The first rule of DIY houseboat is to answer this question: do you really need a homebuilt houseboat?
Whether it’s a house boat for sale or a house boat for rent, most of your options are readymade houseboats that can serve as your dwelling place right off the bat. There are sail boats that only need furnishing. There are yachts that can be inhabited immediately, with much luxury to boot. And there are cabin cruisers that will provide spacious accommodations for you and your family.
Most of the “do it yourself” you will be doing with a houseboat will be about making an already inhabitable boat even more inhabitable. This includes furnishing the same, of course, and ensuring that all mechanisms for essential sustenance are in place.
If you really want to build a houseboat from scratch, then the first thing you should do is to purchase some houseboat plans. Part of the satisfaction to build a houseboat is following a plan to the letter – though you can occasionally change certain aspects to suit your liking – and assembling the structure by yourself, with your bare hands, with your own sweat and tears.
And when the house boat stands – or floats – erect, you can view it with a smile and say “that’s my baby.”
Now the bad news.
Houseboat building of the kind isn’t really for everyone. You need to have some carpentry skills, some architectural sense, and some engineering knowledge to pull things off, not to mention some technical know-how on electrical wirings and boat engines.
Can you hire someone to assemble the houseboat plan for you?
Of course, but that would be defeating the purpose of houseboat plans, right?
If you have the patience as well as the time to invest in learning the skills necessary to transform a DIY houseboat plan into a reality, then you can still pursue this dream. You can ask your family members for help, so that all of you can share the satisfaction of enjoying the finished product.
However, there comes another problem: cost.
Building a houseboat isn’t really what we can consider as a cheap undertaking. It will involve a lot of financial investment on your part. The cost is projected at upward estimate of $10,000.
Nevertheless, building a DIY houseboat is one of the most rewarding things that a person can ever experience. If you have the skills, the time and the resources to buck the odds working against you, then by all means, go for it and enjoy the mobile dwelling you will be able to create. |
