You’ll feel like you’ve stepped back in time with a stay in this off-grid Vermont cabin, built in the early 1900s and tucked into 1,200 acres of forest. There’s no electricity and no plumbing here — just a wood-burning stove that heats the space and warms your water, a propane range for cooking, and the deep quiet that only comes from being genuinely off the grid.
It’s a one-room cabin with a sleeping loft reached by ladder, wrapped in weathered board-and-batten siding and perched on a hand-stacked stone foundation. In the cooler months you’ll need 4WD to reach it, because it sits remotely among acres of hardwood forest laced with hiking trails. It’s the kind of place that trades convenience for something harder to find: total simplicity. Take a look.
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Images via Ashley/Airbnb
Getting There Is Part of the Adventure
Half the appeal of a place like this is how far removed it feels from everyday life. The cabin sits well back in the woods, and in winter and spring you’ll need a four-wheel-drive vehicle to make the final approach through snow and mud. That remoteness is the whole point — by the time you arrive, phone signal and neighbors are long gone, and it’s just you, the trees, and the crunch of snow underfoot.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
One Room That Does Everything
Inside, the entire main level is a single open room, and it’s a good study in how little space you actually need. A cast-iron parlor stove anchors the center of the room, a farmhouse-style dry sink and a small propane range handle the cooking, and a simple table with wooden chairs sits under a bank of multi-pane windows that flood the space with forest light. A wooden ladder in the corner leads up to the loft. Everything has its place, and nothing is wasted.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
A Wood Stove at the Heart of It All
Without electric or propane central heat, the wood stove is the single most important feature in the cabin. It throws off enough heat to keep the whole room warm through a Vermont winter, and it doubles as a cooktop and water heater. Living with wood heat means paying attention — feeding the fire, managing the draft, and stacking dry wood ahead of time — but it also rewards you with a warmth and rhythm that a thermostat never will.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
Rustic, Primitive, and Wonderfully Simple
The interior is finished almost entirely in warm, knotty pine, with a bright red screen door that opens straight onto the forest. A topographic map of the surrounding land hangs on the wall, open shelves hold books and camp dishes, and a small nook by the window makes a perfect spot to read or plan a hike. It’s primitive by design — no screens, no outlets — and that stripped-down simplicity is exactly what makes it feel restful.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
Water You Carry and a Ladder to Bed
There’s no running water in the cabin, so drinking and washing water is provided and stored in dispensers — note the crock labeled “washing” beside the sink. It’s a small adjustment that changes how you think about every drop, in the best way. Just beyond it, the ladder climbs to the sleeping loft; steep ladder access is a classic tiny-cabin trade-off that buys you a full second sleeping level without adding a footprint.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
Cooking and Heating Water the Old Way
In the colder months, a large pot on the stovetop becomes the water heater, and cast-iron pans hang within easy reach on the wall. Firewood is stacked right beside the stove so there’s always dry fuel on hand. It’s a self-contained little system — heat, hot water, and cooking all flowing from the same fire — and it’s remarkably efficient once you settle into the routine.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
A Cozy Sleeping Loft Under the Eaves
Up the ladder, the loft is lined in the same honey-toned pine and holds both a twin and a queen mattress, so it comfortably sleeps a small group or a family. A single window frames the trees, and because warm air rises, the loft stays especially toasty when the stove is going below. The low, angled ceiling gives it a snug, tucked-in feeling — the kind of space that makes you sleep hard and wake up to birdsong.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
Small Touches That Make It Livable
For all its simplicity, the cabin is thoughtfully outfitted with the little things that make off-grid living comfortable — including hooks and a spot to hang your clothes and gear. Details like these are what separate a rough shelter from a place you can actually settle into for a few days.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
Weathered Board-and-Batten and a Metal Roof
From the outside, the cabin wears its age beautifully. The vertical board-and-batten siding has silvered and warmed to a rich patina over the decades, topped by a simple standing-seam metal roof that sheds Vermont’s heavy snow. It’s a humble, honest building — no frills, just sturdy materials chosen to last and to weather gracefully in the woods.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
Total Privacy in Every Season
Surrounded by 1,200 acres of forest, the cabin has no neighbors in sight. In summer the greenery swallows it whole, and in winter it stands quiet and alone in the snow. If your idea of a getaway is genuine solitude — no traffic, no lights, no schedule — this delivers it in every season.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
A Classic New England Stone Wall
The cabin sits atop a hand-stacked dry stone wall, built without mortar in the time-honored New England tradition. Walls like this were laid stone by stone from rocks cleared off the land, and they’ve held their line for generations. It’s a small but telling detail — a reminder that this place was built by hand, close to the earth it stands on.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
An Outdoor Solar Shower for Warm Months
Bathing here is a warm-weather, open-air affair. A solar shower bag heats in the sun and hangs above a simple wooden platform tucked against the stone ledge, curtained off for a bit of privacy among the ferns. It’s about as close to bathing in the forest as you can get — and a great example of low-tech, off-grid problem solving.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
A Short Walk to the Outhouse
With no plumbing, the bathroom is a classic outhouse set a short walk down a wooded trail from the cabin. It’s a true back-to-basics feature, and honestly part of the charm — a quiet stroll through the trees under a canopy of green is not the worst way to start your morning.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
Could You Live the Pioneer Life?
