Boat Livin’, Lake Union Style

OK, so maybe you can’t live in a treehouse, but you can live on a boat. Sure, you could shell out $2.5M for the houseboat Tom Hanks lived on in Sleepless in Seattle, but you’ve got better things to do with your money, right? Instead, for a cool $30,000, you could buy the Frieda Fey, a 40′ 1944 Vic Frank Naval Launch converted to a live aboard cruiser.

Docked just a stone’s throw from Gas Works (literally), the Frieda Fay is the home of our friends Hannah and Joe, their baby boy Ely and their faithful hound Wilco. She’s a cozy little live-aboard boat, with the bed tucked under the bow (that’s the front of the boat, right?), a little kitchen with a fold down table and a “living room” in the stern opening onto a back deck. Says their flier:

The interior has a large pilothouse with lots of light and ample storage. The galley sports a Force-ten propane stove and full size sink as well as custom fridge/freezer and dinette. Further forward you have a Sun-Mar composting toilet and a separate shower room. The stateroom has his/hers hanging locker/dressers and a kingsize V berth . All rooms have ample 6’4” headroom. The back deck has a custom canvas enclosure with large windows. Hull is cedar on oak and has been refastened, engine is a marinized british Ford diesel with low hours on the rebuild and economic fuel consumption.

We’d always been curious what it would be like to live in one of those boats, so we’ve enjoyed living through them vicariously. They work as the on-site managers for the marina, which helps on the moorage, we’d imagine, and it sounds like a good half to three-quarters of the 70 slips in their marina are have year-round residents on their boats.

We asked them a bit about the economic of it and the life:

Moorage can run around $500 – $600 for a boat our size, less if you’re smaller. I think the economy has folks thinking outside the box and sometimes downsizing to a boat or housebarge can end up being a savings on rent and a nice upgrade to waterfront property. Liveaboard slips for rent are a hot commodity on this side of the lake, they get snatched up quick, especially if the marina has extra comforts and facilities..(ours has a sauna!)

I love to bask in the sun on my back deck on those rare warm winter days, the lake comes alive with kayaks and small boats, everyone knows the best place to be on a nice day is on the water. All of the fluffball ducklings are pretty sweet too.

The community is the best part. It’s neat to be around folks who have made a conscious choice to live in smaller quarters with close nieghbors, because you see that reflected in the friendly feel of the place. Some days it’s hard to make it down the dock to my boat because I end up stopping to chat with so many people along the way.  There really is no “kind of people that live on the water”, we have a great mix of folks: retirees, new moms, scientists, massuers, and a deep sea treasure hunter just to name a few.

We do take the boat out in the summer, the last time was for a birthday party raft-up in the middle of the Lake Union. We also have a small wooden row boat that is good for a quick escape from shore on hot summer days.

Could be you!