Our Home

Sometimes it's hard for people who have never visited us to understand how we live. They don't understand that we have all of the modern conveniences most Americans have, just on a smaller scale.  It requires us to think a lot about what we bring into our home, to shop for groceries more often, and to try to live a little more simply than we did when we had a huge two story apartment.

And we're OK with that.  In fact, we're more than OK with that-it's actually one of the philosophies behind why we want to continue living aboard and why we want to raise our twin sons on a boat.  We want them to appreciate the value of community, neighbors and friendship.  We want them to appreciate that you can, in fact, live with less, even though society tells us we need more, more more!  But also that if you really, really love something, that you should learn to make room for it in your life.  Because life is short, and you should be happy.

So, when people make comments about how they don't think we'll be able to raise our babies in such a small space, while floating in water, without all of the "normal" baby gear (or whatever negative comment they can think of to dissuade us from living an alternate lifestyle) we generally just smile and thank them.  Because they don't really know how wonderful our life really is.

To help you, dear reader, get a feel for our life before babies, here are a few pictures to help you visualize the awesomeness that we call home.  We'll be adding new pictures and posts as the baby build-outs (or built-ins!) progress.

Sailing our new boat from Salem to our current home in Boston, MA:
  

Lisa

Brian

Sailing vessel Just Married, anchored in Hull, MA on a warm, sunny weekend in July.  Just one of the perks of have a floating home in the harbor.

And docked back in Boston...

 

 

Beautiful sunset over the Zakim Bridge...also the view looking right from our summer slip.

 

Fall & Winter

The most frequently asked question we get is probably about how we survive in the winter.  It's hard to explain exactly how we shrinkwrap our boats, so here is a little breakdown of what happens in the late fall.

We build a frame over the boat: 

And then we cover it with special shrinkable plastic, and use a heat gun to shrink it over the frame.  Think holiday gift basket, on a much larger size.  This essentially creates a greenhouse on top of our boats, and keeps the rain and snow outside.  On sunny days, it can get well into the 80's inside!

And that keeps us warm and toasty inside, even when the outside looks like this:

"Pancake Ice"

Blizzard of 2013

We even decorate for Christmas!

 

And go caroling around the marina!

Spring and Summer

Naturally, it's easier to sell our lifestyle to people (not that we ever really "sell" it) during the summer.  And it's easy to see why:

Sunset from Hull during a weekend anchorage.

Our fair city, looking magnificent from Spectacle Island.

Our lovely niece Mariah catching crabs (and trying for lobster) off the back of our boat during a weekend visit.

4th of July on Boston Harbor:

Fire boat!

Swimming off the back of our boat is one of the funnest things ever.  As long as the harbor isn't too cold!

 

The Interior

Over the last two years we've made many improvements and adjustments to our living space.  Many of these are older pictures, but you'll get a good idea of where we live from them just the same.

Counters before we painted them  Bland and ugly!

After...we needed color!  And this gives you an idea of the size of our kitchen.

Under this hatch is where I keep all of my cooking tools.  Pots, pans, crockpot, bowls...you name it, it's in there!  This counter is just above waist height and is extremely large and deep.

Our over is just about full-sized, and I can cook just like I did while on land.  In fact, I do!  Here's a large batch of baked ziti I made for the shrinkwrap crew last year.

Homemade curtains, a few plants and rope lights make our space really homey and warm.

This is a view from the cockpit (outside) looking down into the boat.  To the left is the kitchen, forward is the dining table (which is usually taking out so we have a U shaped "couch" and to the right is where Brian and I dine when alone.  It's also where I put my makeup on in the morning, where we work on the laptop and where we play Scrabble.

This is a (messy) picture of what the space looks like without the table insert.  And this is the "normal" way we have the boat setup.

Me cooking for a dinner party.  It's actually quite easy to entertain.  We just have to really pick and choose who we have over at any given time. :)

In such a small space, we have to be creative with how we store things.  Our guitars hang from this wall when we aren't sailing.  When we are sailing, we simply take it down and rest it on our bed.  (Which is straight ahead-no pictures included yet.)

It's not pretty, but we even have an air conditioner in the summer.  It makes those really hot, humid days, bearable, when even the cool harbor breeze can't.

Brian, learning a new song.

In addition to the spaces shown in pictures, we also have two cabins.  The Vberth, where Brian and I sleep, and be aft cabin, where the babies will sleep.  These spaces are currently under construction (or being heavily used for storage because I'm very pregnant and can't crawl around) so we don't have any pictures to share yet.  We will update this post once those pictures are available.  But as I said before, these pictures give you a little bit of an idea of the space we live in and love.

Oh, and yes.  We also have a bathroom.  With a real working toilet, sink and shower.  With hot water.

Updates on building a custom nursery on a boat:
Part 1 
Part 2