Why would you want to live on a Houseboat??

Why?

To be honest, boating has never appealed to me in any way, at least not the actual act of boating. It wasn't a thing my family did growing up, and despite living in San Diego for most of my adult life, I didn't spend much time in the water. I love the ocean, but my happy place is sitting near it, not as much playing in it. The sound of waves still puts me to sleep at night (thank you awesome white noise machine) and on a recent trip to Mexico I just sat on the cliff overlooking the Pacific and felt that I was home.  Despite all of that I never felt the call of boating like many people do, I enjoy being on or near the water, but not traveling.

For my 40th birthday I rented out a beach house and I learned very quickly that I didn't want to live actually on the ocean, the salt was corrosive and the sand just got everywhere. The final condo I owned in San Diego was about three miles inland but there was a bay so on certain days I could get those 'Ocean Breezes' that I love so much but didn't have to deal with the downsides.

The search for the Forever Home

I am not a Millennial, I am a solid 'Gen X'er' and with that comes some attitudes that aren't as common with a lot of people anymore.  I never wanted to move a lot or hop from job to job. I've always wanted to find my 'Forever Home', it would go along with my 'Forever Job' living in my 'Forever City'.  I think you may see a theme here.  I had found San Diego and loved it there, the people, the climate, the politics (mostly), it was Home.  Life doesn't always work out that way and three years ago I accepted a job in Seattle.  This was change! I hate change!  Change makes me so anxious, and moving sucks and wtf am I doing?  When making this decision I decided that my fear of change needed to be dealt with and I was going to embrace change.  And since I was changing things I was going to change everything, or at least as much as I could.

I had lived in a home that I own since college, I had this beautiful condo three miles from the beach and I was leaving it.  So I went apartment shopping in Seattle, decided that I would live in Bellevue (my job is in Bellevue) and I was going to rent an apartment in a high rise!  Unfortunately that meant downsizing, a lot.  I was going down a full 1000 sq feet.  I moved into that condo with 1 and 3/4 moving vans, I moved out with just over half a van and my car packed full.  The downsizing was epic.

I am currently in my second apartment in Bellevue, going down another 100 sq feet.  I adore my apartment, and I really like someone else fixing things, but I was still missing Home.  I'm hoping Totes M'Boats will be that Home.