My Floating Home
Upcoming episodes
May 11th
1200p
Tiny Floating Home
Trish Urquhart and Richard Beynon have fallen in love with the UK’s waterways through many years of holidaying in their narrowboat, ‘Patience.’ This episode follows their radical decision to sell their massive house in South Africa and build a bespoke floating home on the River Great Ouse in Bedfordshire.
May 11th
100p
Floating Summer House
Arizonian action duo, Jan and Don, decide to design and build the ultimate floating summer house on the Willamette River in Oregon, complete with vast outdoor decking, a custom built staircase, wood burning stove and an open plan living space. However, building this supersized summer house will not be easy. The build team faces delays as the harsh Oregon winter takes hold and a weight imbalance threatens to capsize the floating foundation.
May 11th
130p
BIG CITY LIVING, NORTH VANCOUVER, CANADA
A young couple builds a dream floating ‘starter home’ to moor in a marina that has stunning water views. This young couple, Aaron and Heather, spend their time sailing in Vancouver harbour looking at the multi million dollar float homes in downtown marinas. They always thought float home living was an impossible dream but they find a company at Creek Marina who can build them an affordable floating starter home and so they take the plunge. It has stunning 360 views of the Vancouver Mountains on one side, with the Vancouver Skyline on the other. On their wish list is an office for Heather to work at home from, and an exterior cantilevered fireplace to save space within the open concept living, dining and kitchen upstairs area. Works starts with the float being poured in 2 halves and then joined together in the water. Then the house is built on top of the float in a tradition wood frame style. Once finished it launches in front of the Vancouver skyline and is towed by tug to its mooring, a nerve wracking moment. The final fittings include a stunning fireplace and a top spec kitchen with rare Italian marble tiles. Aaron and Heather take us through their finished home, its lower floor bedrooms, its sun decks and its huge multi use living area with marina views from every seat in the house
May 11th
200p
GLASS WATER PALACE, VANCOUVER, CANADA
A couple builds a massive dream floating home with stunning windows and wrap around glass walkways. This water loving couple, Shirley and Russ, enjoy kayaking and living on their yacht, sailing around the Ladner waterways. They want a float home to join a community of 600 floating homes on the Fraser River. After meeting with their architect, they decide on a wish list for the home, which includes; big windows to maximize the river views and wraparound sundecks for year round entertaining. First the massive concrete and polystyrene flat is poured at a specialist yard nearby. Once the wooden walls are built on top, they realize they want even more windows for their money. They change 3 main kitchen windows into a single huge custom made picture window in a nerve shattering installation. The final stages adds glass rails onto the walkways before the launch. It then launches into the Fraser River using steel cables and 2 heavy-duty pick ups to lower it slowly down a steel 33-degree ramp. One slip and the house could crash into the water and flood the lower floors. It’s a tense operation. It then heads down river to its mooring in Ladner for its final fitting. Shirley and Russ take us around their finished luxury ranch style home, with a bar area and pool table on the upper levels, leading onto the wraparound sun decks with amazing views of the river banks beyond.
May 11th
230p
RIVER VIEW MANSION, VANCOUVER, CANADA
A couple builds a huge three story floating home with spectacular views and a mooring for their boat. John and Lorraine Van Tol often sail on their yacht past the famous float homes of Ladner. They now want to live in one for themselves. They buy the perfect double mooring that can accommodate both a home and their yacht alongside. After meeting with their architect their wish list includes a colossal 3-story layout with sundecks on the upper levels and an attached boat house so they can hop into their yacht whenever they like. First the huge concrete and polystyrene float base is poured, by pioneering float engineer Matt Tobias. John is a framer and starts the frame himself, building on top of the float platform. Then, the exteriors are put together and the windows are put in. The team then preps the house for launch. In a dizzying maneuver - that takes place at midnight when the tides are highest - the home slides down special rails (just like a ship) into the water. Something in the design causes it to tilt and lean in the water though. Big problem! The lean puts stress on the walls but they cannot fix it yet. The house floats and is towed to the mooring but is still listing. Matt Tobias races to fix the tilt adding extra buoyancy. As the river can raise or lower by 20ft with the tides, the team installs a custom-made 65 ft. hinged access ramp, costing $30,000, to the house. Then the house is fitted out with wood paneled ceilings and floors, and a stainless steel staircase, with all mod cons throughout. John and Lorraine take us around their finished home, showing off the autumnal views out over the wilderness, watched by passing swans, eagles and seals.
