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00:01houses are more than shelter the second we walked through the threshold of the
00:09door we both looked up looked at each other this is it yeah this is the space
00:15we wanted to live in the light and we wanted to live in the landscape for us
00:23it was a way to sort of connect my roots and expose our children and continue
00:28that legacy from our parents we sort of fell in love with the place and each
00:36other at the same time this building it's a real landmark around here it's an
00:43unconventional house but it's pretty fun the fact is that houses are dreams they're
00:51an expression of who we are and what we believe in
01:06moving here I didn't realize how quiet living on the water would be you come
01:12through that gate from this kind of industrial Dickensian Street and the door
01:18clang shut and then you're in this other world
01:31I'm Katie Hickman and I'm a writer I'm Matthew King and I'm a designer and sculptor
01:42it's a fantastic community there's about 60 boats owned by individuals like us if you want to get a
01:51mooring here one of the stipulations is that your boat should be a working boat this happens to be
01:58what's called a humber barge it was built in 1912 in the north of England this used to transport 200
02:06tons of coal a week from a coal mine to an electric power station I like it because it has
02:14much more
02:14volume inside the boat is about 650 square feet it's a proper living space which surprises people when
02:24they come it has two bedrooms and a wheelhouse which is where I have my office and we have breakfast
02:42so this is the wheelhouse the room with a view there's canary wharf a mile or so down river we
02:49can see
02:50Tower Bridge Tower of London it's a very special place as you can see up here the color schemes this
02:59neutral kind of soft gray and white detailing which is a boaty thing so on the steps you traditionally had
03:07that white for safety thing and I've taken that through onto the edges of the counter originally it
03:14was a flat boat designed for canals which have no current so if we go anywhere from here it's
03:20always going to be towed this is the original helm so this comes off and we can bolt on the
03:27steering
03:27wheel again the wheelhouse is the boatiest part of the boat much more homely downstairs but it's still
03:35got the same theme and the same color scheme so it all feels a part of the same space the
03:43noise you can
03:44hear is the sound of the ropes creaking which you kind of don't notice after a while you can hear
03:53the
03:53waves breaking it's lovely sound well we go downstairs here to get our way in holding on as we go
04:03down
04:05when people first come in here they're always rather amazed that it's particularly having seen the
04:09outside of what we've got in here and the sense of space and light they're amazed because they're
04:16expecting somewhere that's small and dark and damp and they've got somewhere which is bright and light
04:21so they can actually stand up when I bought it there were no portholes and no light it was a
04:29dark dark
04:30hole so I put them in all the portholes the idea was to get as much light in as possible
04:36and here the
04:39shadows and the lights move so the whole place is animated we also know when our resident fox has
04:44been visiting so we get little foxy footprints you can see oh you can see some up there I'm designing
04:53things to fit in with the basic principle try and make it look as clean and uncluttered as possible
04:59stressing these horizontal lines keeping the planks going the whole way round so it's this unifying grid
05:06almost so the kitchen doesn't dominate it's it's part of the wall most things fit apart from my shoes
05:17yes how did I get together with Matthew well we'd known one another at quite a long time as friends
05:26with no romance in it and then the years rolled by both of us got divorced Matthew came with this
05:34rusty
05:35hull to London and I used to come and visit him while he was doing his repairs with a little
05:42basket yes with sandwiches in and a bottle of wine yes to you know to well to bring you some
05:51sustenance
05:52yes and you weren't very interested at all because he was too busy too busy with this building and then
05:58Katie moved in quite soon after his perfect bachelor no it's a family home and here we are 80 years
06:08later and I'm still here we got married here on the moorings in 2021 Tower Bridge behind when it's lit
06:23up at
06:24night looks absolutely amazing it was the most fitting place for it it was a moorings romance
06:31this cocoon-like womb-like room is the main cabin there's a lot of light in here coming from yet
06:39another skylight you get this big pool of light coming down I can actually see to do my makeup on
06:46a
06:46good day depending on the cloud cover and and it just transforms the whole place you can feel as
06:57we're standing here that when I'm just slightly rocking from side to side and when you're lying
07:02down at night it's brilliant way I've never had any problems sleeping on the boat at all you get this
07:11amazing soundscape but if you if you listen you can hear all the waterfowl calling to one another you
07:21can hear coot geese ducks swans right in the middle of London this is the other bedroom spare bedroom for
07:36gas managed to get a bit of outside light with a porthole up there this was a piece I made
07:44in my
07:44prior life and that had to have its own little spot all the things I make and like a diary
07:50in terms of
07:51the period of life when I was making them that was on a hilltop in Dartmoor I was you know
