A MUM spends just £111 a month to live with her two children on a canal boat but it gets freezing cold in the winter and is so narrow it risks tipping over.
Jennifer has lived on the 65ft long vessel on the Grand Union Canal for over three years but revealed how life on the boat is not always plain sailing.
The boat travels along the Grand Union Canal between London and the Midlands[/caption]
The custom built vessel is decked out with comfortable furnishings[/caption]
In a video posted posted in collaboration with YouTube channel Alternative House, she revealed how it can get incredibly cold during the winter for her family.
She said her radiators fail to get hot enough during the colder months.
This failure means the boat cannot be adequately heated and makes her own bedroom the coldest on the craft.
She even admitted to wearing a beanie hat in order to stay warm enough, and that it is not uncommon for ice to be found on the inside of her bedroom windows.
The roaming canal boat dweller does stay prepared for this scenario though, pointing out that she does keep a log compartment at the front of her home for the chillier days.
Another issue she faces is the balance of the 12.5ft wide vessel, which is at risk of tipping over if weight is distributed poorly.
To reduce this risk, she built her children’s two bedrooms on one side of the boat and her kitchen on the other.
The bedrooms, which are 5ft wide and 9ft long, have cabin beds with small single mattresses, a wardrobe and storage and play space under the beds.
Jennifer revealed she pays just £111 per month to have a roving licence to use the boat on the Grand Union Canal.
She also showed off her spacious kitchen, which is a standard-fit kitchen from IKEA, which Jen is thankful for as it meant she did not need a bespoke one to be designed to fit smaller measurements.
The kitchen is equipped with a cooker, fridge, freezer and washing machine and the living room doubles as a workspace, where she practises massage, one-to-one yoga and holistic therapies.
A small dining area is also home to her office and there is a shower room and master bedroom complete with a window seat and front decking area.
Outside there’s a storage compartment at the front where the family stores logs for winter and an opening where a tank is filled with 1,000 litres of water every fortnight.
The boat’s roof is currently used for yoga, eating or chilling but Jennifer hopes to expand on her current herb garden with this space next year.
Jennifer is a continuous cruiser, meaning she moves every two weeks and travels 32km (20 miles) in one direction every year to keep her licence.
The custom built boat cost her under £100,000 in total and took seven weeks to fit out.
Jennifer said: “I was self- employed so couldn’t get a mortgage, then I saw a boat on a canal one day and thought that’s the life I want.
“I wanted a three bed but they are hard to come by so I designed this, which took ten weeks to build at a cost of £87,000.”
She added: “It was brought by lorry from Liverpool and put onto the water using a crane. It cost £10,000 to fit out and took seven weeks.”
Her £111 monthly payments also cover water, bins and towpath maintenance for herself, her young daughter and her son.
In addition, Jennifer runs the engine for two hours per day in the winter to generate the electric, which costs £50 per month in diesel.
Gas bottles cost £50 and last ten weeks and solar panels on the roof are used to run the fridge.
Where and how to buy a houseboat
Living on a houseboat can be a cheaper alternative to living in a house, however, it comes with challenges, such as having to empty your toilets and do lots of hand on maintenance.
Houseboats are exempt from stamp duty, and if you have a residential mooring, you will pay the lowest council tax banned, which is often included in your mooring costs.
Many people buy houseboats with cash instead of getting a mortgage, as they can’t be registered with the land registry.
You can get a specialist “marine mortgage” but they need at least 25% deposit and come with higher interest rates and a shorter repayment term.
You can find houseboats for sale on sites such as Zoopla, or on brokerage websites like Apollo Duck or Whilton Marina.
