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Houseboats? Tell me about them. Or if you live on a normal boat and that is what you call home, tell me about it! What is it like to live on a houseboat? Whats the difference between living on a houseboat and living in a house or apartment? Are then cheaper then homes? What kind of maintenance do they need? Is there anything you wish you knew before you got a houseboat? Tell me everything! Houseboat:  Houseboat  More house then boat  House...barge...boat?   House on a boat. 
IndianaZoidberg fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Mar 2, 2015 |
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Mar 2, 2015 02:49
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IndianaZoidberg posted:What is it like to live on a houseboat? Whats the difference between living on a houseboat and living in a house or apartment? The great thing is, if you don’t like your neighbors, you can just pull up the anchor and sail someplace else. quote:What kind of maintenance do they need? Mainly, you want to keep a lot of extra rakes lying around.
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Mar 2, 2015 03:54
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When I lived in Juneau I worked with a guy who lived on a fishing boat in the harbor. He smelled like diesel all the time and we did not work in a garage. Fit his personality though, because he sprayed some WD-40 whenever he farted in the office. When the office was eventually emptied out there was grease caked on the wall behind his desk. Well that's my story about houseboats, I sure wouldn't recommend the lifestyle.
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Mar 2, 2015 04:30
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If you enjoy the constant maintenance of home ownership mixed with the throwing your money down the toilet horrible investment opportunity of boats then a houseboat might be for you
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Mar 2, 2015 07:48
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If you let the maintenance go a bit on a regular house, you get an untidy garden and/or peeling wallpaper. If you let the maintenance go on a houseboat, it sinks.
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Mar 2, 2015 23:58
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Soylent Yellow posted:If you let the maintenance go a bit on a regular house, you get an untidy garden and/or peeling wallpaper. If you let the maintenance go on a houseboat, it sinks. solution: park on the Aral Sea
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Mar 3, 2015 00:09
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Owners don't like them referred to as house boats. They are floating homes!
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Mar 3, 2015 00:33
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I know nothing about house boats but i saw one that actually looked like something i could live in.  Autarkhome. Supposed to be entirely energy neutral, passive house level insulation combined with solar panels and solar thermal panels. Then i found out they cost $500k. So a good houseboat is probably not cheaper than a house.
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Mar 3, 2015 21:29
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They going to feel pretty dumb when their house is lodged under that bridge in the background.
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Mar 4, 2015 19:29
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http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3665756&pagenumber=1&perpage=40#post435063803 I remembered this thread from awhile back might be useful.
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Mar 5, 2015 08:44
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Houseboat:  The RV of the Yacht world. Are you a middle aged white male living in the interior of BC (or a warm weather region generally surrounded by a colder region)? Then a houseboat might be for you. Do you and 30 of your friends want to get mindblowingly drunk and play "who slips on the deck and falls overboard and drowns first"? Then a houseboat rental is definitely for you. Houseboats are a lot like RVs in that they're lovely, only old people or drunkards use them. They universally smell. Boathouse  It's a garage for your boats. Floating Home  Want to spend a lot of money to look like a dirty hippy? Then try a floating home. Basically a house on pontoons, they are still heavily tethered/anchored, wired and piped into the city grid, and generally suck at everything. Not only do you still have to pay utilities, but moorage, standardized upkeep, and a hell of a lot of other things.
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Mar 5, 2015 09:05
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Gibbo posted:Floating Home Apparently I kind of do. Sitting on the 2nd story patio, rocking gently on the water, enjoying a drink and watching the sunset sounds amaze
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Mar 5, 2015 14:16
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You don't need a houseboat to live on a boat. I have met plenty of people that lived on average sized sailboats like this one (30' sailboat) If you rent a slip at a marina, you will have access to facilities like toilets, showers, and small stores. People on boats are generally pretty friendly, it's kind of like living in a dorm in college. Just walk down the dock, see someone drinking a brew and hang out with them. Of course, this is at a marina not a commercial dock.
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Mar 5, 2015 16:36
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There was a goldmined thread in gbs from years ago (like, 2009?) about someone actually building a houseboat(I guess "floating house"). I think the dude was in one of those norway/finland/sweden type countries. It took a few years I guess but him and his father in law or some poo poo built it from scratch and it owned.
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Mar 5, 2015 20:46
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Rap Music and Dope posted:There was a goldmined thread in gbs from years ago (like, 2009?) about someone actually building a houseboat(I guess "floating house"). I think the dude was in one of those norway/finland/sweden type countries. It took a few years I guess but him and his father in law or some poo poo built it from scratch and it owned.  Was it this thread? It was a pretty cool boat. Wasn't there a goon who lived on a boat with his duck? Or am I mixing up two different threads.
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Mar 6, 2015 19:20
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I say this over and over again. On a boat like that all the things you are used to on land that you take for granted, like sewage, water, electricity, etc., become "systems." These systems are always in two different states, 1) they don't function as you would expect them to, or 2) in some form of expensive disrepair. There is a reason the most happiest day of a boat owner's life is the day he sells his boat.
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Mar 6, 2015 23:06
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That's not entirely true, but I would say to have fun with a boat, house or otherwise you either need to be so rich you don't care or else be a very handy person with a lot of skill working in your boat's construction medium, be that fibreglass, wood, steel, whatever.
