Wayne Adams and Catherine King have done it. They’ve hand-crafted their dream home, an off-grid sanctuary called Freedom Cove. And they built most of it using salvaged materials.
Their floating home is simple in design but it looks really impressive.
The structure consists of 12 independently floating platforms that are roped together (and to the shore) to allow the home to move as one unit during stormy weather. They built Freedom Cove to withstand hurricane-force winds!
Adams and King began construction on their home in 1991 using materials they salvaged after a storm.
“One winter, a storm blew a whole bunch of trees down,” Adams told HuffPost. “We gathered all the wood up, took it to the fellow who owned it, but he said keep it. So we thought, time to start on the home.”
The couple decided to go off-grid after seeking a simpler life and built their home from materials they’ve collected over the years.
It hasn’t always been easy.
“We have both done so many things in our lives, and we’ve had hard times, so we were well prepared for how different the lifestyle would be out here,” Adams said.
“It fits us.”
Fourteen solar panels initially powered their home. But the solar panels broke over the years, so they use a small gas-powered Honda generator. The 3,000-watt generator allows them to keep the lights on for 12 hours.
“Our entire floating island is an installation art piece that transforms in some way every year—often inspired by winter storm damage,” Adams told National Geographic.
Their compound boasts five greenhouses, a dance floor, an art gallery, a lighthouse tower guest house, a generator shed, and the main studio where King and Adams live.
“Living in the wilderness is a constant inspiration,” King said. “It’s so incredible to wake up every morning and see all of this.”
King, a trained dancer, starts her mornings with yoga and dancing. Adams, a professional artist and sculptor, will start by checking up on the property to see if anything needs fixing or changing.
They spend their days beach combing, gardening, chopping wood, gathering seaweed for compost, and planting vegetables and herbs.
“It became apparent the first year of growing plants on the water that to give them a good start, they need to have the warmth and protection of a greenhouse. I tried to begin them all outside initially, but the wind and dampness worked against them,” King explained.
They don’t own a refrigerator and eat food from their half-acre garden and what they catch from the ocean.
Since its conception, Adams and King have lived in their humble abode, but the vision spans far beyond just them.
“This whole home is for the kids in our family to come and see what you can’t learn in school anymore,” Adams explains.
“When I was young, this is what you learned in school: skills. To share this with the community and young minds, that is the teaching here on the west coast.”
And so Adams and King say they won’t be plugging back into the grid anytime soon.
