A Dream Life On The Water In An Amazing House Boat

when it comes to housing there are few things more aspirational than a home right on the water and today we're about to meet an inspiring couple who have built their dream home and lifestyle all by constructing an incredible houseboat [Music] hi olivia how are you good to meet you welcome brad it's great to meet you g'day ryan how's it going man hey bryce good to meet you fantastic to meet you as well and i am so very excited to see your beautiful home yeah well very much welcome to be here now immediately looking at this house i feel as though i have just been transported back to bc and the incredible float homes of british columbia well that's actually where this whole idea originated from so it was traveling through and victoria island and going to fisherman's wharf where they've got just this amazing community of floating houses and i sort of was looking at it and i was like i can't believe we haven't done this in auckland and the idea stuck with me when i came home and what was it about the idea of a float home that really just made you fall in love with the concept i love being on the water yeah we both love being on the water and having something that kept you close to the water was a bit different and still having that space um you know it's beautiful to live on a yacht but i do like some head room and i like a good amount of storage and so this sort of gave me the best of both worlds yeah it certainly does and neither of you are strangers to living on the water are you no not at all bryce sorry i used to live on a yacht down there for uh three and a half years prior to meeting olivia so chose the better option and moved into a bigger palisade as you can see um and yeah it's it's you know become home to us living here on the water so yeah we really do enjoy it so you both actually met here at the marina then yeah so we did meet here at the marina so i just moved in and it had been a couple of months and i was just having a beer on the top deck and looking out and ryan pops past and yeah did a little hello how you going i love it that's right brilliant what happened to the boat oh the boat price has basically just been put to the side on the back burner and it's uh yeah basically a little getaway toy isn't it so you know it's the best suppose well it's really got a floating home here situated and another sort of toy there you know another floating paradise there which is good so try and get out at least once a month and enjoy the ocean beyond here fantastic so this is the home and that's the holiday home now that's correct yes what a life that's awesome isn't it yeah definitely definitely lucky and olivia prior to building this you actually spent two years working as a nurse on a science vessel didn't you yes that's right yeah so i was on a sort of a hybrid science filming and park guest vessel yeah what was the vessel doing and so the vessel was doing quite a lot of filming so i was involved with the blue planet um blue planet two and a few of the david edinburgh um series what an adventure that must have been yeah pretty incredible experience absolutely and can you tell me a little bit about the style of this houseboat yeah so it's a plywood base and plywood with fiberglass and the actual hull of the boat is very sort of catamaran style so two different pontoons on each side to give it the displacement and then that gives us the lift to put on the next level yeah it's all just fiberglass and ply looks like you've got a lot of storage and everything built in here as well yes so much storage so we've got two big hatches out here so you could actually um hide all his ex-girlfriends down there and yeah just i've got all dive gear we've got all of our this one's basically our garage we've got all of our wood tools um anything that we're not using frequently goes in the outside hatches and then inside all of the storage is under the floor so the whole space is just used for living very clever and it's lovely how you've got this beautiful wraparound deck here as well yeah so getting the deck was quite a nice nice concept to have two levels of it so this one down on the bottom you get really close to the water it's quite nice to sort of just lie on and feel that connection to the ocean i guess yeah and it's got some nice um foam fake teak stuff to lie on which feels like a yoga mat so you can actually just lie out in the sunshine and have a snows and what size is the home so the boat is it's two levels and 4.6 metres wide and 11.5 long so it fits perfectly into a 12 meter berth and if you can see it's actually been manufactured to fit into the birth size so we've got the corner cut out which is where our utilities are and it's sort of picture perfect just fits into this little spot now obviously here right now we're inside the marina where it's pretty calm and quiet but out on the ocean it'll be a little bit of a different story and this was actually transported here via the ocean what was it actually like out on the water yeah so it was actually towed over from hobsonville point and it was definitely not a calm day we were sitting at about 40 knot winds and the white caps out in the harbour and despite how tall and how narrow she was she actually did really well a bit of a rock bit of a roll not something that you'd want to do every day but a good little first voyage for blue turtle and blue turtle is such a great name for this houseboat as well can you tell me how you came up with that yeah so a bit of a combination between you know blue being my favorite color i mean you've painted her blue and i love turtles and turtles carry their homes with them on the ocean so the whole thing just sort of fitted together quite nicely it certainly does well already i'm just completely enamored with this home it's absolutely beautiful from the outside and i cannot wait to see the inside can we take a look yes come on board all right thank you this is lovely immediately stepping in here you would absolutely not know that you're in a houseboat would you no so the whole way it's been built is to make it feel like a proper home so you get the normal ceiling heights and it's just got a normal feeling in space yeah until you feel that movement you do get a gentle movement coming through that lovely gentle