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Mar 7, 2015 14:08
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IndianaZoidberg posted:House...barge...boat? These are an English thing and there are a bunch usually moored around where I live. Most people seem to use them as a garden replacement and for holidays. There are a few that serve as what seems like permanent homes, and they tend to house "alternative" people or the outright down-and-outs. These barges are poorly insulated (if at all), and the only way to get electricity is to either have a permanent/residential mooring spot (they cost a lot and are quite rare), by using some sort of solar panel contraption, or running a generator. The proper down-and-out boat around the corner from here is heated with a wood stove and he is sometimes running a generator. This doesn't look like a lot of fun in winter.
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Mar 7, 2015 20:01
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Origin posted:I say this over and over again. On a boat like that all the things you are used to on land that you take for granted, like sewage, water, electricity, etc., become "systems." These systems are always in two different states, 1) they don't function as you would expect them to, or 2) in some form of expensive disrepair. There is a reason the most happiest day of a boat owner's life is the day he sells his boat. Well I'd put some of those real houseboats in a different category. They're literally a small wooden house on a barge and have more in common with their land based counterparts than an actual sea-going vessel. FINGERBLASTER69 posted:You don't need a houseboat to live on a boat. I have met plenty of people that lived on average sized sailboats like this one (30' sailboat) Yeah you can and people do. Living on a boat is a cheap way to own a boat. But a 30' sailboat has like 6'2" headroom and the equivalent of like 150 square feet of living space.
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Mar 8, 2015 06:24
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Hollow Talk posted:These are an English thing and there are a bunch usually moored around where I live. I have seen a lot of those in the Netherlands too, or at least very very similar ones (albeit without all that crap on the roof) I think Pink Floyd actually recorded one of their later post-Waters albums in one of those things
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Mar 8, 2015 14:48
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My wife and I lived on a houseboat in Bristol, UK for 5 months a couple of years ago. It was awesome, probably one of the best extended experiences of my life! Our boat, roughly 45ft long by about 6ft wide - you get really used to moving past one another, and you certainly have to be comfortable in each other's company:  We moved in in January, during one of the coldest winters that England has experienced in recent year. The week after we moved in the river froze and there was a thin sheet of ice on the inside of the walls. I learnt to love the thermal leggings I bought from the army surplus store. We didn't have a wood burner, heat was provided by a gas heater like this:  We were renting the boat from a guy in his mid to late 50's who wanted to spend the winter on land; can't say I blame him but I wish he had mentioned this before we moved on as when the summer rolled around he basically jacked the rent up to the point it was not really a choice as to whether we moved off or not; long story short he was last seen happily bumbling up the canal towards Bradford-upon-Avon and we moved into a flat. Good memories: Waking up to the sounds of the sounds of swans tapping on the windows Semi-drunkenly pootling down the canal in the spring, being overtaken by ducks. The first time I operated a lock and appreciated the simple genius of the design Bad memories: The ~500th time I had operated a lock and the appreciation had worn off Desperately trying to find a place to moor as night rolled in and we realised the headlights didn't work Waking up and realising the water level had dropped significantly and the boat was at ~40 degree angle on the side of the canal, having to right ourselves by mean of a scaffold pole wearing nothing but boxer shorts. We lived in Bristol centre over the winter, but the price jumps significantly over the summer when the fancy yachts and boats move in and we had to move off down the river towards Bath. It was great but we both still lived in Bristol and the next month basically became wake up / cycle 16 miles to work / work / cycle 16 miles home / sleep / repeat. If we had not at the time had jobs that require you to be in one place then things might have been different but as it was it became unworkable. My understanding is that, as has been mentioned, you can either get permanent mooring or a 'continual cruiser' licence, which is cheap but you are required to move every two weeks at a minimum. The distance you need to move is a bit nebulous but you can't really get away with just moving backwards and forwards down the canal (there are agents of the river authority, basically traffic wardens of the river, who enforce this). Cooking and heat were provided by gas bottles. We had a couple of big car batteries, charged by an alternator and hooked up to an inverter to provide electricity, and when moored in Bristol there was a pay-as-you-go electric hookup as well for mains power. I was lucky enough to have a job where I could shower in the mornings and charge up a laptop / phone if needed (though there was also a decent communal shower at the docks we were using). There was a tiny shower in the boat itself but turning on the boiler and heating sufficient water took so long that it wasn't really worth it. I think my one electronic vice at the time was watching Lost on the laptop every week... Long story short we smelled bad and read a lot of books  We had ~100l tank of water which could be replenished at various points on the river, and a big septic tank that could be pumped out via a big pump / hose set-up at other points. Neither was really an issue, though the toilet smell did get a bit much when the tank was getting full. The general boating community was awesome, we to know our regular-ish neighbours and popped round to each other's boats of an evening. This was kind of important as you are quite exposed - our possessions such as they were we secured by a flimsy front door so a general you watch my stuff I watch yours attitude was essential. We never had anything approaching trouble, but our bikes (locked up in a public area nearby) were both kick in by drunks one night which kind of sucked. Still not sure whether they were trying to steal them, didn't like the boat folk or just saw them and wanted to smash something. Whatever the reason it cost me a brand new rear wheel :/ Overall, as I said, it was one of the best times of my life and I often look back on it and consider doing it again. As others have mentioned it is essentially a money sink and a boat will not appreciate in value as a house (probably) will, indeed it will decrease. I fully recommend it though, good times. If you have any questions I'll do my best to answer, as I said we only lived on the boat for 5 months, and only one of them was really travelling, but I'll try!
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Mar 27, 2015 20:43
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