Behind the scenes of part-time liveaboard life on Lake Lanier.
What's it like living on a houseboat...but only part of your time? We've often heard that question from the brave and curious over the last two years of houseboat ownership. When you're not living full-time aboard a houseboat, it can confuse even the most genuine questioners. So, if we're not not full-time liveaboards, as we lovingly refer to our friends who live full-time on their houseboats, then what are we? Let me explain what our lives are like as part-time liveaboards on our houseboat...
We've lived a bit of a nomadic life since Clare was born in June of 2020. Many jobs went remote during that period, which means for the first time in our lives, Trey and I could work from anywhere. Oh, the life possibilities we could explore! We happened to already be saving for years for our dream houseboat. We finally saved enough money to take the leap of faith and purchase the houseboat of our dreams. In August of 2020, we did just that - we found our houseboat on Lake Lanier using a broker from Lake Lanier Houseboats. We then started on our journey living part-time on our houseboat, splitting our time between the boat and our then home in Atlanta. Clare and our dog, Dory, included!
I think when you explain to someone what living full-time on a houseboat is like, it's intuitive that the houseboat is the one and only residence at which a person lives. The full-time liveaboard comes and goes from one residential location every day. But living part-time on a houseboat? What does that even mean?? Let's take a closer look, shall we?
How do we split our time?
First and foremost, I'll get to the crux of the matter here. What does "part-time liveaboard" mean to us? It simply means we come and go from our houseboat as often as we'd like and stay for as long as we'd like. What...? How do we manage to do this? As one can imagine, living this nomadic life where we come and go as we please with no real set schedule for when and how long we'll be at our houseboat can be challenging with a baby, dog, and remote jobs. It's taken tons of practice, planning, and patience with each other to execute this lifestyle. Especially after we moved homes from Atlanta to Athens, Georgia in March of 2022. Some may say it's more trouble than it's worth, and that's where we would disagree.
The greatest number of days in a row we've stayed at our houseboat in one go was 10 days, and the most time we've lived at our houseboat in a given month is 20 total days. We aim to be at the lake at least one weekend per month during the offseason between October and March, often spending more weekends at the houseboat during the edge months in the fall and spring. During the prime houseboating season from April to September, we're at our houseboat as much as we can be without it becoming a burden on our family, including weeks at a time.
Why and how do we maintain two residences?
Initially when we began saving for a houseboat and houseboat life, it was just Trey, me, and Dory. We weren't totally sure we would ever become parents, and living on a houseboat full-time was the dream. Trey and I also thought that dream would come much later in life around retirement age. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever think that our decision to become parents would coincide with also becoming houseboat owners...but it did! As a result of becoming parents, we decided that full-time houseboat living wasn't the right choice for us yet because we want our daughter, Clare, to have a yard. So then we thought to ourselves...with remote work in play, could there be another way?
When you live in more than one place, you juggle many, often duplicate areas of life - house chore lists, grocery lists, maintenance work, and bills. It can quickly become overwhelming with the amount of things you think about and manage on a daily basis. We have come to terms with the fact that we need help to be able to live this lifestyle, especially with a baby-now-toddler and dog in tow.
Some things we've decided to do ourselves to save money, like clean the interior of our houseboat, house repair work, and one-off yard work. While we also save time where we can enlisting help with grocery shopping, routine yard work, and house cleaning. We also kept boxes from when we first moved in together where we essentially had two sets of houseware items. The decision to save these items for our dream houseboat came in handy when we decided to actually live part-time on our houseboat, making some of the initial buying costs easier to stomach.
If you're saying to yourself, "this is a balancing act," you'd be right about that. We're routinely weighing the pros and cons of this lifestyle, making adjustments where needed to enable us to keep going after our dream. While Trey and I have worked hard and sacrificed to start this journey, we still make tradeoffs and go without in other areas of our lives. For now, it continues to be worth it.
How do you successfully work remotely?
While working from a houseboat is quite different from a traditional office, we have done our best to make it “work.” We have put three practices into place to ensure we can successfully work from our houseboat. First is a steady internet connection. We use our marina’s WiFi provider when the houseboat is docked in its slip, paying on a per month basis to the local internet provider. We can also use Trey’s iPhone as a hotspot, if we are working from an island. Though, the marina’s WiFi can be spotty on windy and wavy days. Which means we are patiently waiting for Starlink to become available in our area, so we can have a more reliable remote work set-up.
Second is a workspace that promotes focus time. While our houseboat isn’t small by any means, the interior quickly becomes cramped with a toddler playing and napping. It’s been important for both Trey and me to find a place on the houseboat that allows for quiet, focused time to get work done, while also providing an area to take calls without waking up Clare from a nap. Trey prefers to work among the beautiful views from the top deck, while I can be found working on the front lower deck.
Third is ensuring there is time in the day to enjoy houseboat life. We have found our days function best if we continue to treat the work day as the typical 9a-5p, especially with Clare’s routine. We mostly enjoy leisure time before or after work or during lunch.
What's our favorite thing about houseboat life?
Speaking of the times we enjoy our houseboat...we love being at the lake with dock friends and houseboat camping on the islands! Those are hands-down our two favorite ways to spend time at our houseboat. The houseboat community is second-to-none when it comes to living their best lives at the lake. We've enjoyed getting to know others who cherish and make the houseboat lifestyle special, and spending time out in nature on our houseboat is magical. If we're lucky, we'll catch the most beautiful sunset we've ever seen!
Until next time...peace, love, and houseboats.
Deep Houseboat Life
