List of essentials on a Houseboat

Yes it's been months.  I've settled in and am just kind of living my life, and I like it!  I did have a Fourth of July thing and I'll write about that more later, promise :)

Today I did something I've been meaning to do for a long time.  I set up an 'ideas' list on Amazon for stuff I  couldn't live without on a houseboat.  I did it there instead of putting in affiliate links, I'm not a huge fan of those anyway.  I  was looking for things like this when I was  looking to buy a houseboat, and really didn't find a lot.  That is kind of why this blog exists, hopefully I can help someone else when they make this epic change!

http://a.co/3PrFzyW

I may add to it, but those are the things that have just made a huge difference living here.  I think my top one is the roll up over the sink drying rack (I totally stole the image from Amazon, my counters aren't that pretty).

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00HET3GEW

May on a boat -- Plants, Storage, and Ducks!

In the spirit of trying to update at least once a month, here is May!

The weather has been all over the place but since we tied me up with thicker rope the storms haven't bothered me as much.  The boat still moves but not nearly as much.

I've been concentrating on plants this last month.  I found an amazing nursery in Ballard called Swansons and spent more money than I probably should.  I also bought a plant stand that has a very small footprint.  I got some self watering pots and set everything up.  I'm super happy with the stand as it takes up a very small amount of space and holds so much.

All the plants!

Basic shelves are also proving extremely useful.  They can fit into some smaller spaces and are a better utilization of space.  Finding some that fit the specific area is harder, but it can be done.  Also in that picture you can see that I *finally* got the Dyson that is made to hang on the wall.... on the wall.  Wood Paneling makes it harder to hang things, simply because mistakes are pretty hard to fix, but I think it worked out well.

And while I was writing this, Sebastian started freaking out on the desk.  I went and looked and a family of ducks came to hang out!  I convinced the dog that they are not tasty morsels and they eventually got bored and left.

Mama and babies hanging out

Right off the back of the boat!

Lilacs are blooming! And the goose is hatching eggs....

Lilacs!!

My lilacs are blooming!  I've loved these flowers since I was a kid and I couldn't grow them in SoCal due to it not getting cold enough.  They smell amazing and are hanging out on my little porch.

Moving on.... one of the things that is pretty unique about living on or very near the water is the wildlife.  Geese are not afraid of humans, and they hiss.  The other day it was just hanging out on the dock and I had to walk by it.  It calmly looked at me and hissed.  It was creepy, I carried the dog.

Yesterday I found out why.  I had figured someone had a nest because most birds just don't care to stay that close to humans.  Turns out I was correct!  There is a goose sitting on a nest on the deck of a building in the marina I face.  Picture is from my porch. 

Apparently she has six eggs and they expect them to hatch relatively soon.  Then they will jump from the second story balcony they are on into the lake.  I guess it's about a week messing around before they venture out into the lake proper.  I'll try to get pictures after the fledge but I have a kind of not great one of mom hanging out.

She's the black and white spot just above the planter

It's Spring! And house-guests on the Houseboat!

I know it's been more than a while.  February was a big blur, all the snow and then my nephews came to visit! Work got crazy and, well, here I am again :)

 First off, we are having an amazing weekend, it's stupid sunny and warm.

Shocking my inside plant with *all the sun*

This is why I live on a boat, weekends like this one.  It makes all of the cold and lack of space and all the rest of it worth it.

But, the part that might actually help someone who is thinking about living in a houseboat, I had guests! That stayed on the boat with me for almost a week!

They were a pair of 15 year old boys, so we juggled showers and managed to get everyone out the door in time each morning.  My secret? Best Ikea Couch EVER

I adore the color

It is called FRIHETEN, and I'm linking to the product page.  All of the pictures are taken from their site.  This three cushion couch not only turns into a queen bed that fits in my house, but it has storage!  I love this thing.

The color rocks, but the reason I got it initially was for the storage.

There is my linen closet!

Holds all the things

This fit in my boat, and there is enough room to move the coffee table out (and still walk) when we make it into a bed.

Pulls right out into a bed!

It is the only 'hide a bed' that would ever fit, and it worked great!  The boys slept on it without issue, though the only electric blanket was a single person blanket so they had to trade that off.  It was still cold when they were here but the water was running and I could run the heat, so it worked out.  It's better when we can do a lot more outside, but it was a great test run!

And just over a month ago it was snowing, Washington is weird.  I am solar powered and I am loving the weather!

All The Snow! And it's not over yet

Or, I am still living off of my internal water tanks and it's getting old.

It was only two weeks ago that the idea of 2 to 4 inches of snow was unheard of.  Now it's almost nothing because even more is coming.  It just doesn't end!  Today we got maybe two inches but tomorrow is a snow/slush/rain insanity that will probably all turn to ice overnight.  I may never get to step back into work again.

But this blog is about the houseboat!!  It is very humbling to have as many people reach out to me just to make sure I'm ok, to offer their homes as a refuge should it not be livable here.  Thank you to all of you who have reached out, and I'm not ruling anything out yet!