May 18th
1200p
Historic Cargo Ship Home
Aart Simons and Nanouk Kropman met through a shared love of sailing! To fulfill their dream of living on water, they've bought a disused 1950’s Dutch Cargo Ship. Their journey to transforming this 65-year-old hunk of metal will be a logistical, financial, and emotional rollercoaster ride.
May 18th
100p
GIANT ECO-HOME, SEATTLE, USA
A couple builds a huge eco-home packed with innovative features including an underwater basement complete with a window looking out into the waters of the lake. Michelle Lanker and Bill Bloxom are outdoor loving environmentalist and they want to make a floating home with as much Eco friendliness as possible.They get an architect in to realise a breath taking design, with a curved roof covered in grass and solar panels and a huge underwater basement with a viewing window out into the waters of the lake. We follow builder Bob Little as he struggles to make the viewing window thick enough to withstand the elements. With the environment in mind they re-use 100 year old cedar logs for their interior cladding and wardrobes, drying them out first. When they revisit the build with the exterior and the layout completed, Michelle and Bill are blown away by the underwater basement within the float where they can view fish underwater.
May 18th
130p
TINY SHANTY HOUSE, MAINE, USA
A team builds an innovative ‘tiny’ floating home in Seattle. Steve King and his friend Rick Keith meet up in Maine every year to restore old boats. Now Steve wants to move there full time by building his very own tiny float home. Using recycled materials they build a shanty-style houseboat on a catamaran hull. The homemade hulls must be carefully sealed or the houseboat will sink. Making up the design as they go along, the two friends visit a marine salvage yard and even find some windows left by the roadside to put the finishing touches to their Shanty House Boat. Completed in just two months, they then must jack it up onto a trailer and take it to the waters edge. Here is the moment of truth. With no idea whether it will sink or float they watch as it inches into the water. It floats but the risky test is to navigate it out into open ocean as they take it to its mooring in Portland. The maiden voyage is a success and Steve takes us around his novel new floating man cave, complete with drawers made out of vegetable crates and a bathroom built down into one of the floating catamaran hulls! We leave him sitting on his sun deck taking in his million dollar sea views, all for just $10,000!
May 18th
200p
SKY VIEW HOUSE, MOORDRECHT THE NETHERLANDS
A couple builds a super long floating home deep in the heart of canal country. This water loving couple live on a old steam ship and decide it’s time to modernise. They want a float home to join a small but well-established community of floating homes on a canal, south of the capital Amsterdam in the Netherlands. After meeting with a builder who is an expert in constructing float homes they decide on a wish list for their home, which includes; a raised roof with a 360 sky view, a modern open plan living space and a wraparound deck to enjoy the surrounding countryside. The biggest challenge to design a float home in the Netherlands is to make sure that the structure can make the journey to it’s mooring site. A float home must fit through a network of narrow and shallow canals with tight locks and low bridges. It’s a nail biting experience as Wout and Lydia home makes it way through these waterways. Some sections are so tight with only a few centimetres to spare on either side that only hands and feet can move the home forward. Finally the home makes it to it’s mooring. Wout and Lydia show us round their spectacular home with it’s modern open plan living area leading out onto the wraparound deck with stunning views of the idyllic rural setting.
May 18th
230p
MEGA HOUSEBOAT, NOTTINGHAM, UK
A couple builds an experimental oversized houseboat so they can take their home with them anywhere on the vast network of canals that crisscross the UK. Janet and Dwayne have never lived on the water before – nor even driven a boat. So taking the plunge and building their own dream floating home from scratch is a huge challenge. On their wish list are; a spare bedroom, large kitchen-diner, and en-suite in the master bedroom. Export boat-builder Les Robinson guides them through the entire operation from the design, through to build and launch. Work begins with the huge steel hull, which Les gives a traditional high-gloss paint job before fitting a high-spec interior. This includes a bathroom with a bathtub – something never normally fitted on a boat – which causes Les a few headaches. After launching the vast vessel, brand new skippers Janet and Dwayne have to navigate it up a busy waterway to their permanent mooring, without crashing into the bank or other boats. Once safely docked, Janet and Dwayne proudly show us the end result - a stunning and huge houseboat, bigger than almost anything else on the canal system. They have a luxurious master bedroom complete with en-suite and bath, as well as a spare double bedroom and additional shower. A spacious kitchen diner complete with wood worktops, and a six-seat breakfast bar makes for a comfy and luxurious heart of the home. And the finishing touch – their beautiful floating home is completely mobile.