Her 4-Season Pontoon Tiny Houseboat Allows Her to Live on the River

Simplify
by Simplify

For Bonnie, a pontoon tiny houseboat provides an ideal way to live on the river in Wakefield, Québec, Canada. She is following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, who were log drivers along the riverside.


The idea came to her from a friend, boat builder Denis Tremblay (known locally as the Wakefield Pirate), so she bought a tiny houseboat and designed it to make it feel like a palace.


The boat has custom-built shelves and cabinets, with double-pane argon glass windows. It also has a bedroom loft that leads into a cedar rooftop deck with gorgeous river views.

This tiny houseboat is designed as a four-season houseboat. It has an aluminum base so it doesn’t shift with the change in temperature, and a grille floor so the heat can rise up in the cold Canadian winter. It also has a wooden stove that acts as a heater in the winter, but can also be used to boil a pot of water or make a slice of toast. 


The 12-volt battery lasts a month and powers this pontoon’s electric needs. The boat is equipped with a Separett composting toilet that separates between solids and liquids, and dries out and composts everything quickly to avoid odors. 


There is a fresh-water pump that pumps in river water and an ice cooler that acts as a refrigerator and a butane burner for cooking.

Living on a pontoon boat in river in Wakefield, Québec, Canada

The boat originally had four 30-foot pontoons with space between them for the water to come in to make it steady; Bonnie has since added an additional pontoon, giving the boat over 20,000 pounds of flotation device. 


The 60-horsepower gas-powered motor means that the boat can travel up and down the river; in order to facilitate travel while maximizing space, the roof of the bedroom loft can fold down when it’s time to travel. 


Sometimes Bonnie also rents out space in her pontoon tiny houseboat on Airbnb and goes shore-side for a while.


Pontoon tiny houseboat

All in all, this beautiful four-season houseboat is a great way to enjoy life on the river, providing an optimal standard of tiny home living.


For more tiny houseboat stories, read how this professional woodworker built his own tiny house pontoon boat.


To see more videos, check out the Exploring Alternatives YouTube channel.

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  • Lnb60360351 Lnb60360351 on Jul 19, 2022

    My pontoon tiny houseboat is 28’ x 10’ and supports 4 season living. I bought Lake It Easy in VA in March, 2022 and moved her to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore’s Patapsco River. Built in 2020 on a pair of 1979 fiberglass pontoons, everything is brand new and I’m looking forward to wintering here.

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  • Car56770357 Car56770357 on Sep 25, 2022

    What a fun idea!


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