Westcott Bay Cottage

A 1948 cottage on a sheltered cove on Westcott Bay, San Juan Island. Two bedrooms, a sleeping loft, a small but properly built kitchen, and a wood stove that does most of the work in the winter. Tidewater frontage with a private float for a skiff or kayaks; the cove fills and empties on a six-foot tidal range that the dock floats handle without thought.

The current owner — an artist who has used the cottage as a winter studio for nineteen years — replaced the roof in 2019 and added a small studio outbuilding in 2021 that’s wired and insulated and would make a tidy guest room. Otherwise the cottage is what it was, which is the point. Old single-paned wood windows have all been restored.

Twenty minutes by car from Friday Harbor. Walk-on ferry from Anacortes makes this a real weekend possibility from Seattle without a vehicle.