Yes, the same guy that I married Many, many years ago - The same one that promised me I would be his Little Princess forever said that I would love living on a boat - 

He Said:

• it would be fun
• It would be an adventure
• we would connect with Nature
• we would feel like we were on vacation all the time
• I could quit my job
  

So I fell for this - HOOK LINE AND SINKER...

So we moved on to the boat, sold our home, gave our kids our stuff that we didn't have room for and relocated. If you don't think that you have a lot of stuff, imagine going from a 3 bedroom house with a 2 car garage to a 36 foot boat. This is what I managed to bring.

Clothing: I was allowed "some" clothing... This is the rules from a man who's wardrobe consists of Jeans and pocket T-shirts. I worked in an office where I had to have clothing that didn't look like I worked in the same clothes all the time.

Computer: I have a desktop and laptop. Since he never understood the attraction to computers he doesn't understand why I bulked at not being able to hook up my printer because of lack of room....

Some prized possessions: Not many, there isn't room for it.

What he brought: His cars, his tools, his TV, his dog.

But once we downsized I got used to living with less stuff. We do have some stuff still in storage that I couldn't part with but not on the boat.

We bought the boat up North and Brought it South, taking a 5 day journey through the Chesapeake Bay into the Inter-Coastal Waterways. It was a great trip. I actually had fun, even though I don't like water, sun, heat, and not seeing land. Oh did I mention that I also hate mosquitoes? Which seems to be in abundance in areas with water.

We found a marina and settled in. We have things to do to the boat, always. There is always something to do here, and nothing is cheap.

So what is our lives like now? We go to work, altough we don't have many bills anymore we can both work part time while playing the rest of the time, we fish, we walk, we get away from the television and get active.

So in a way, Yes I love it.

The Good:

Nature - Yes we see beautiful animals here and not so beautiful animals. Seems that Snakes love the swim platform on the boat. It's not uncommon to walk out and see a water moccossin sunbathing on the boat. We do spend a lot of time outside where we get eaten alive by misquitoes and yellow flies when they are in season. We live near places where sea gulls fly over a lot, and they have perfect aim pooping on people.

Living a Normal LIfe: We have a stove, fridge and microwave. We have running water and electric. Of course we only have 50amps of electric on the boat, meaning that we sometimes have to turn off the central air when we cook with the oven or we blow a breaker. We have a full bath with a shower. Now we only have a 12 gallon hot water tank so long showers isn't an option. 12 gallons don't last long at all.  We do have a small television, but only turn it on just for sound.

We live a Relaxing Life:  I would never admit to him that he was right, but it feels like we are always on vacation. We go to the beach often, we go fishing, we bike, walk and enjoy life. We are no longer stressed about work and bills. We laugh more and have more fun.

Less Stress about Bills: We saved many years to buy the boat, it's not brand new but its paid for. We have no bills other than marina fees, and cable Internet. We do have insurance and other usual bills, Our car is paid for and we bike a lot of places. We save more than we spend. People sometimes find it hard to believe that we can bank over 75% of our paychecks.

The Bad:

Know the Door Size: Before we buy anything we have to measure it. We are limited to the size of things that we can bring it because of the door opening. We always carry a tape measure with us measuring before purchase.

The First step off the Boat is never the same: We always have to see how big of a first step we are going to take since the water is never the same height. Imagine wearing a dress with heels for work trying to get off a boat.

Replacement Items: When something breaks and it needs replaced it is always double of what a normal house item would be. To fix our toilet was over $500. I could of replaced toilets with high priced toilets at my old house for what it cost us to repair the marine toilet. And we had to send off a part that was gone for 3 weeks, which meant that we had to use alternative potties, which was the bath house a few slips down. Of course the toilet broke in the middle of winter.

The Ugly:

Storms - They can either gently rock you to sleep or keep you hugging the porcelin throne at nights. While they are beautiful they can make the boat rock and roll all night long.

Pets On Board: We have a dog. She hates the boat. She likes to be outside. It doesn't matter to her what the weather is, or what time of day or night, You will be getting off the boat to walk her. We used to watch her run out the doggy door at home. No walk needed.

We do take the boat out quite often. We have a blast. We can go a few miles up the river and get away from it all. There is nothing more relaxing then sitting on deck and watching the sunset at night.

We are self conatined with a generator and able to have power even when we are not hooked up to the power. We have everything that we need right here on the boat and ready to pull out in an instant and move on.

We should of done this years ago it's been so much fun. Right now neither one of us are ready to go back to land permantly.