To seriously consider buying a houseboat rather than a house?

[GinAndIt]

Has anyone got any experience of living long term on a houseboat/Dutch barge?

I have always loved the idea of living on water, and have a couple of acquaintances who've owned houseboats (one loved it, one left after a couple of years due to the cold!)

I would never be able to afford even a flat in the south east, but a houseboat might be a possibility. I know mortgages are harder to get, and of course there are mooring fees etc, but... I guess what I'm asking is, is it a pie in the sky idea, or potentially do-able?

[WineAndTiramisu]

Bumping a zombie thread to advertise...

However I'm now wondering if the OP ever moved to a houseboat

[hellymelly]

We weren't on the towpath side, but we still got gawpers, and drunks who thought it really funny to swim over and untie you, at 2a.m. Ditto drunks who walked over the frozen cut to tap on the windows. Oh and boys who threw fireworks onto the roof (a hundred year old wooden boat covered in pitch, not funny at all).
I bought my boat as I was house sharing and wanted to live alone, I didn't want to be in a rented basement flat (I had pets), I wanted close neighbours. I knew several people on the mooring I ended up on, so that helped too, I knew roughly what to expect. Didn't have electricity for a few years and only got hot running water when I was eight and half months pregnant. I bathed in a little tin tub.

[Martorana]

Me? It was a time when all out friends were getting ginormous mortgages and couldn't talk about anything else. We were both in very straight respectable well paid jobs, but we (if we were honest) wanted to feel we weren't part of the rat race, even thought we were! It was a good compromise.

[GinAndIt]

Can I ask why you decided to live aboard in the first place?

[Martorana]

Oh, I had forgotten the gawpers! We don't have them where we live now, but when we were in town they were awful. And so cross when you asked them not to.

Yep- that's the downside of a wide beam. Upside is that it's actually possible to live aboard as a family without killing each other!

[catbus]

Downside of widebeam if you're on the canal is the lock/ lock flight restriction. As in, you might not fit!
When pg with DC2, we commissioned a 60x10 ft shell- this we felt would've been ok for what we needed and we wanted to not feel like we were living in a corridor anymore (which on bad days, it can feel like).
Sadly, we were ripped off and our plans came to nothing.
I do really miss the canal, but the community that was so tight and there when we were, is no longer- lots of new faces, granted, but it just isn't the same. Perhaps when the kids are all grown I might like to do it again, but in reality if I did it now, I would need a bloody ferry to accommodate their need for space etc!
Oo yes, the things that really pissed us off at the time- dog shit right outside your plank (members of the public), bikes using it as a 100 mile an hour commute (fair enough, but no regard for the boaty kids out playing on towpath, no ringing their bell or slowing down), piss heads untieing your ropes from mooring pins overnight (really not funny), holiday cruisers not keeping within the limit and their speed would leave a huge wake, rocking the boat, damaging the canal bank and knocking things over and generally being fecking annoying: and finally, gongoozling. Nothing worse than opening your shutters/ curtains to have someone taking a photo or peering in closely.
I even had tourists come over the plank into my boat whilst I was sat inside half asleep feeding DD. Like I was some kind of living museum
Having said all of that, I would definitely do it all again

[Martorana]

Our boat is a 70ft Humber Keel. We live on a private mooring with a garden- we pay £500 a quarter for it- that includes water. We pay utilities land council tax on top. We are very lucky- moorings like ours are very hard to find- we had been living on the boat for 12 years before we found it!
Moorings are always the issue. Boats are easy to find- there's a huge range and a lot of bargains. But a place to put it.....not so easy. So find a mooring first. Some people look for a boat -any boat- that comes with a mooring, then get rid of that boat and put the one they want on it.

The other mega issue- and one that they never talk about on property programmes- is sewage. Some people just pump straight out over the side- which is yuck. And illegal in most places. Some people have big tanks aboard which they have to get pumped out regularly- which means going to a pumping station. And having a massive tank of sewage on your boat. We have a composting loo. Which is fantastic 85% of the time- but seriously, seriously grim the other 15%. Don't believe anyone who tells you they have a perfect solution for this one. They haven't!

