OverAcross

Reportage 13595376 | © living4media / Narratives / Toms, Julia | 31 images

There is phone and broadband connection but apart from that OverAcross is about as close as you can get in the UK to life off the grid. The house has been renovated room by room one hand-made wooden door at a time and whenever a new piece of furniture is needed like a bed for the master bedroom it is made in the workshop next to the house. The kitchen was made by hand and the result is a higgledy-piggledy wooden haven where not even the plate rack is straight. The garden bears fruit every summer and vegetables all year round. As for the water that comes from the borehole at the house. The homeowner Jay is a lino print and woodcut artist who works from a studio in the house. She also makes magical 3D buildings from wood off cuts driftwood copper pipe and what she describes as 'unusual odds and ends'. The spinning wheel in the sitting room isn't just for show - it was put to good use when her grandchildren were born. The location of the house right next to the coast down a lane satnav simply can't compute means that when Jay wants a swim in the sea she just strolls across the field at the bottom of the garden and down onto one of North Devon's most prized 'secret' beaches.