Refurbishing a Rental Pontoon Houseboat

by Beth Fleuelling
(Richmond, British Columbia)

We are thinking of buying an older pontoon houseboat that was used as a rental houseboat unit in Okanagan Lake, BC.

Our opinion is to gut the entire inside and remove the motor and use that area for storage of a generator, batteries etc.

Then we are considering moving back the patio doors in the bedroom 3 feet to enable the fitting of a Queen size bed. Removing all the cabinets down the walkway to open up the aisle.

Then once all has been removed try to get plans designed with our ideas and see if it's possible....would put back a seating area built in to maybe a daybed with wrap around seating.....
are we on the right track?

Don't have any pictures yet as we only looked at the unit today. We would hire a surveyor to make sure the pontoons are still in reasonably shape for flotation.
Thanks, Beth

Reply - Answer
Hi Beth, sounds like a good plan. The only advice is to verify that the slip (dock) that you would get, will they allow a "un-motorized" houseboat to be moored there for the season?

Some marinas require that houseboats be able to motor out into the harbor or bay to be classified as a boat.

Lastly, just be sure that any major modifications done don't adversely affect your resale value or potential, since you may want to sell it at a later date?

Hopefully some of our readers will also post some comments and ideas for your refurbish project.

IAN - from www.all-about-houseboats.com