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Rough breakdown is $6k solar (2.5kw), $2k slab foundation, $12k house material (wood/roofing), $5k septic. I found a lot of material like windows and doors on craigslist and also talking to people at building construction sites where I picked up their garbage/leftovers. It has taken me over 7 years from my first nights in a tent, but I quickly found a free trashed rv after that. Solar is only half price now from what I originally paid in 2008, but compared @$0.5kwh fuel for the generator, it has paid for itself.

I share a well with a neighbor but have quotes for ~$12k to drill a new hole @330' (same depth as theirs). I seriously doubt anyone would be interested in developing the area. There are a few big mansions being built around me, mostly by people from California, but most don't stay for long and move out after a couple of years. It's very boring out here unless you are self entertaining. Most people aren't.

If you don't feel like doing work yourself, you can always find old abandoned houses around ghost towns with acreage. I haven't looked into that much, but did look at a few complete turnkey farms in small towns in OH and MI a few years ago in the $80k range.

Commercially available, 93% efficient inverter.

What they really should be interested in at this stage is cost.

You can try converting parts of your house to 12 or 24 volt, which would negate the need for expensive inverters and whatnot. All you'd need is a simple charging circuit for a battery (could be as simple as a diode) and then feed the 12/24 volt lights straight off it.

This is a common mistake and is only good for very low power stuff. In picking a wire size people often think going from 120 volts to 12 volts only involves the math of supplying a wire 10X larger to handle the current without overheating. In a 120 volt application, you are permitted a 5% voltage drop. This isn't much as 5% of 120 volts is only about 6 volts. No big deal when running a 1200 watt portable hair dryer. If you simply size the wire to now do the same thing on 12 volts, you no longer have a 5% voltage drop. At the same current you still have a 6 volt drop with the 10X larger wire but you now lost 50% of your power in the wire. Take a hint from the pro.. Use an inverter. The 10% the inverter lost is made up by the 45% not lost in the wire. Do the math. Engineer the project.

Either your high draw items (Microwave, toaster, blender, etc) are either within 20 inches of the battery, or you will want an inverter. With an inverter you can use standard appliances. Look for energy effecient ones.

Another item is to ditch the grid tie for small systems. It goes down with the grid providing no security. Put the critical load on an Outback inverter. It was made just for this application. Small solar, battery maitenance, load transfer to and from solar and battery, etc. You don't have a surplus to sell to the utility, so don't connect that way. Use it to supplimant your load and reduce your total load. As a bonus, you don't have to enter a grid tie agreement with the utility where they buy your power whosale and sell it back to you retail.

Find Outback stuff here;
http://www.outbackpower.com/

Disclaimer, I just use it. I am not otherwise involved with this company. The company has grid-tie stuff if you decide you really want it. I don't recommend it except for larger installations. This company has done a great job meeting the market. Their grid tie units are the first that I know of that operate instead of shutting down in the event of a blackout. They solved the number 1 problem with grid tie stuff.. blackouts.
http://www.partsonsale.com/outbackgridtie.html

What you are looking for is here;

http://www.outbackpower.com/

My dad has one of these in his house. When the batteries are topped off, it kicks over an auxiliary load (part of the rest of the house such as freezer and some additional lights) and when that drops the charge, it switches the auxiliary load back to shore power. His computers used for video editing of home movies is on the solar system 24/7. The solar system and windmill is his UPS. His system provides about 30% of his total load. It still doesn't pick up the electric water heater, electric stove, electric dryer, etc. It just isn't big enough yet.

He sized the system to never have a surplus. The idea of buying power retail and paying for a bi-directional installation (cogen) and selling at wholesale rates didn't make any sense.

GIYF, http://www.google.com/search?q=grid+tie+inverter

A grid tie inverter needs a couple of other components in order to build a complete system.

If you want to buy a bundled system, take a look at something like the Outback PS1.

You can download the manuals and wiring diagrams from the Outback web site.

There are many vendors to choose from. Some of them have good on line forums,

http://forums.sma-america.com/

http://www.outbackpower.com/forum/

I installed a solar/inverter/battery system in my cabin this year, demoting my pair of propane generators to backup and cloudy day devices. One thing I found during the selection process was that some of the inverter companies are just coasting. They have a product that everyone in the field is familiar with and they just sell them. You might want to check some of the newer players. I went with OutBack Power Systems. They have a solidly engineered modern design that can make a geek drool.

like sunny boy inverters, google for them

The sunny boy inverters would actually be a very poor choice, because they shut down when the grid power goes. They are designed only to add your solar input to an existing AC system.

I would, instead, suggest getting an inverter from Xantrex/Trace or from Outback Power Systems. These are also grid-tie inverters, but can support being attached to a battery system.

A different, and perhaps better (and definitely much cheaper) solution, would be to purchase 12VDC power supplies from Mini-Box and cobining this with a 12V battery system and charger.

Off site and off the power grid? At the same time? Ok first off if you have unreliable grid power then buy a UPS. Or better yet go solar http://www.outbackpower.com/ or another renewable source. True a brownout or worse a blackout can truly kill a hard disk but fix the power problem and your OK. IF you fear a power supply problem opt for a dual redundant if your data is that valuable. And as for backup off site and off grid means a tape backup in a safe deposit box to me.

Your data is priceless to you (I know because I am a data rat packer and have stuff saved from my days on dos 2.2 on an 8086). If you put a dollar value on your data would it be less then the cost of a dual redundant power supply and a UPS? Maybe even throw in a fancy tape backup drive or the Iomega rev if it lives up to its reliability claims. If not then do it! it will cost less then off site storage in the long run. If you fear fire damage then buy a fire/water proof safe as well and put your backup media in there. You can never have 100% backup but you can come very close.