Floating Retreat
It’s been awhile since I have covered any cool floating homes. Remember Steph’s Floating Cottage. She is busy remodeling it and getting ready to really move in.
This week I discovered this cool little Swedish retreat thanks to materialicious. This floating retreat is located somewhere in the Swedish Archipelago, where it is off the grid and a long ways from anywhere. It has an outboard motor on the back to move it around and flip up steering wheel on the roof.
I like the simplicity of the design. It makes you think that just about anyone could build a basic structure like this. The interior is finished off with white painted boards and cabinets which makes the space seem larger than it is. I don’t know the exact size as the website is all in Swedish. Go to Sköna hem to get the details. If you can translate the site and pass on everything to me I would really appreciate it.
If you are interested in creating your own floating home you might want to check out the book Handmade Houseboats: Independent Living Afloat
Also check out the Paycheck Shantys located at OneUglyBoat for more ideas of building your own floating retreat.
Photos: Johan Carlson
Dining Room
Kitchen
Floating Home View
Bedroom
Rear Deck
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15 Responses to “Floating Retreat”
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This is cool. Nice and simple. I love the idea of being able to float around freely. Now imagine a PV array on the roof and that little outboard being an electric motor.
I tried using Google’s translation service on the URL with no luck but I was able to translate parts of the article with a copy and paste into their tool. Here’s what I found on size, “Barge 60 square meters, of which 20 on the sundeck.” …So 40 square meters interior space or 430 square feet.
looking at the inside, I wouldn’t think of it as being a floating house. Great design.
Beautiful. My mother knows some Swedish, so I will try to get more information from her. All I can really pick out is that most of their furniture is from IKEA, of course!
This place is definitely only for summer use. The Swedish Archipelago gets icy cold and very dark in the winter.
My mom (half Swedish) translated the article, here are the details:
Johan stays in the house every summer with his wife. Houseboat is the best solution if you want to live like a millionaire with more ideas than money. Not child safe, but the cats love it.
The kitchen is from IKEA and the appliances are run by solar cells. The furniture is from IKEA and travels to Asia.
In the back there is room for washing and an herb garden. It is 60 meters total. It can be parked on a lake or in an ocean inlet, and when they want to change their address, they start up the motor and move someplace else.
Christina thank you for having your mom do this. I think I will include some of this information above so people get the full picture.
awesome!
This is the coolest house I have seen…love it! Thanks for finding it. I have been looking to transition to a floating home from my recently sunken boat. I’m looking for “property” (basically waterfront access) off grid, any suggestions?
Just a small note – I didn’t see anything about the furniture being from Asia, just that they loved to cook Asian food.
1. No mention of plumbing, bathroom, toilet, water treatment.
2. No mention of rules and regulations regarding boats, their licensing and safety requirements.
3. No mention of property rights of the people’s or public land you moor your house to.
Hi Peter,
Unfortunately, that information was not available through the article. Plus my lack of the Swedish language makes it difficult for me to contact the owner and answer these questions.
These questions would need to be answered if you are planning to live this lifestyle and you would need to know these regulations before you park your floating home. I’m glad you brought them up.
There are many sites on the internet dedicated to floating homes. The Tiny House Blog is demonstrating this as an option, but I do not claim to know all the answers in this area.
Kent
[...] is a follow-up to the Floating Retreat post of a few days ago. I had mentioned One Ugly Boat in that post and Harold the owner and [...]
Kent, Peter,
Just contact the owner in English if you have questions. Any Scandinavian will speak (and read/write) English quite well.
/Joseph
I live about 75% of the year in a float cabin on Powell Lake in Coastal BC. I have a blog where I tell a lot about float cabin living and how ours was constructed. You can go to http://PowellRiverBooks.blogspot.com and select “Float Cabin Living” or “Float Cabin Construction.”
I can answer peter’s questions at least from my experience.
1. We have an outhouse on shore but plan on getting an on-float composting toilet in the future. Gray water goes back into the lake so we are very careful about it. We wipe all dishes prior to washing with biodegradable soap. We also drink the lake water (after boiling).
2. Our cabin in on a lake in British Columbia. It is moored in a stationary location and we have a water lease from the government for 20 years at a time. We pay a lease fee each year along with property taxes on the assessed value of our cabin. Both are about $500 a year. There is currently a moratorium and no new cabins can be added for environmental safety. Because our cabin is not considered a boat there is no licensing. We carry property insurance just as if it was a land cabin.
3. We don’t have any property rights where we are located, but do have access to the land as long as we don’t cause any damage. The lease covers this land access and restrictions for its use.
We’ve had our float cabin since 2001. We stay there in winter, but the other owners are usually only summer occupants. — Margy
I love the house! My guess is his wife is from Northeasten Thailand, but just a guess based on their kitchen essentials.