The £70 – Floating Budget Home From Home Using Wooden Pallets

The £70 – Floating Budget Home From Home

It comes as no surprise that in our current climate thousands of people are turning to alternative ways of living; creating homes from boats, vans, trucks and just about anything that can be converted into a humble abode and home from home.  House prices are so unaffordable and are increasingly becoming more unobtainable to the working class.  Generally, people can be separated into four categories.

• You are in the small percentage of people that earn enough to buy.
• A rich relative has died and bequeathed you the estate!
• You’ve won the lottery.
• You earn a substandard wage like the rest of us and stand no chance to save enough for a mortgage!

So with that in mind, the rest of us have to think outside of the box or inside a cardboard box depending on how desperate you are.  Meet Wayne and Jean- they stumbled across a boat that was in need of a lot of love and attention and began their DIY journey into creating a shabby chic style home from home.

“We had no intention of buying a boat but we were looking around a private boatyard and among them was this little-unloved wreck. We asked how much they wanted. When £100 was mentioned I offered £70 and we proceeded to become proud owners. My husband Wayne spent 8/9 months of very hard work and in July we finally got her on the water and she floated!!  I had the idea that we could use pallets inside but we did and it cost next to nothing – we were on a tight budget. The Tohatsu engine was given to us for £50 and the canopy cost the same. Wayne later adapted the canopy to fit our boat.”

What makes this project so great is the use of pallets as an affordable building material. I’ve always been told when something doesn’t look great you either fix it or make it into a feature and Wayne has done just that. In their cabin, they have taken pallets (a normally dis-guarded wood) and used them to create a beautiful a cosy shabby chic style budget home. What’s more interesting, is; prior to this boat renovation, Wayne had no woodwork experience and armed with only an idea and determination he succeeded to create a beautiful home from home. All in all,the bare bones cost £70, and the project totalled £800. It is a small price to pay for such a great escape.