie, with green trees and a sliver of beach in the foreground
Photo: Tiny House Giant Journey

She Bought an Abandoned Lake Erie Lighthouse at Auction and Spent 15 Years Making It a Home

Off Grid, Rehabs, Tiny House Interiors, Tiny House Living, Tours & Features, Video Tours

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Sheila Consaul wanted an unusual historic waterfront summer home. After a career in media and public affairs around Washington, D.C., she heard the federal government was auctioning lighthouses under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. In 2011 she won the Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse on Lake Erie — unoccupied since the late 1940s — for $71,010.

Fifteen years later, Jenna Kausal of Tiny House Giant Journey walks the breakwall with her through a house that’s now about 3,000 square feet, with 3 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 5 levels, and 4 staircases. It’s not a tiny house, but it is one of the most unusual homes we’ve featured: a working light, a summer home, and a piece of Ohio shoreline she has been putting back together from the top down.

Aerial view of the white-and-red lighthouse at a bend in the stone breakwater, with Headlands Beach and Lake Erie beyond
The walk out: Headlands Beach State Park and a long breakwall to the light. Video still: Tiny House Giant Journey.

$71,010 at Auction — and a First Night on the Floor

The GSA/federal auction closed in 2011. Sheila’s number was $71,010. The building had been empty since the late 1940s. Windows were broken or boarded. Shutters were closed. Plaster was falling. There were no utilities, no furniture, no comforts. The first night, they slept in sleeping bags on the floor.

She’s said in other interviews she’s put more than $300,000 into the restoration. What it does show is fifteen years of work, from a wreck on the breakwater to a house she can open on Memorial Day weekend and close around Columbus Day.

Groceries Come In a Backpack

The light sits in Headlands Beach State Park — the longest beach in Ohio. You walk out along the breakwall through the dunes. There is no dock. The lake took it. Groceries go in a backpack. Sheila owns the building; the Army Corps of Engineers owns the platform and the path.

Sheila in a red shirt with a large black backpack and a black dog climbing metal-railed stairs to the lighthouse door, shutters open over Lake Erie
No dock — the lake took it. Groceries come in a backpack. Video still: Tiny House Giant Journey.

100 Years on the Breakwater

The lighthouse was built in a Buffalo factory in the early 1900s: two-foot-thick walls, steel plating, girders, brick, and cast iron. It shipped down Lake Erie on the SS Wuton. The Army Corps built the platform it still stands on. The beacon was first lit on June 9, 1925 — it turned 100 in 2025.

Keepers lived here 24/7 for a little over twenty years, first on kerosene, then electrified in the late 1940s by a cable under the harbor. After that the Coast Guard maintained the light from shore. Historically there were three headkeepers.

Off-Grid: Rain, Compost, and Solar

The house runs off-grid. Rainwater comes off the roof into a resurrected cistern, then through treatment, chlorination, and hot water. The toilets are composting. Power is solar, with a gasoline generator when she needs it. She’s working on wind — Lake Erie is brutal. There is no heat and no air conditioning.

She opens Memorial Day weekend and closes around Columbus Day, about four and a half months. For winter, cast-iron exterior shutters and interior storm windows go on. The only bills are generator gas and property taxes.

Basement mechanical room with a gray electrical panel, hot-water heater, pipes along a concrete ceiling, and a glimpse of the bunk room
Basement mechanicals: rainwater treatment, hot water, and power — the cistern lives down here too. Video still: Tiny House Giant Journey.

Five Levels, Four Staircases

The first floor was the keepers’ garage and work space. It’s now a living/great room, a new kitchen, and dining. The original Corey tile is still underfoot. A coal winch and trap door once fed the basement boiler. The original fog horn stayed. A 1943 Frigidaire crate panel came down from the attic and went on the wall.

