Floating Homes vs Houseboats in Seattle

I'm going to link back to my Realtor's site as they explain this way better than I can, but I'll try to give a basic summary as far as I understand things.

Special Agent Realty awesome explanations

Totes is a Houseboat.  This means that she is not hooked up to anything permanently.  While she doesn't have an engine or any means of propulsion herself, she could be moved to any marina anywhere and with a hose and extension cord be good to go.  A floating home doesn't have that ability.  Floating homes are attached to their docks with electric and water/sewer.  They rarely move from their location, and most of them are in 'condo' docks.  Condo docks are run by everyone who lives there and you pay fees for utilities and to upkeep the docks.  I am going to be renting which leaves me at the mercy of the owners raising the rent.

I am of two minds about dock rental vs the condo docks.  On the one hand by renting I could, technically, go anywhere that had room.  The reality is that there isn't much room and the waiting lists are years long.  But I could!!  On the other hand, I'm not really planning on moving the boat anytime soon and having the security of the condo dock would be nice.  The fees are usually cheaper than rent, at least as far as I've seen, and you have the peace of mind that you will be involved in any decision to raise the fees, and any raises would be for things that would directly benefit you.

I've been told that the management company where Totes is currently docked is good and they value their liveaboard people as it is guaranteed income for them.

The water goes where??

One of the biggest adjustments I'm going to have to, well, adjust to, is how waste and water are handled on a houseboat.  That is actually one of the bigger differences between Floating Homes and Houseboats (at least here in Seattle), Floating Homes are hooked up to a sewer system, Houseboats are not.  I'll do another post about the differences between the two.

Black Water
First the obvious, human waste goes into a black water tank and will need to get pumped out on a regular basis.  I've already got the not awesome toilet paper that dissolves really easily (thus the not awesome part) but I'm going to have to be VERY careful about what gets flushed.  I'm also going to need a sign  for the bathroom making sure everyone else is just as careful.  A lot of marinas have bathrooms, the one where Totes is currently docked does not.

I'm told there is at least one company that will come and pump it out on a regular schedule.  I feel this is the best money I'll spend in this whole process.

Grey Water
This one was actually a surprise, Seattle does not require grey water tanks.  As things stand right now all of the water from the shower/sink/washing machine all goes right into the lake.  This means I have to be extremely careful about cleaning products, shampoo/conditioner, all of those things.  Oil is a big no-no which means making sure that I use a lot of paper towels to soak up oil before washing a pan that I cooked bacon in, and other messy cooking situations.

I've been doing a lot of reading and I'm trying out different products.  I'm not going to link any because I'm not going to advertise, but so far I'm going to try out Mrs. Meyers Lavender stuff and I already use Method for hand washing.  I think the most difficult will be the laundry detergent.  My research so far says that you can either be totally biodegradable, or you can actually get things clean.  Tide is working on a formulation so we'll see where that goes.

The hardest part has been finding a definitive list of ingredients that should not go into the water.  I just want a list so I can eliminate products easily when reading ingredients labels.  I also want to understand why an item is on the list as being not ok, and why other items are acceptable.  From what I've read, Seattle flirts with 'we will require grey water tanks' every few years but so far hasn't gone  through with changing the rules.  If nothing else it would make using cleaning products a lot easier.

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.

How did a San Diego girl end up in Seattle?

You want to live where?

As I was writing up the first big epic post for this blog I realized that the back story on why I am in Seattle and buying a houseboat was well... epic and long.  Blogs posts shouldn't be quite that long, so I decided to split it up a bit.  If someone finds this blog to learn about living on a houseboat, I'm sure they don't care about why I live in Seattle, and this way they can skip that whole section.

Where I came from

I was born in New England but both of my parents are from northern California and their families had been there for generations.  My maternal grandparents moved to Sedona, AZ when I was very small so when we would go visit family we would split time between CA and AZ for the most part.  I loved California, and though I chose to go to college in Utah I always knew CA would be my home.

Moving to CA

Due to weird circumstances and a conversation at a bar at GenCon I had an offer to work at a game company in San Diego, which I did not hesitate to take.  It was my first job in the Game Industry, and honestly just about everything momentous that has happened in my life came from taking that job, including my move to Seattle.  I loved San Diego, I had found my home.  The weather and climate was pretty much perfect for me, I made friends and had relationships, and forged connections with people that I will treasure for my whole life.

So, why are you in Seattle now?

The game industry is a fickle place.  I love it, can't imagine working in any other industry, but layoffs are pretty common.  I had managed to avoid them up until January of 2015.  I was working at Disney and due to reasons, got laid off.  Lots of things happened for lots of reasons and it came to where I couldn't find a job that fit in San Diego, or even the surrounding area.  I had a dear friend up at ArenaNet in Seattle, and he had told me to call him when I was willing to move, and it was time.  So I called and got a job and moved myself up here to Bellevue.  Scary!

Have you found home?

That is the funny thing, I think I have.  San Diego was home and I will always love the area, but I found another home.  It's different, I have seasons again! But the climate isn't all that makes a place home.  Again, I have made dear friends, I have forged connections that I will treasure for a lifetime, and I have a job I adore.  I sold my condo in San Diego last year, which was always the plan, but it was a big commitment to staying in Seattle.

Welcome to my journey to live on a houseboat!

As I started this journey people kept asking for a blog.  I didn't start one right away simply because if I decided to not do this Houseboat thing it would be pretty brief and boring blog.  Also as I have been trying to do this I have found that there really isn't a lot of information about what it is like to live on a Houseboat.  Maybe I can help flesh that out a bit...

Current Status: I'm in Escrow for Totes M'Boats (link takes you to my realtor's page)  Inspection is currently scheduled for July 16th, and I will have a much better idea then if I am really going to do this or walk away and look for the next Houseboat.

The boat I'm currently in Escrow for is called Totes M'Boats currently moored on Lake Union in Seattle Washington.  The plan is to move in with my dog and make it my 'forever home', or my 'until I get tired of living on a boat' home.  I've learned so much about how this works but still have so many questions!

I will try to update this as things come up with the boat, especially if I need to research something to share what I've learned.