07:57my thirties
07:58when I was making these they are my reference to different eras of my life and it's quite nice
08:03having them all together in this new life and it's really lovely to share it with Katie and she loves
08:11to tease me about it all but I know she loves all the things as much as I do it's
08:17a very special place
08:18indeed you are intensely romantic person you you certainly not you you don't want to admit it but
08:25you are this boat is a is a is it is the product of a dream yes that you had
08:31for many years before
08:32it even became even a possibility and the romance of where it actually is yeah the fact that it's this
08:38ancient part of London but this incredibly modern part of London as well it's the everything is
08:43concentrated to this to this place oh some oh yeah
09:13there's just an overall calmness and slowness that you feel here that you just don't feel anywhere
09:19else it's absolutely magical
09:33our lives are pretty busy my husband's a lawyer I'm an interior designer and we work pretty hard and so
09:40when we come up to the lake it is just our time to absolutely relax and unwind get away from
09:47all
09:47the hustle and bustle of living in a big city the house is shaped like an a-frame which allows
09:55you to
09:56have floor-to-ceiling windows and so as soon as you open the front door you can just see lake
10:01the sky
10:02trees and nature and beauty and it's just breathtaking my name is Heather Lucas and this is our cabin on
10:18Lake
10:18Ponderay like Ponderay is in northern Idaho we're about an hour south of the Canadian border we really
10:28fell in love with Lake Ponderay it's somewhere I had been in my teenage years my husband had skied a
10:34lot at Schweitzer Mountain when he was growing up and we wanted our kids to have some of the memories
10:40that
10:40we had growing up on the lake that just can't be replicated anywhere else we bought this cabin about
10:47three years ago sight unseen the cabins that are waterfront are barely on the market a day before I get
10:53snatched up my first time stepping foot in this house is when we owned it and I opened the door
11:01and I mean I cried I was like I can't believe this is our house so when we bought the
11:09house it was a tan
11:10color with dark brown trim so we wanted to kind of just update it and make it a little more
11:15ours so we painted
11:16it navy with a black trim we did a little bit of work to the house we did some painting
11:21and switched out some lighting and
11:23kind of made it our own but besides that it's pretty much what it's always been since the 70s
11:33so the first thing you notice when you walk in the space is obviously this insane view of the lake
11:39and
11:40it was what made us fall in love with the property the view from every room in the house is
11:46of this lake
11:47whether I'm doing dishes or whether I'm waking up first thing in the morning opening in the shades
11:52it's the lake it's the most amazing view but the room definitely felt a little bit dark right when we
12:00bought it so we knew we wanted to lighten it up so we painted everything white the fireplace is original
12:06to the house and it's a wood-burning working fireplace which is great in the winter so after a day
12:13of
12:13skiing after the kids hot tub we'll come up here make a big fire and keep that going most of
12:18the night
12:24so this is the kitchen the focus of the kitchen is obviously the view and there is just nothing
12:32better when you have a sink full of dishes that you can just be looking out there used to be
12:38upper
12:39cabinets above this peninsula and we remove those to make the space feel more open we got new
12:44countertops and new appliances but besides that these are the original cabinets for the 1970s
12:51one of my favorite features of the kitchen is this hot pink neon no pasanata sign my husband
12:58Spencer he studied abroad in Spain and he picked up this phrase no pasanata which essentially means like
13:04don't worry about it relax and it's kind of become like the spirit of our cabin there's so much active
13:14activities that you can do here yet there's no schedule and i think that's what makes it so relaxing
13:21and so inevitably you'll go paddle boarding at least once a day wake surfing at least once a day the
13:27kids
13:27will take the jet ski out at least once a day but it's never at the same time and it's
13:32always just when we
13:33feel like it no pasanata so this is the primary bedroom and i absolutely love waking up in this
13:47bedroom it has the most amazing lake view absolutely gorgeous and it makes me so excited about starting my
13:54day here between the view at the lake and the the fun pops of color it's just a really happy
13:59room to be in
14:04this home has five bedrooms one of the fun things about designing a lake house is that
14:12kind of are able to take risks and be more fun with your design choices
14:20right outside the upstairs guest room we have this picture wall it's kind of a fun tradition we started
14:26the first summer we were here every group that comes will do a group photo at the end of the
14:33weekend
14:34and so eventually i'm assuming this entire wall will just be filled with all the groups of friends
14:40and family that have come and spent time with us in the summer
14:52so this is our fire pit area which is right off the bunk room and this is where we spend
14:58a lot of time
14:58especially at night we like roasting marshmallows and sitting around the fire looking at stars
15:05it's a really beautiful lakefront yard
15:11we are right across from this island and we love taking our paddle boards over there
