Floating Homes

What Style of Small or Tiny Home is Right For You?

The best things come in small packages. When it comes to housing, Henry David Thoreau, a famous early tiny home enthusiast, would likely agree. His outstanding collection of essays, Walden, was a testament to the benefits of minimalist living. The book detailed his life in a 150 square foot cabin in … Read more

A Life Less Ordinary

by Jody Pountain

Our friends Wes and Elizabeth have been talking about coming to visit for quite some time. Finally our free time aligned and flights were booked. They were a bit hesitant at first to stay in our tiny floating home but once they arrived it didn’t take long for them to … Read more

Tiny Floating Homes: Dos Libras

by Jody Pountain

Tiny Floating Homes: Dos Libras Last week I shared a personal story about one of my Favorite Things I brought with me when moving onto a sailboat last year. Inspiration for that post came from my friend and fellow cruiser, Tammy. Now I’d like to give you a little perspective … Read more

Lake Union Floating Homes

by Kent Griswold

My wife and I are on vacation and have spent the day in Seattle, Washington. We took the Duck Tour which is both educational and entertaining and I would highly recommend it if you are spending any time in downtown Seattle. One of the perks of the Duck Tour is … Read more

Narrowboats – Historical Tiny Living

by Kent Griswold

Guest Post by Shelley Davis

In England today, narrowboats are floating homes, or holiday cottages, moored on the nation’s inland waterways.

They can range from a small 20ft long day boat to around 80ft long for some liveaboard craft that will never be taken around the whole country, but must always be under 7ft wide to retain the narrowboat name. Inside the boat, this can give up to a luxurious 420 sq ft of space, once you exclude the engine and other ‘service’ areas.

Photo credits – R-P-M

However, historically Narrowboats were working craft, where the majority of the length was dedicated to moving coal to London, chocolate from Birmingham, crockery from the potteries in Staffordshire. This left only up to 10ft of one-room space for living for an entire family with multiple children. Most furnishings were multi functional:

The Nutmeg of Consolation – Studio on a Lifeboat

by Kent Griswold

Benjamin Wheeler brought to my attention Tom Dolby’s blog and his restoration of on ships lifeboat that he has converted into a music studio over in England. Though not used as a tiny house there is absolutely no reason that it couldn’t be converted into one.

I’ll let Tom Dolby tell you a little bit about the boat and you can use your imagination to see where you could take a boat like this.

She was built in the 1930’s as one of a pair of ship’s lifeboats aboard the SS Queen Ann, a British merchant vessel serving in the South Seas. If you look at the red stripe down the side, this was her original gunwale: the deck was added in the 1960’s and we built the wheelhouse this year. In the 30?s she would have had a sail, oars and small paraffin engine. It’s carved on her bowpost that she could hold up to 99 souls.