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A WOMAN from New England ditched her nine-to-five job to live in an off-grid home with her boyfriend.
Ally Marie Brown has built her very own tiny home in the woods in an effort to get back to nature and to live more sustainably.
The 25-year-old documents her journey on social media showing how she went from city living and a corporate job to remote working and foraging for food and drinking sap.
In one of her latest YouTube videos, Brown revealed the completed home which took her two and a half years to build with the help of her boyfriend Kyle Dempsey.
Despite starting the journey with little to no experience of using power tools, Brown built all of the pieces of furniture in her cabin including the fittings for the kitchen, the bed frame and the ladder leading to the loft.
The two-floor home has a bed in the loft, a spacious living space and kitchen, a porch and a garden.
Meanwhile, the home is powered by a generator, to cook they use a gas stove and for water, the pair go and collect water from the nearby river.
During the cold months, Brown has even gone down to the icy lake to bathe in the water.
In an Instagram post last summer, she explained that the water is harder to rely on in the warm months.
“It’s been a rough season. The drought is intense and ruthless, and to water the plants, Kyle and I have to take multiple, exhaustive trips back and forth to the river with buckets.”
Another tough part of her off-grid lifestyle which may be a step too far for many, is that there is no toilet.
Brown told the Daily Mail that the most difficult part is “probably living without a toilet.”
“To be honest not having a bathroom is not that bad, but I never had to deal with it for extended periods of time in the past,” she added.
“When it’s cold or rainy, it’s especially tricky.”
However, in the YouTube video, she called the construction a “fun journey.”
“It’s just been such a rush and a learning experience, and though it has come with its ups and downs, overall, there’s just nothing like it,” she said.
“I feel so, so grateful to be able to do this, and it’s such a beautiful place.”
To earn money, Brown runs a shop on Etsy where she sells natural beauty products from ingredients she finds herself.