15:17my son loves fishing off this island out in our bay it's only about 20 feet deep but if you
15:23keep
15:23going down the lake it gets up to 1200 feet deep which is pretty crazy but right where we are
15:29it's a
15:29little bit more shallow which is nice because it keeps the water a little bit warmer and um it's
15:34just a beautiful it's a beautiful clean lake
15:56we wanted to have a home that allowed us to be close to the people who are the most important
16:01to us
16:04and it brings us so much joy
16:21there's something magical about opening your eyes in the morning and looked around and it's water all
16:26around you you feel drawn to opening the door and go outside and and take it all in
16:42and it's water all around you and it's water all around you and it's water all around you and it's
16:53water
16:53my name is hannah i live in a floating house in richardson bay and my house is part of a
17:00houseboat
17:00community in sausalito
17:04sausalito is a small town across the gonagate bridge north of san francisco
17:10you surrounded by the sea by the mountains by the trees
17:17as soon as i walk through the outside gate my stress starts to melt away little by little
17:24as a transition from being in the big world to to my sanctuary
17:36the house has three levels the entry level is actually the highest level the top level it's a foyer
17:44where you stop for a minute and take in the view
17:50there's a primary suite with a sleeping loft and then you go down the stairs to be the second level
17:58and that has the living room the dining room and the kitchen and then the bottom level it has two
18:06guest bedrooms one and a half baths and the two bedrooms open to a garden
18:21the house took a year to build and the first step to build a houseboat is you have to build
18:26a barge
18:27which makes it float and the barge is nothing more than a concrete box so essentially that's the
18:33foundation then we framed on top of the barge i was searching for an architect and i found craig
18:40steely craig's style is very modern and modernism can be very stark my personality is more playful
18:50and whimsical i named the house the moon gate the moon gate is a an architecture popular in asia
19:00symbolizes unity and connectedness to nature and i find that very compelling for me
19:08the left of the entrance of the house is the primary suite as you can see there's a huge bathtub
19:16for me it's a treat to take a bath after surfing with the view so this bathtub serves a big
19:23purpose in my
19:24life behind me is the loft with the bed inside
19:32i don't have any window covering for the great round window and it makes me wake up with the sun
19:50as you continue down there is a staircase that is a very wide staircase for the size of the house
19:59one of my fondest memories growing up is being in my grandmother's house in vietnam she lived right
20:05next to a river so i would sit on a staircase by a window looking out the river reading so
20:13when we're
20:13building this house i told my architect about my favorite memory that's why he came up with the
20:19stairs where i can sit and read a book it brings me back to my childhood memory
20:31as you come down the staircase you're in the dining area i have dinner with my neighbors at least like
20:38twice a week sometimes i feel like it's a i live in a community center my entire life i wanted
20:43a long
20:44dining table that's live edge so when i had the opportunity and the space i actually went to a
20:50mill and picked out a tree and then had it milled and made into a table one of the things
20:55i love the
20:56most is the reflection of the water onto walls or windows i didn't even envision that it's going to
21:03be that beautiful before the house was was finished
21:10this house is no sheetrock we had wood slats covering almost all of the walls and the ceiling
21:16it's just so beautiful like every time i sit in this living room looking up i'm like pairs of hands
21:22have touched every single pieces of this wood slat and there's so much love going into building this
21:30house the kitchen itself is sunken so this is my favorite part of the house it's three steps down
21:39from the living room and the dining room so i'm literally walking on water there's something about
21:46being close to the water level you take it in differently when you're above it
21:55this little garden area is tucked between the two guest bedrooms downstairs and it's literally inside
22:01the barge so where i'm standing now i'm under the water line because it's sunken um it's protected
22:10from the wind and it gets a lot of sun it's not typical to have a garden inside a houseboat
22:17but here we are
22:24being near the water it somehow allows me to be a kid again
22:31i never had a chance to be a kid for many many many years
22:36i was born into a war-torn country and then we came here as refugees and then i had to
22:43learn english and
22:45had to do well in school and had to work and living here allows me to be a kid again
22:51and i've never been happier
22:58my house is always an open door for for my family
23:05so this house is built for entertaining
23:08and the more i live here the more i use that for that purpose
23:17so it's beyond just the view beyond just the water it's a community that is so special
23:26it's a nice house great nice you're we're living in a world
23:32it brings you back to the good part of human nature
23:37i am so grateful to have found this way of living and being in this gorgeous beautiful house
23:43with the view
23:44you
23:45you
23:45you
23:55you
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