Heirloom Hamlet

Ani, Fitch and I are at least partially typical people who are running an experiment. We are trying to find out if you can use your hands and head to handcraft a little piece of heaven. Three years ago we left our South Florida home and custom furniture business to pursue a new goal. We wanted to do something special, something different and interesting with our lives. Have we done that? You be the judge.

We set out to design and hand build an experience in environmentally friendly living that balances modern and old-world homestead features.

You will see us erecting micro-cabins, installing solar arrays, dry toilets and composting. We are big believers in being mindful and respectful of our environment wherever possible. But also in being reasonable and balanced. So, we are incorporating both alternative and municipality utilities as they fit our homestead design.

Through good design, our goal is to show just how "normal" bio-compatible, small living can feel. How freeing it can be to identify real wants and needs from perceived ones, and then make our personal ideals a reality. We hope to accomplish at least that. We certainly are working hard to do so.

To be completely transparent, though, we also would like to inspire others to do the same, in their own case. We all have priorities and they vary vastly…and that's okay. But never should they be so self-focused that we shut out the importance of being good to the earth and good to others.

It is a challenge to shut out some of the world's noise and figure out what we each really need and what we really want from life, versus what we have been trained to. Even if we can, it is even more difficult to muster the courage to make the changes necessary to go and get that life.

At the very least we hope our guests don't expect to find a corporate approach to living or to nature here, and that they can appreciate some of our old-fashioned ways. All of that while having a relaxing getaway in our unique hideaway.