rocking yeah and so can you talk to me a little bit about the layout of the home here yeah so the bottom level is very similar to the canadian style and they put the bedrooms down low so you've got a bit more privacy so the bedrooms are low with a higher window because you do have people walking up and down you've got boats coming in and out and it also means you get slightly less movement so it's much more comfortable to sleep lower and then upstairs has been dedicated to just a beautiful big open space for living and then the little bathroom tucked in between and yeah nice and easy and looking on the floor here i see that in traditional boating style you have capitalized on every little possible inch for storage yeah so we are very lucky in terms of that a hollow hull means that every little gap under the floor can be used for storage so we've got all of the fresh water tanks are tucked in under the floor and we've also got like our utilities ones where we hide the vacuum cleaner dehumidifier anything you can think of we can store it in the boat all the essentials exactly fantastic well can we check out one of the bedrooms perfect alrighty oh this is just lovely you've got these gorgeous french doors that open up right onto the deck and then the water's just right there yeah that's right price this is what we wake up to every morning and it's yeah literally at your doorstep you know you could sit out there have your coffee or take a plunge if you wish wow just beautiful great sized room here as well you definitely don't have that compromise of space do you no no compromise of space and one of the benefits of having the hatches is that we haven't had to put in big standing wardrobes so with most of the storage going under the floor you can actually keep this beautiful wide open space and we really haven't had to compromise i love how you've used the driftwood on the drawers there as well it definitely brings that ocean theme in here yeah so this is driftwood picked up on a road trip mission with a couple of my girlfriends and we ended up yeah looking through the beaches for the perfect driftwood to attach to just give it a little bit more of a beachy nautical kind of feel to it it certainly has and next door here we've got the bathroom can we take a look in there yes please come right through all right thank you oh lovely spacious bathroom in here impossible to ignore the porthole window there yeah exactly so that was actually beautifully made for me by my boat builder ellen and so he put a lot of effort into that and it was one of those pieces that he and i were both really proud and really excited about because you can't build a boat without a porthole i completely agree and i see you've got the marine flush toilet here yes yeah marine flush toilet so that um uses um very low water usage and has a little macerator underneath that then drains down to the blackwater holding tank fantastic luxurious big shower normal size normal household shower yeah no compromises there just a lovely way to sort of still feel like you're in a home and i really love the vanity that you've created here gorgeous wood in there yeah so that's actually recycled teak and of course take just is such a classic timber to use in marine building oh absolutely it is yeah that very classic style and yeah it looks beautiful all sort of through the boat it certainly does and i see that you've even managed to fit in the washer here yeah so it's a washer dryer actually the combination one and it just makes it easy you know you've got the space and filling it in there just takes away some of the hassle of having to take your laundry out to get done and definitely a luxury for small space living you have a second bedroom in this home don't you yes we do yep whole another area all right can we take a look there come on through great thank you another lovely roman here and again just so idyllic i love how each and every window you look out you can just see water and boats and it really does just have that wonderful feeling of almost just being on holiday doesn't it oh very much so you know it's serenity for us it's you know coming back from a stressful day at work it's uh yeah just a peaceful little haven really and it looks like again in here you've put in a tremendous amount of storage yes so this room's actually got a bit more storage than the other room because of how the stairs are done we've got a full walk-in wardrobe underneath the stairs there and so that's where we store all of our clothes blankets all of the linen is kept under the bottom and we've got more hatches and through the floor here as well very clever well the downstairs area is just beautiful and i am so excited to see what's upstairs can we go up there yeah let's do it okay now obviously some of the storage here and the stairs is taken up with the wardrobe but what's happening in this part so this is actually where we have the two big black water tanks tucked under the floor here and we also have the suck out for them onto the outside of the boat so you can connect up the little portable effluent tank and that helps us get rid of the black water there's also two big batteries in there which are used for backup if the shore power goes down it means that we can run the basic essentials like the toilet will still go the water pump will still go and our gas detector will still run as well fantastic really is great to have that very cleverly tucked away utility area there yeah exactly what should we head up yeah come on up okay oh wow this is incredible look at that view you've got panoramic views of the marina up here and you can even see the city in the background yeah so we get both sky tower and harbour bridge views and yeah the marina view is constantly changing you've got all the beautiful masts all the boats coming in and out just wonderful and the lounge space here this just looks so cozy oh it is really cozy so we just love this whole area it's um very snuggly you can cuddle up on the couch and you've got that gorgeous view out there and then we've got a little nook that we made as well so a little spot to sit down read your book and just chill out yup that reading there definitely looks incredibly snug and i love that you've even got a fish tank up here how novel is it to have a fish tank on a boat yeah