First-floor great room with a terracotta sectional, original red Corey tile, the original fog horn used as a table, exposed brick, and a black cast-iron spiral staircase
The keepers’ old work floor is now a great room — original Corey tile, the fog horn, and the cast-iron stair. Video still: Tiny House Giant Journey.
Kitchen with dark cabinets, granite counters, wood-framed windows, reddish Corey tile floors, and a framed 1943 Frigidaire crate panel on the wall
A new kitchen on the first floor, with a 1943 Frigidaire crate panel pulled from the attic. Video still: Tiny House Giant Journey.
Black circular cast-iron staircase with Sheila climbing from behind, white walls, a patch of exposed brick, and red tile floors
One of four staircases: the circular cast-iron stair through the light. Video still: Tiny House Giant Journey.

The basement holds the cistern and mechanicals, a bunk room, and a full bath where the coal boiler used to sit.

The second floor was the keepers’ apartment. The reading/living room has the original hardwood and an added compass rose. Plaster failed in places, so the brick is exposed. The bathroom still has its original hex tile. A U.S. Lighthouse Service ladder from before 1939 came out of the cistern. The master bedroom was the original kitchen — you can still see the chimney and the outline of a cast-iron sink. The master bath was the pantry (the shelf lines are still there). The guest room was the original bedroom.

Mint-green bedroom with two white-trimmed windows, floral bedding, and a patch of original red brick where plaster failed
A second-floor bedroom — windows on the lake, and the brick the plaster couldn’t hold. Video still: Tiny House Giant Journey.
Bright bathroom with original white hexagonal floor tile dotted with black accents, a five-panel wood door, and a walk-in shower
The keepers’ original hex-tile bathroom, still on the second floor. Video still: Tiny House Giant Journey.

Up in the lantern room, keepers once serviced the beacon. The Fresnel-lens hatch is still there. The Coast Guard still maintains an LED light — solar, two seconds on and three off, dusk to dawn. A NOAA weather station (FAIO1) reports conditions from the light, too. Above that, the widow’s walk is 360 degrees of lake, breakwall, and town.

Modern LED lighthouse beacon on a bolted base inside the glass lantern room, with riveted white metal walls, a porthole, and a hazy Lake Erie horizon
The lantern room still serves the light: a Coast Guard LED beacon, dusk to dawn. Video still: Tiny House Giant Journey.
Sheila on the widow’s walk beside the open lantern-room door, looking down the breakwater and across Lake Erie under a clear sky
The widow’s walk: 360° of Lake Erie, the breakwall, and town. Video still: Tiny House Giant Journey.

Steward of the Light

Sheila treats the place as a stewardship, not a hideout. She hosts an annual open house around June 9 — the lighthouse’s birthday — and gives private tours. From town, the community can still see the light.

If you love restored one-of-a-kind homes, see George Dunnett’s 1700s stone cottage revival and the Silo House at Laughing Llama Farm.

Watch the Full Tour

Jenna Kausal of Tiny House Giant Journey walks the breakwall with Sheila Consaul — the auction, the first night on the floor, the backpack commute, and fifteen years of putting an abandoned Lake Erie light back to work as a home.

Learn More

Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse
Video tour: She lives in an abandoned lighthouse?? Trash to treasure on YouTube
Channel: Tiny House Giant Journey (Jenna Kausal)
Sheila’s lighthouse: fairportharborwestlighthouse.com
Instagram: @fairportharborwest
Ohio History Connection: Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Light
Fairport Harbor Tourism: Historic Lighthouses

Highlights

  • Bought at a 2011 federal auction for $71,010, empty since the late 1940s
  • About 3,000 sq ft over 5 levels: 3 bedrooms, 3 full baths, and 4 staircases
  • Reached on foot along the breakwall in Headlands Beach State Park, with groceries in a backpack
  • First lit June 9, 1925; built in Buffalo with two-foot-thick walls
  • Off-grid summer home: rainwater cistern, composting toilets, solar and a generator, no heat or AC
  • Original Corey tile, hardwood, hex-tile bath, and fog horn kept through the restoration
  • The Coast Guard still runs the beacon, and Sheila holds an open house around its June 9 birthday

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Would you trade a dock and a driveway for a backpack commute and your own lighthouse? Tell us in the comments.

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through one of our links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

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Alex

Alex Pino is the founder of Tiny House Talk, a leading resource on tiny homes and simple living since 2009. He helps readers discover unique homes, connect with builders, and explore alternative living.

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