Houzz TV: Goodbye, Skyrocketing Rents; Hello, Waterfront Living
Tired of the congestion and high costs of San Francisco, this young techie bought a boat on the bay. See how she makes it her home
Bryan Anthony
October 20, 2015
After more than a year sharing a cramped San Francisco apartment where the view from her bedroom was an air shaft between buildings, Kelsey Lettko needed a change. So she bought a 36-foot boat and made it a home. Even after paying slip fees and regularly hiring a diver to scrape barnacles off the boat, she saves more than $500 a month living on what she calls her floating condo. And her views now? See for yourself.
On Houzz TV now: See how Lettko turned her boat into a cozy floating home
At $45,000, the boat cost $100 per square foot at a time when the median cost of a home in San Francisco was $817 per square foot, according to Zillow, a real estate cost tracking site. A few more comparisons:
Former Apartment
Size: About 550 square feet (51.1 square meters); two bedrooms, one bathroom
Views: Air shaft, surrounding buildings and busy street
Rent: $1,325 a month
Commute: 20 minutes by bus
Boat on the Harbor
Size: About 450 square feet (41.8 square meters); two bedrooms, two bathrooms
Views: The San Francisco Bay
Slip fee and maintenance: $800 a month
Commute: 20 minutes by carpool
Former Apartment
Size: About 550 square feet (51.1 square meters); two bedrooms, one bathroom
Views: Air shaft, surrounding buildings and busy street
Rent: $1,325 a month
Commute: 20 minutes by bus
Boat on the Harbor
Size: About 450 square feet (41.8 square meters); two bedrooms, two bathrooms
Views: The San Francisco Bay
Slip fee and maintenance: $800 a month
Commute: 20 minutes by carpool
Lettko made use of every inch of the boat’s storage crannies and brought in more seating with a tiny sofa from Ikea and as many blankets and throw pillows as she could store. “I just pared everything down, got rid of extra clothes, got rid of almost all my furniture and do just fine with one set of plates,” she says.
Watch: See how Lettko used every inch of her boat for storage and comfort
Watch: See how Lettko used every inch of her boat for storage and comfort
The boat’s original teak walls and brass lanterns, bells and gauges gives her harbor home a warm glow. She reupholstered the banquette seating in a contemporary striped indoor-outdoor fabric and planted a succulent container garden on her back deck.
Lettko catches up on work from her deck, walks down the pier to wash her laundry at the harbor club and walks a little farther down the sidewalk to buy groceries. And she has experiences that she never had on shore, such as enjoying regular visits from sea lions Oscar and Celia, seeing cormorants diving for fish and watching a school of stingrays in the water at night by flashlight. When it comes to city life, she says, “I don’t miss too much.”
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I love the idea and the strry, enjoy!
What an awesome home. So what’s it like now 6 years later?