Before & After: A Couple Turn a Bare-Bones Barn Into an Off-Grid Cabin

When Katya Potkin and Bart Stein bought their 20-plus-acre property in Ancramdale, a small hamlet about two hours north of New York City, there wasn’t a lot going on with the barn. "When we moved in, it was wide open—nothing in it except for some dead mice," recalls Katya. There was a rumor that it had been used as a pottery studio a few owners back, but only the empty structure remained. "It was very bare bones," says Katya. "It didn't have any insulation. It was basically wooden walls and a metal roof." They left it alone while they settled into the nearby main house.