I've been toasty warm with my electric blanket and my space heater.  It's not exactly *warm* in my living room but it's not freezing either.  The blanket does the trick, I highly recommend.  Also layers, lots of layers.

I dug out the car today, I should have gotten a pic of the snow but I was more focused on how cold my hands were even with gloves so I didn't.  I did get pictures of the dog and my neighbors when today's storm hit.  My neighbors have a mostly flat topped boat so they have to be really good about removing snow.  It's no as bad as some but it still matters, you don't want instabilities when you're floating.

Facing West from the back of my boat, look at the snow!

Neighbors cleaning off the roof of their boat

I didn't feel the need to clean off my own roof.  Here is a pic those same neighbors took of my roof the day before, it is really pretty with it's blanket!  I am not worried about removing the snow on mine because my roof is a bit concave and is braced by a whole lot of wood beams.  I also don't have any plants up there, in future years I may be more proactive but for now it's fine.

Unblemished snow on my roof

They also got a great pic of Seb's footprints before he noped he hell off the deck

It's cold on a puppy's feet!

Tonight he stayed out a bit longer and seems to be getting used to it a bit

Making sure *everyone* knows that a Dachshund lives here

I got a pic of his footprints later

Less nope but still didn't stay

The only real complaint I have is that because I'm still on my internal water I have no real idea of what that actually means in term of water availability.  A smarter past me would have turned off the outside water on a day where it didn't matter and see what I could do shower and laundry wise with just internal water.  Past me was not that smart however so I'm pretty much just guessing.  And before anyone says 'well just go look' there is one way to get into the hull and it's not easy or comfortable.  I'm ok for now, i'm doing the fast turn the shower on and off thing, which is not very comfortable when it's not very warm, but since I'm not actually going into work I"m ok.  

Neighbors and I share the water spigot and we fount out that we own the hoses and our splitter connection, something none of us knew as it was there when we bought the boats.  There will be new hoses and connections very soon, preferably something that doesn't freeze as easily and something that I could disconnect without help.

We're planning on being snowed in from tomorrow (Monday) afternoon till honestly Wednesday due to ice and roads and things.  This hasn't been my favorite thing to do ever but I've lived through worse.  I'm warm and I have lots of food.  Internet has been stable and the power hasn't even flickered.  And if I can't get to the store tomorrow I still have food, I'm a long way from starving.

Snowmagedden approaches!

Smowmagedden approaches!  We are due for a major snow event tomorrow, bigger than the one last weekend!!

I totally stole this from someone's facebook post

This whole last week I've been running my water at night to keep the hose from freezing and heating the intake valve where the water comes into the boat.  So far so good, but today I learned that the marina is going to turn off the water tomorrow and most likely keep it off for the duration, potentially into Tuesday.  Besides the long shower I will take tonight, and the last load or so of laundry, there is more I can do to prepare.

Turns out I have a fresh water tank in the hull.  I even have nifty knobs to turn that are labeled, water from the dock, water from the tanks, and how to fill the tanks.  The thing is, there is no gauge so I'm not comfortable just turning on the water into the tanks, and I really don't know how long the water had been in there.

So adventure tonight, got myself into the hull and checked out the tank.  Looks like there are two but it's not easy to tell.  I turned the nobs and ran the shower/sink to drain the existing water.  That seemed to work ok so I filled them back up.  Only took about 20 mins so either they're not as big as I thought or I have really good water pressure!

Water controls but no gauge!

Update: It's the next day and we couldn't get the hose disconnected so I turned off the water coming into my house and we turned off the hose connection as best we could.

Snow Day in Seattle!

It snowed today in Seattle!  I got about three ish inches but I heard of people getting 9 or more.  Roads were terrible so snow day at work! I knew this was coming but it wasn't supposed to get that cold last night so I didn't leave my water running.  And yet no water this morning!

View off the front of the boat

My neighbors did leave their on and they had water, so the issue was in the hose between my dock and my boat.  I pointed a heater at the intake valve from inside but it wasn't helping.  I had planned for this, I got five one gallon jugs of water yesterday, I did all the laundry and dishes, but if it was already frozen the chances of me getting water before the end of the week were slim.  My awesome neighbors offered their shower, so not all was lost, but it still sucked.

View from the back of the boat, and we got more after this was taken

I was googling on what to do and finally came across something so obvious I felt kind of dumb.  Pour boiling water over the hose dummy.... /sigh So I boiled some of my water and it took two tries, but it finally worked!  The first try I just poured it on the hose, but the second time I took dish towels and draped them on the hose and then poured the water.  It seemed to work a lot better, longer contact with heat I'd imagine.  I could hear the ice in the hose once it got going, and the sound of water coming from the house was wonderful!

It's supposed to be down to about 20 tonight.  I am going to leave the kitchen and bathroom sinks running and I"m going to leave the heater at the intake valve.  I may have to move the electric blanket to my bed but this is not a hardship.  I am dreading the traffic tomorrow so we'll see what happens, but for tonight I have power and water and all is good in the world :)