It must have great bones...

It must have great bones to have survived all this time in one piece... more or less. At the time of the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1953, the house had been empty for a while and was in poor shape: the roof was sagging, the wood was in bad condition and the maple tree at the back of the house was not doing it any favours. The roots were messing with the foundation and the low branches scraping the roof probably weren't helping either. You can see some of the problems in early 20th century pictures of the house and in the survey's photos:

Early 20th century postcard and Historical American Buildings Survey photo

In the postcard you can see the roof sagging and in the 1950s photo, the maple tree had practically engulfed the house. Fortunately, it has since been restaured and it now looks as pretty as a picture.
And speaking of pictures, I found a lot of them from the outside, but none showing the interior. The only clue I have about that is from the survey's drawings. See everything here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ma0323/. The survey's floor plan can be a little confusing because of all the details, so I made a cleaner version:

Inside Auld Lang Syne

The kitchen and lean-to walls were unfinished and had no ceilings, you could see straight to the roof. It had no staircase, but a ladder leading to the attic space. And I take it that by the time of the survey, the partition wall was gone. I don't know which parts of the house were the original 17th century shack. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the recommended literature about the development of the house. Shame... I would really like to know.

WARNING: entering Dreamland!!
Obviously, I imagined what it would be like to live in this little cottage. So, imagining that the cottage would be as in the survey's floor plan, it would have to be slightly modified (nothing that couldn't be undone) to fit basic modern life. The kitchen and lean-to walls would have to be finished in the same way as the rest of the house. A ceiling could be installed, but since the kitchen is so small, it could use the height to give it a sense of space, so... no ceiling. The old partition wall would have to go back up and a second wall would be built, dividing the new big room into two. The problem here is that one of the chambers would have no window, but unless you'd be willing to mess with the house's structure and install one, you' just have to use lamps. The doors separating the living room and the kitchen from the tiny hallway would be removed, opening up the space a bit and allowing more light in the kitchen. The dorrs would be reused in the new chambers. Some basic plumbing and wiring later, the cottage would look like this:

An hypothetical floor plan of Auld Lang Syne

Now, it's a tiny cottage, so you'd have to be careful when decorating it. I suppose the best way to go would be to opt for simplicity: simple furniture and light colours. Here are some ideas:

And some details: beachy wall art, some colourful pillows, your beach treasures, of course, candle holders with a nautical feel, and a bold shower curtain to liven the bathroom. Just a suggestion...

There, I'm done dessecrating Auld Lang Syne. It's just a day dream anyway, no harm done...