LIVING ON A HOUSEBOAT IN SEATTLE (tiny home tour)

This is pretty great. I love the idea of being able to sit up here in the morning, look out over the city as I have my coffee. And.

We're Kara and Nate, and we spent the last four years traveling to 100 countries.

This is exciting stuff.

But 2020 brought us back to the US where we bought a converted sprinter van to explore our own backyard. Over the last few months, we've driven our van over 3,000 miles across the country, and we've just arrived in the city of Seattle.

Since moving into the van, we've become really interested in what it's like to live in other tiny spaces, from tree houses to converted school buses. It's been cool to see how people make the most of their limited amount of space instead of worrying about trying to find camping here in the city. We have rented a houseboat on Lake Union for the next couple nights, which is only about 2 miles outside the city center of Seattle. Super excited to explore Seattle, but also just to experience what it's like to live on a houseboat.

Am I going the right way? We're also still trying to figure out the best way to, like, move in and out of the van without a suitcase. And right now, it's our grocery tote bags. Is it? Yeah. Cool.

You go this way.

Oh.

Home sweet home.

And that's it.

I love it. Oh, and they have the heater on.

So there's really nothing super fancy about this houseboat, but it seems to have everything that we need, and we're floating. So let me give you a quick tour around. This is the kitchen area. The hosts have this super cute cork board with all the past guests as their guest book. We have a full fridge and freezer, plus unlimited fresh running water and a microwave, two things that we definitely took for granted before we lived in a van. I think we have everything that we need to cook a proper meal, which I might do because these stainless steel countertops make me feel like I'm working at a restaurant. And most importantly, we have a coffee pot. And the host has hooked us up with a full tower of pots. And this is the bedroom. The bed is not bad, but one thing I didn't notice when we first walked in is this is one of those Murphy beds, which we've never slept in before. So if we're living in here full time and we wanted more space, we can lift the bed up and put it in the wall like that, and it, like, clocks in. And then this is, like a couch. But I don't think we'll be doing that it's really not that hard. Pretty simple, actually. And we could lay in bed and watch this entertainment system, which if it rains as much as it did in Oregon, this might be really nice. And next is the bathroom tour. I was really surprised at how normal this bathroom felt. We have a nice big shower and then our toilet is a marine toilet, which I haven't used very many times. It pretty much functions exactly like a regular toilet would. You do your business. You can flush the toilet paper and you press this little button to flush it, and then you press another little button when you're done to fill it back up with a little bit of water. I don't really know why you do that, but that's the rules. And then once a week a guy comes and pumps out the tank when it's full. This is all really nice and super easy to use. But I will say that our composting toilet in the van stinks a little bit less than this one does. But. And last but not least, let us show you the best part of the houseboat, which is outside. I'm not even sure this boat is capable of moving, but that's okay because the owners have left us this kayak that we can take out whenever we want to explore Lake Union. We have a nice little table, a barbecue, and upstairs, I think the best part of this whole thing is our rooftop patio. We have another table up here. And check out this view of downtown Seattle.

This is pretty great. I love the idea of being able to sit up here in the morning, look out over the city as I have my coffee. And I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. But you can tell that everybody who stays in this marina kind of lives here full time. There are a lot of really neat looking boats around this.

It.

Coffee's ready.

If you know us, then you know that we don't get up for sunrise. Often.

However, the sun doesn't rise until at least 8am here.

So we took full advantage of our rooftop patio and watched the sun rise over the skyline.

After we met the host of this Airbnb yesterday, we learned that there's actually quite a few interesting things to see see here on Lake Union. So we're going to take the kayak out this afternoon and do a little exploring.

If we fall in this water, it is going to be so cold.

Oh gosh. Already wet. And we're still connected to the dock. Wait, which one are we going?

Backwards.

I think there's another one coming in.

Yeah, another one just landed.

I'm going to Be honest. This is a terrifying. There's quite a bit of boat traffic. And Lake Union is actually a Runway used for seaplanes.

So we're staying nice and close to the shore so we don't get run over by an airplane.

These are sweet.

Just a 10 minute paddle away is the actual house from the movie Sleepless in Seattle. We'd actually never seen it before, and so we watched it last night so. So we could appreciate this moment. Apparently the new owners have made a lot of changes to it, but they've kept the original bench from the movie.