i guess it isn't something that you'd see every day and we just wanted to bring you know a bit of the ocean back inside and fish tanks seem to be the best way to do that absolutely and then again up here all of this lovely teak timber yeah so this is a really special piece so um our boat builder he actually recycled these off a ship that was getting sunk and so he had all these gorgeous pieces of old teak and you can actually see the way it's been dimed out is where the original bolt holes were and if you look closely you can see there's a dark coloring around it is where the old pitch staining was so they put them in for the banisters and we've actually used it for the ceiling beam and where the lights fit they're actually fitting perfectly into those bolt holes beautiful very very clever and then over here we've got your kitchen and dining area yes come on through wonderful big table great for entertaining yeah built by us to suit the home so you know it certainly works well for us and like the natural sort of look so yes you know many breakfasts here and yeah it's all good fun yeah just lovely i love the stools as well those are really unique yeah something a bit different that i did during my crafting stages and yeah picked up some just some cheap stills and pop some coffee sacks and a bit of upholstery over the top of them make them look a little bit different certainly does what a great idea and then the design of your kitchen here this is just incredibly spacious isn't it yeah no that's right so this pretty much is my domain it's a full setup kitchen as uh for an apartment if not bigger so yeah we're certainly happy with that and works very well and you've definitely got plenty of prep space here in this kitchen too yeah so obviously you've got the uh the center island here the benchtop which we use as a preparation sort of bay behind me here i've got uh just a four burner gas burner and this basically just uh yeah your dishes and whatnot as well but um got everything a modern kitchen has and yeah it works very well absolutely and of course everywhere you look just these beautiful views that's right just reminds you that yeah you know on the ocean basically but in the comfort of home which is good it certainly is and then of course this whole kitchen just opens out onto the beautiful top deck can we take a look out there yeah sure can bryce this is where the magic happens i bet it is oh wow that is just gorgeous this really is just a million dollar view up here isn't it oh absolutely and just the most relaxing spot on the whole boat to be honest such a great layout for entertaining with the gas brung window that just opens up you've got the breakfast bar slash bar there and then this lovely comfortable seating area out here as well yeah absolutely like we just end up sitting here for the afternoon glass wine little cheese board and we just spent hours here on a sunday afternoon you're seeing all of the boats coming back in and you just got the most gorgeous view and it's just lovely absolutely perfect so how long have you actually been living in the home now well so i moved in around december and you arrived about what would it be a couple months later a couple months later and how are you adapting to life on the water oh we love it we absolutely love it yeah calm satisfaction would be sort of the sum up for me there's a way of just waking up you're happy with your life you're happy with where you are and there's just a like a calmness that comes over you when you're here yeah i think the biggest thing for me is it's made me realize that a simple life's a better life you know and it's really made me sort of realize that keeps the costs down and yeah you wake up feeling so relaxed and just good with life yeah and a project like this this is such a beautiful home this could not have been cheap to build no it definitely wasn't cheap to build it was um one of those projects where i was very inexperienced when we first started and i sort of came into it with a budget around sort of 250 and we definitely doubled that which was something that i wasn't really expecting but i definitely have got a lot more for what i was thinking at the start initially it was just going to be a single level maybe a loft but bedroom at the top and we've ended up with a two-bedroom gorgeous floating home and then when you're talking about a 500 000 budget of building a home like this in comparison to just the average homes around auckland this is still actually a really affordable option isn't it oh absolutely i mean this is um comparable to a waterfront apartment two-bedroom apartment so to be able to hit that budget there we're really getting our money's worth yeah and obviously living here at the marina there are some costs associated with that as well yes so we don't own this birth so we're renting in the birthing space and then you also pay a live aboard fee on top of that so it ends up around 260 a week for us to live here and to have the birth space all that being taken into consideration the cost of a lifestyle like this well it's just hard to put a price tag on it isn't it yeah absolutely well this is just such a beautiful home i am so impressed with what you've created here not just a home but the whole lifestyle that surrounds it thank you both so much for sharing it with me thank you thank you for coming thanks for coming through bryce my pleasure living right on the water really is a dream for so many people and here olivia and ryan have the absolute best of both a boat and a houseboat combined there really is no question about it that they have created a beautiful lifestyle for themselves and as for me right now i think i'm gonna see if i can catch myself a bit of dinner [Music] you

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 891,507

Rating: 4.9409857 out of 5

Keywords: living big in a tiny house, house boat, float home, floating home, boat, boat life, life on the water, tiny house, small spaces, small space design, float home design, house boat design, house boat living, alternative living, tiny house ideas, tiny house tour, float home tour, house boat tour, architecture, home design, tiny house 2020, house boat 2020, living big

Id: 6HRom2j0WBs

Length: 18min 30sec (1110 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 02 2020