She was sick and tired of paying rent and had always dreamed of owning waterfront property. However, the reality of economics put buying a home with waterfront access out of reach. But with a bit of creative thinking and an opportunity to have the dream come true albeit in a slightly different way, Jill Simmons found her home by the sea – or should I say on the sea.
Since April 1994, Simmons has been living on a houseboat. Docked in Fairhaven, she has the best of all worlds – panoramic views of the water, absent the crippling property taxes.
Simmons, a retired New Bedford police officer and current harbormaster for Mattapoisett, was familiar with houseboats. Her husband George “Skip” Gray, a retired police officer from Marion, was living on one when they first met in the 1970s.
“He had the party boat in Marion,” she recalled. Their lives went separate ways for a couple of decades. But her desire to live near the salt water never evaporated.
Some twenty years later, she was able to reel her dream in – and her husband.
“A guy I was doing some work for had built a stick house on a barge,” Simmons said.
At 576 square feet, the 18- by 32-square-foot home contains a great room that functions as a living room/kitchen space. It has a bedroom and bathroom and windows everywhere that look out onto New Bedford Harbor, a place with which she is well acquainted. Simmons is the founder of the New Bedford Police Department dive team and seaport security program.
The water-bound home does not have a motor and would have to be towed should it be relocated.
When asked about personal possessions, “Sarge” gave a typical direct response, “You don’t accumulate a lot of crap.” She explained, “When you live in a house with a garage and a basement, you fill it up. That’s what people do.” But when you are living in a tiny home, especially one floating on the water, collecting material possessions is simply not an option, she emphasized. Simmons chuckled, saying, “I’ve got way too much stuff right now.”
But living in a houseboat requires more than a mere paring down of material goods; it takes knowledge and a willingness to understand the dynamics involved in maintaining this unique type of structure.
For starters, there is waste management.
“The Fairhaven pump-out boat takes care of that in the summer, and in the winter, I get a service that comes and pumps out the sewer tank,” she said.
Simmons’ knowledge of marine rules and regulations and the everyday realities of living on a boat is essential for making it all work out.
“The thing that people fail to understand is it’s a boat. You have to pay attention to the weather, your lines, the water temperature. You have to know every aspect of a houseboat and how to deal with it.”
Technically speaking, Simmons has mastered the science as well as the art of living on a houseboat. She said that it drafts 11 inches and in the wintertime, she keeps a thermometer in the ocean to gauge the temperature; after all, her freshwater tanks are attached to the underside of the structure.
“The average temperature of the seawater in the winter is thirty-two degrees,” she said. If it gets any lower than that, she has to take measures to ensure the water tanks don’t freeze.
Over the years that Simmons has lived in her houseboat, which is named Sea-Hab, she has had her own electrical power line dropped from a nearby pole.
“I don’t have to pay the marina for electrical power,” she stated with a smile. Conveniences have not been lost either. “I have full Internet and cable access,” she said.
More recently, Simmons has purchased suitcase-sized generators for emergency back-up power.
“I have to be able to carry the generators myself in case I’m alone and the power goes out. I have to know how to wire them up and keep things going,” she said.
Life in a marina carries with it a host of considerations, but for Simmons and Gray those considerations are outweighed by the joy of living so close to the ocean. After long careers dealing with the public, along with years of living in close proximity to neighbors, this couple understands the joy of friendly interaction as well as peace and quiet.
“In April, I’m glad to have people coming back for the season, and in late October, I’m glad to see them go,” she said.
And there are numerous details both small and large involved in living on a boat.
“Gray water can go overboard, so it does,” she said. Gray water is water used for bathing or washing dishes. As for fresh water, she fills her 350-gallon tanks as needed.
“Everything is about being conservative,” she shared. “I grew up with my grandparents on a farm … they didn’t waste anything.” Simmons is proud that her environmental footprint is small. “I don’t make a big impact.”
And then there is her address…
“I fought with the registry for years,” she said, explaining that you have to have a physical address to get a driver’s license because a post office box number doesn’t qualify.
“I finally got them to accept Fairhaven Harbor added to my P.O. Box number as my legal address.”
Regarding the costs involved in owning a houseboat, she said that because it’s a boat first and foremost there aren’t property taxes involved, just excise taxes. As for the marina expenses, she said those run around $4,000 per year plus insurance at around $1,700 annually. When contrasted against the average mainland rental unit rate of $1,300 per month, the cost savings quickly add up.
Of course there are some logistical considerations. For one thing, there is the trip from the parking lot to the front door, which in Simmons’ case, is about 485 feet.
“Oh, that can be very tough in the winter,” she said. But she’s not complaining.
And what about the fact that the Sea-Hab doesn’t have an oven? Well, that’s simply not a problem for this couple. Since tying the marital and marine knot in 2003, Gray handles the galley duties. Simmons laughed, “I don’t cook!”
By Marilou Newell
I would like to do this. Do I need to buy a dock? What is the first step?