Tom Hanks sat right there. That movie was the ultimate chick flick. But I'm a little embarrassed to say that I kind of enjoyed it. It's one of those movies that you just can't help but feel good after it's over. The sweet house. Oh, and now my leg is soaking wet.

I'm a sucker for chick flicks. I loved the movie. Worth being in a kayak getting freezing cold water everywhere with sore arms.

Kayaking is so fun.

That was awesome.

Making a run for it. Crossing the channel.

We're trying to get to Gasworks island, and we can't follow the shoreline to do that, so we have to cross with all the boat traffic.

Whoa.

Little slow, little slow, Little slow.

Don't have time to wait. I'm gonna eat so much for dinner tonight.

Do you see how much water's in my seat? That's what I've been sitting in.

Oh, my gosh.

Hello. Kayaking. Oh, it is a beautiful day. And we're at our second stop. We have a pretty wet butt too.

My pants were my knee down and my shoe.

Whose idea was this?

Seems like one of those things would be a lot more fun in the summer. So this is Gasworks park. And back in the early 1900s, it was home to the Seattle Gas Lighting Company's gasification plant. Then in the 1950s, Seattle ended up switching from oil to natural gas. The plant went out of business. The city ended up buying land and turning it into this park that you see today. But they left a lot of the park standing, which is kind of what gives it its unique look. And it's the only coal gasification plant left in the entire United States.

There you go.

I think I could just lay here the rest of the day. Why don't you paddle the kayak home and I'll just walk.

Just need to dry off for a while.

Look.

All right. We are off to a new country. It's not Canada. Wow. These are super nice. I'm slightly Less content with our houseboat after paddling over to this side of the lake.

So our host told us about this houseboat that claims to have gained its independence from the United States in 1985. And it's now a sovereign micro nation located inside side of Lake Union. I don't think this is technically true. I don't think it's really its own country. Also, there's like nothing about this place on the Internet, so I'm not really sure what to expect. Except that I did read that they have a post office.

It's not even on Google maps, so we don't even know if we'll find it. We're like explorers.

We are approaching the sovereign nation of Tui Tui.

I didn't bring my passport.

Oh.

Country number 101. I almost fell down the.

No one's here. I think they might be doing renovations.

The country's under renovation. I was actually super interested to see what this was all about. Maybe the kings died and now someone else has bought the houseboat. I wonder if since no one's here, we can claim it, Become a sovereign nation once again. Oh, this is such a bummer. Thankfully we didn't come all this way for no reason. Dinner is right there.

This is like the least graceful thing I've ever done. Oh, I thought I was going in.

Slant.

If you knock me in the water.

We did it.

Let's go eat.

Woo. Food. We deserve it.

What do you think?

Looks good to me.

This is one of the few restaurants that are host told us we could park the kayak at.

What is that?

It's the bread bowl. It is so hot. Oh, I'm so happy.

Whoa. Okay.

Oh, it's amazing.

We have heard so much about clam chowder since being in Washington, so I'm so excited to finally try. It's a DIY clam chowder situation. Three, two, one. Yes.

Way to commit.

Thanks. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

I committed too much.

Oh, it smells so good.

I can't think of anything better to eat with soaking wet pants on. It's this beautiful creamy thick soup with little chunks of clam and bacon. The bread bowl was a great dessert.

And since this place is called the salmon house, we figured we had to get the fried salmon and chips.

Well, that made up for Tui Tui being under renovation. Beautiful spot on the water to eat, but the double decker highway is pretty loud.

How dreamy.

Do I look like an angel. Like a hard working angel.

Hard working, cold, soggy angel.

Too much.

Got a little too excited about the coffee tower. Oh.

Are you okay?

Yeah.

Oh. I thought because we weren't in the van this wouldn't happen anymore.

It makes you feel better. I was recording.

Yeah, it does a little bit. I think it was this metal thing. Can you see my eyes? Teary.

Yeah. He must have whacked it. You bleeding?

Don't think so.

I am not planning on following him.

You almost knocked me out with your stick. Think the people who live there get tired of people coming by and taking pictures?

Yeah, definitely.

Are you filming?

No, I was filming.

We were going so fast and hit a wave and we are completely drenched from the waist down.

We're also sitting in the middle of.

We must keep going.

What was that? You love kayaking.

Just glad it's sunny.

Keeping my mouth closed by the rose sign says don't get in the water. There are a lot of pollutants.

And fade to black.