Between the wood heat, the carried water, the ladder-loft, and the outhouse down the path, a stay here asks you to slow way down and do things the old-fashioned way. For a lot of us, that’s not a hardship — it’s the entire draw. It’s a rare chance to disconnect completely and see how little you really need to feel at home.
Images via Ashley/Airbnb
Design Details
- Type: Off-grid one-room cabin with sleeping loft
- Era: Early 1900s
- Setting: Remote, surrounded by 1,200 acres of Vermont forest
- Exterior: Weathered board-and-batten siding, standing-seam metal roof, dry-stacked stone foundation
- Heat: Wood-burning stove (also heats water)
- Kitchen: Propane range and oven, propane and charcoal grill, tea kettle and pour-over coffee, utensils provided
- Water: No plumbing; spring water provided for washing and bathing
- Bathroom: Outhouse; outdoor solar-bag shower in warm months
- Sleeping: Loft with queen and twin mattresses, ladder access
- Access: 4WD recommended in winter and spring
What Makes This Cabin Special
- One fire does it all. Heat, hot water, and cooking flow from a single wood stove — a beautifully efficient off-grid setup.
- Genuine simplicity. No electricity, no plumbing, no distractions — a rare chance to fully unplug.
- Built by hand. The board-and-batten siding and dry-stacked stone wall reflect old-school New England craftsmanship that has aged gracefully.
- Vertical living. The ladder-accessed loft adds a full sleeping level without expanding the footprint — a core tiny-living principle.
- Immersed in nature. 1,200 acres of forest and hiking trails right outside the door, with total privacy in every season.
Experience It Yourself
Highlights
- No plumbing
- Spring water provided for washing/bathing
- Dish soap, hand soap, sanitizers, shampoo provided
- Propane gas stove and oven
- Propane and charcoal grill
- Utensils provided
- Tea kettle & pour-over coffee
- Outhouse
- Solar bag camp shower in warm months
- Water basins for warming over the fire provided in winter
- Ladder access to loft
- Queen mattress, twin mattress
- Surrounded by 1,200 acres of forest
Related Stories:
- He Rebuilt This Civil-War-Era Cabin Log By Log
- The Hermitage: Log Cabin Park Model In the Woods
- Romantic Clear-Roof Cabin with Chandelier & Swing Bed
Our big thanks to Ashley for sharing! 🙏
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Natalie C. McKee
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I’ve lived the “pioneer life” with fewer amenities. An early 1900’s propane stove OR just the woodstove as a cookstove. No refrigerator, no running water (and during a drought); a claw foot tub filled in the morning that warms up during the day; a galvanized tub by the woodstove in the winter. And. Never forget to sprinkle lime over it after you’re done in the outhouse. I’d move into that place in a heartbeat!
Unless there’s zombie apocalypse, I will never be a fan of an outhouse. The house is absolutely gorgeous!
Fran,
You would be surprised, but if you sprinkle lime after ‘doing your business’ in an outhouse, it doesn’t stink and flies don’t come around it. I must admit, however, that in the dead of winter, pregnant and getting up numerous times during the night to pee, I did use a bucket in the house.
Please tell me that loft ladder is anchored to the wall.
Host states, “The ladder is not permanently attached to the wall so that the window can swing open or close, but as long as the base of the ladder is resting against the board on the floor it is very stable and secure”
There’s also hand holds secured to the wall to help transition to and from the loft.
Very cute! As long as some one else has chopped all the wood and stacked it not too far from the door I’d be good to go. No indoor plumbing–not going there. If they put a very small addition on with a shower and toilet I’d be good. O.K.. I’d settle for a composting toilet with a cold water tap. Heating water isn’t that difficult. It is lovely and would be a great place to stay.
It certainly makes one appreciate what those who came before us went through. I can’t imagine living like this though visiting in the Spring for a couple of days might be an interesting change from the niceties of 21st Century living. The exterior is truly excellent but I have to admit that my wimpiness would find the interior a challenge. Kudos to those who did live like that and for those who would brave it today!!! A very interesting post and I enjoyed the comments, too.
Really? It ain’t difficult. Oh, your wimpiness? Yeah right. God knows how you’d survive in a “real” survival situation… (smh) Look to the Australian bush fires for example…
I’m with you, Patricia. Most of the homes in which I grew up were on family farms in Virginia so far out that there was no running water or electricity, so staying in this place would be like going home. It’s very quaint and pretty to me. I’m especially impressed with the queen been. . .Lol! ?