When I first toured the
houseboat, I walked along the dock and there was neighbors
saying hello. And then when I walked into
this space, it's very bright and open, and it doesn't feel
like a kind of cramped, typical small boat or
houseboat. So I just love the feeling of
openness and the community. And the swans came swimming
by to get some corn, and it just felt like this magical
place that I couldn't believe was just outside the massive
city of Toronto. Welcome to my houseboat. Come on in. My name is Kate Fincham. I live in a houseboat in
Toronto, Canada and I'm 35 years old. I purchased my
houseboat for $343,000 Canadian, which is about
$250,000 US. I've lived on the houseboat
for three years now and I truly couldn't imagine living
anywhere else. It's just the perfect place
for me. My houseboat doesn't have an
engine, so I don't actually move. I stay stationary in
the same slip. The community here is 25
floating homes and then about 10 or 15 houseboats. And then we have boaters that
are kind of seasonal, and it's an absolutely incredible
community of people. I grew up living around and
near the water I sailed as a kid. I spent a year of high
school on a tall ship sailing around the world, and then
after university, I worked on yachts for three years. When I moved on to the
houseboat, I was just so excited that I had an
opportunity to actually live back on the water again. My most expensive monthly cost
is my mooring fee, which includes my slip here at the
dock, access to hydro, water, septic pump out, my mail and
also my parking. Since housing in Toronto is
really unaffordable, I didn't think that I would be a
homeowner anytime in the near future. I saw an article
about houseboats for sale in Toronto in October of 2020,
and since I had such background with boats, it was
just the best opportunity I could think of. I kind of
worked my finances around it, but it was something that I'd
been saving up, but not specifically for a home in
the near future. I think what I paid for my
houseboat was a very good deal. In general, a lot of
houseboats around this area will go for 500,000, and some
of the floating homes will sell for up to $1 million. I moved onto the houseboat in
November 2020, so it was going right into my first winter. On the houseboat, I had my
drain pipes freeze twice. I had some issues with my
water, and then it was trying to figure out my process for
making sure that ice didn't freeze around my houseboat,
which you use kind of little underwater fans called
bubblers for. It was a learning curve, but
it wasn't anything that put me off houseboat life at all. There's not too much that goes
into owning a houseboat that's different from a traditional
home. You do need to maintain the
exterior and being on the water, sometimes, it's a
little harder on the exterior of the houseboat. But the
only real maintenance is the pontoons, so I do have to get
taken out of the water every 2 to 3 years to maintain the
pontoons and make sure there's no areas that are rusting,
and if there are sanding them down and repainting the
pontoons. I've been doing renovations
on my houseboat ever since I moved in, and it's just been
a gradual process of kind of updating the kitchen and
retiling the backsplash, putting in a little
dishwasher, and just making the place really a lot more
functional than it was when I moved in. We renovated the
bathroom a little bit just to add some closet space, then
added a coat closet in the main area. I estimate that I spent
around $2,200 USD to do the renovations. Welcome to my
houseboat. Come on in. Right at the entrance here is
my kitchen, which is small but utilitarian. I have a stove
and an oven. I have kind of enough counter
space to make prep work and cooking all pretty
functional. And then over here I have a
dishwasher, and my washer dryer combination and a
fridge. In the hallway is my main
storage area here. So these closets are kind of
basically what I have to store anything that isn't clothing. And then on this side is my
pantry. So I have all my food items
basically in this little pantry area. Here's my bathroom. I only have a tub. I don't actually have a
shower, but otherwise I have a toilet room in here, which is
the only closing room in the entire space. And then moving on. This is my living area, my
dining area, my office. It's kind of everything all
combined. Over here is my wood stove,
so I have that on most of the winter time. It really heats the place up
very nicely and has a kind of warm, cozy glow. This is my favorite thing I
own probably is my cloud bookshelf. It's practical
storage, but I also just love the playful look of it. Over here is my office, so
this desk is also folds out into a 12 person table. I have leaves that go into
it, so it's great in tiny homes to have multifunctional
furniture items. My back deck here, I spend a
lot of time in the morning drinking my tea and just kind
of watching over the water. And this is where I keep my
kayak as well. So often I can just kind of
jump right in the kayak and head off for, you know, a 20,
30 minute paddle anytime I want. Upstairs is where my
bedroom area is and also my top deck. So going up these stairs, um,
this is a closet for my clothing, which is great. And then this is my bed area. I also have another hanging
closet there for my clothing, so it's quite a lot of space. And then out here is the
entrance to the waterside deck. And this top deck is
probably my favorite place on the whole houseboat. It's just a lovely area to
come and relax and read a book and have a glass of wine at
the end of the day, and just kind of enjoy the peace and
the nature. I definitely think that
living here has affected me in a very positive way. I find that I just really
don't get stressed out about things almost ever. I take everything happily and
it really does impact your mental well-being. I would
say being in nature and being on the water. At this point
in my life, I can't really imagine moving on to dry
land. But never say never. I would say that living on a
houseboat isn't the cheapest option, and it's not the
easiest either, but for me, it's the best lifestyle that
I could get. Living waterside very close
to downtown Toronto.
