If you are looking for the perfect tiny floating home, take a look at berkeley-engineering’s Cape Codder. Built with a 10 foot beam and either 20 or 24 foot length this cool little home is neat to look at and very practical and easy to build.

The Cape Codder is the result of many requests for a liveaboard/cruising houseboat. The Cape Codder makes it possible to have you own private waterfront home.

The Cape Codder is a home. It has a couch and end tables, a diningroom set, a complete galley and a head with a shower and toilet! There is plenty of cupboard and drawer space. The inside ladder leads up to the sleeping loft, which has room for full sized mattresses and more storage space. The forward wall opens up to enjoy your own private sundeck. A roof skylight lets you sleep under the stars.

Plans are available for the Cape Codder for $225 and you can buy them at the berkely-engineering site. Click on the Order Here link. Berkely-Engineering also makes a smaller trailerable houseboat called the Aqua Casa. I will feature this tiny floating home in another post.

Cape Codder Rear View

Cape Codder Open From Dock

Back Door

Living Room

Dining Room and Kitchen

Upstairs Bedroom

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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.

Here is a translation of the floating retreat:

John and his wife anchor their house in the outermost skerries every summer. A houseboat is the ultimate solution if you want to live like a multimillionaire, but have more ideas than money. Maybe not child-safe, but the cats really enjoy themselves.

By: Per Wennberg Text: Gisela Fridén Photo: John Carlson

Published: 2008-07-26

The dark brown jalousie doors has been taken from an old outdoor toilet. John found two identical doors in Nacka Architectural and put them opposite each other – one in the bathroom and the storeroom. The open door leads out to the rear deck.

The kitchen interior consists of cabinets, shelf and plates from Ikea. Refrigerator & freezer supplied with electricity from solar cells, while the food – mostly Asian – is cooked on a small gas stove. A Thai rice cooker for sticky rice is well-used, placed by the TV on the shelf. China is Ikea, blue and white mugs from R.O.O.M. Green tea pot from Burma, and down on the bench a modernized oil lamp.

Old pine table with a view. Chairs are from Ikea and the kerosene lamp on the ceiling is newly manufactured, from Brass Master in Stockholm. Johan bought the sea urchin lamps on the table at Liberty’s in London. Out on the sun deck stands a folding table and a deck chair
in teak, easy to obtain anywhere. Kerosene lamp on deck is a storm lantern from the Nature Company.

The stern of the houseboat has an exit to the scullery and a mini spice garden. Just bend down and take the sea water in a bucket, warm it on the stove and wash the dishes in a tub of hot and cold. Washing place is bought at Heal’s in London. The outdoor storage space
has a window opening.

The kitchen and sleeping nook are separated by a small wall with recessed bookshelf. The bed is from Ikea, the sheets from Gant, the bedspread from Lexington and blanket from R.O.O.M. Danish cabin lights over the bed. The shelves have among other things, a Chinese rice paper painting from the 1800s. The motif is “houseboat.”

60 square meter houseboat (645 sq ft), including 20 on the sundeck. Almost all of the short side which faces the sea is glazed with sliding doors. In addition the houseboat has five smaller windows. When John and his wife “change the address” they go up the steps outside the kitchen corner, clamber up on the roof, fold up the wheelhouse and chug away.

The houseboat was built by carpenter Stefan Dillner,
tel: 08 718 48 48, Mobile: 0709-22 69 69
e-mail: specialsnickerier@telia.com

Photos: Johan Carlson

Dining Room

Kitchen

Floating Home View

Bedroom

Rear Deck

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