My husband and I have lived in a small, off-grid cabin in West Virginia for about a decade. • As much as we love our home, we had to make a few lifestyle changes and adjust some expectations. • We have to compromise on noisy activities like music and TV, and we can't host people often. Ten years ago, my husband, Scott, and I moved to West Virginia and started building an off-grid cabin. We knew we didn't want a tiny house, but we also wanted to keep costs and build time as low as possible.