Melissa Gilbert Exchanged Hollywood For Rural Living In Cottage That At First Didn't "Even Have Heat"

May 21, 2022 by apost team

Move over Marvel universe; we're "expanding the Prairie Universe" now that Melissa Gilbert has launched her lifestyle brand, Modern Prarie. Although it's been decades since Gilbert's beloved series, "Little House on the Prarie," wrapped in 1983, she's maintained a love of the idyllic countryside. This endearing passion led Gilbert to move, much like her girlhood role Laura Ingalls, to a cottage in 2018, far from her previous Hollywood life.

The change proved to be a monumental challenge, given Gilbert only ever played a homesteader on television. In her 2022 memoir, "Back to the Prarie," Gilbert's husband, Timothy Busfield, admitted that his wife "was not raised a country girl — she [didn't] have an iota of prairie in her." This inexperience didn't stop the then newlyweds. 

They relocated from Los Angeles, California, to upstate New York, buying a rundown cabin in the Catskills. The couple had stumbled upon this Shangri-La online. Gilbert said they found the property "on Zillow, and it looked cute in the pictures and the price was certainly right." She recalled when she and Busfield went to view the cabin, saying, "From the outside, the house looked like it was carrying a lot of weight. Not literally sagging; it seemed like it was sort of sad…It was overwhelming."

More than the house's energy, it was also fairly remote. Gilbert, while remembering how bare the property used to be, said, "It was just a seasonal hunting cabin. It didn't even have heat." But, Gilbert rolled up her sleeves, undeterred, and poured herself into building a home.  

There was something about the cabin which fueled the couple as they launched into extensive renovations. Remembering the challenge of removing all the previous owner's belongings, Gilbert recalled how the couple was "grinning the whole time because the more [they] stood in that musty, stinky, crowded place, the more [they] started to see past all of that stuff, and to see that this place had the potential for being something incredibly special."

After reading Gilbert's memoir, which detailed this life in the East Coast wilderness, Gilbert's own mother remarked, "I always knew you were this nature girl inside, but to see you now living it, it's like you've been completed." Gilbert concurred, saying, "I think that's the essence of who I am. It's always been there." It's a return to the land truly befitting of the Ingalls. 

In addition to outlining her cabin-core life, Gilbert's memoir also discusses her relationship to aging and her body. In an interview, she said, "Fighting a natural process is exhausting…the working out and the skincare takes up too much time…that doesn't mean I don't take care of myself or my skin. I do. But not with a goal of stopping time, just with the goal of nourishing and embracing what I have." The move seems to have helped instill in Gilbert a sense of presence and peace. She continued, saying, "I'm at this gleeful aging place. Yeah, I have bad days where I look in the mirror and go, 'Blech! What happened?' But I wouldn't change any of it… I'm good. I don't need any other validation from anywhere else."

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On reaching this chapter in her life, the fifty-eight-year-old Gilbert said, "I feel really good about where I am in my life right now… I've found this incredible stillness and peace in my life, in my home upstate, and in myself." Her journey, which began on the "Little House on the Prarie" set and continued in the wilds of rural Michigan, which she explored with Busfield, now finds renewed purpose in New York State. The Catskills life appears to have truly reinvented the actress, who used her newfound joie de vivre to build Modern Prarie. 

In an Instagram post in which Gilbert announced the launch of Modern Prarie, she explained how the lifestyle brand is aimed at encouraging modern, mature women "to reclaim their confidence in aging through (re)discovery." In another post, Gilbert wrote, expanding on her mindset and goals for Modern Prarie, saying, "Growing older has given me the confidence and permission to discover my authentic self. I have become more empowered by embracing change and my reaction to it and now understand the importance of slowing down." The brand works to "celebrate Modern Mavens, like Melissa, who are making a difference in the lives of others, every day."

While we can't all abandon our current lives in order to embrace sprawling, cottage-core dreams in an old hunting cabin Upstate, perhaps we can take a page from Gilbert's metaphorical book (or her literal one) and remember her words: "It's never too late to find your natural self...brave change, open your heart and evolve."

Would you move to a remote cottage and remodel it into your dream home? Let us know — and be sure to pass this article on to friends, family, and fellow "Little House on the Prarie" fans!