[sadbodyblue]

oh god it sounds just idyllic.

[specialsubject]

be careful with recent rule changes on long-term moorings. The Canal and Rivers Trust is running out of money and long-term houseboaters are suffering.

[GinAndIt]

Ds is only 11 so it's not something we would do for a few years yet, once he's off to university (all things being equal!)

Bruno, I do get your point, but the fact is that I will never be able to afford to buy anywhere in the south east anyway. Barring a massive house price crash, I will always be privately renting, so building up equity in a property will never be an option for me. In the end, I think I'd rather make that lifestyle choice and end up with nothing, as pay hundreds of thousands to a landlord over the course of my life for a damp, gardenless suburban flat, and still end up with nothing, iyswim?

Matorana, tell me more . As you can probably tell, I'm quite clueless, so any info at all would be great! What kind of boat? Where? How much do you pay for moorings/utilities etc? What are the best and worst aspects? Any stories very happily received (thanks also to helly, catbus, fivefourtime as well!)

[Martorana]

We have lived on a boat since 1985. Happy to answer questions!

[MotherOfChickens]

DH and I are planning to live on a narrowboat once DS goes to uni in a few years time. For us it will be a lifestyle choice and will enable DH to retire at 50. OP have you tried a boating holiday? It will give you a taster of the practicalities of living on a boat (not like the real thing I know) but you will see how you could adapt to living afloat.

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

Whilton Lock in the Midlands has a great narrow boat yard. Literally hundreds when we went. The prices were pretty amazing too. I've always harboured excuse the pun a secret fantasy...

[BrunoBrookesDinedAlone]

If the main driver is cost, then I wouldn't do it.

As others have said it's a lifestyle choice and not an easy one.

And, if you're trying to 'beat the system' by getting your 'housing investment' more cheaply - then don't, as in ten years time you'll be sat with a boat worth less than you paid for it by a long way... and having to buy either a new one one day OR a house anyway.

Do it if you LOVE the idea of boat life only.

I would HATE it

[thegreylady]

You are most likely to find them in a WHS in an area where there is a canal fairly near though if you are in a biggish town you should be ok. You might fancy treating yourself to a trip to your nearest canal marina they will have all the mags and might even have boats you can look round :) You are the perfect age for this. How old is your ds now?

[GinAndIt]

Thanks thegreylady - we live in a small flat atm so 'stuff' is relatively limited anyway; all food for thought though...

Will have a look at those magazines you mentioned - might take a trip to whsmith for some boat porn

[whomadeyougod]

i saw a lovely houseboat in the south for 140,000 , the thing that put me off was the 5 grand a year mooring fee , it would add up to a huge sum over the years , i doubt i could afford that when i get to pension age , would miss my garden too .

[ConfusedPixie]

Not in the South East trampstamp

[thegreylady]

There are many companies offering boat finance and they advertise in the publications I have mentioned. In terms of value we had 4 different boats and never lost money on them when we sold. If they are well looked after they won't depreciate much if at all. Pm if you need more advice.

[thegreylady]

You can get a really nice narrowboat for £60000 or less and many people live aboard. Buy the current issues of Waterways World and Canal and Riverboat and you will get an idea of what is available. You can also pick up a free copy of Towpath Telegraph at any marina.
Lots of folk live very comfortably on boats and there are many fascinating books by people who have done it.
Dh and I owned narrowboats for many years and considered living on one but I am too attached to 'stuff' and storage space is limited. Most people who move from a house to a boat rent long term storage so they don't need to get rid of everything.
Good Luck

[cowsarescary]

Mortgages v difficult to get for a boat dwelling.

[GinAndIt]

Not quite sure why a FFS is necessary, trampstamp?

And whilst I'm sure that some can cost as much as a house, most don't.

But I apologise if my naïveté has annoyed you.

[trampstamp]

House boats can cost as much as a house these days ffs

And permeant moorings are not as easy to come buy as you think

[stilllivingbythesea]

Oh and it's boiling hot in winter - the boat heats up so fast!