Episodes

Episode 1 - Futuristic Floating Home

Setting out to design and build an extraordinary new home

Episode 2 - First Time Floating Home

Will Ani and Charles pull off a near miracle to produce a Thames floating home fit for a cool stylish first home?

Episode 3 - Giant Historic Ship

Converting a century old barge into a three tiered contemporary floating apartment

Episode 4 - Huge River Homes

With just a 16 week schedule battling bad weather and the enormous daily tide that lifts and drops the boat by several metres twice a day

Episode 5 - Modern Water Living

Two houseboat owners on their journeys to creating their dream homes on the water

Episode 6 - Million Dollar Mansions

Dreams become a reality for two more houseboat builders in Canada

Episode 7 - Waterborne Caravan

Will this fragile fibreglass blast from the past actually float?

Episode 8 - Floating Summer Homes

Two more difficult challenges for houseboat builders in the UK and the US

Episode 2 - First Time Floating Home

Adventurous young professionals, Ani Ridley and Charles Anderson are taking on the project of a lifetime – they’ve bought a busted old oil barge, ‘the Dutchess 1910’, that they want to turn into their rustic first home. Based on the Thames in Hampton, south west London, the couple have a tight budget which leaves no option but to do nearly all the work themselves. With no experience, are they biting off more than they can chew? Can they make some big savings by trying to make the stove, interiors and wheelhouse themselves?

Ani and Charles want to create an open plan living area, with antique brass windows and portholes, heated by a custom handmade wood burner. brand new hand built oak wheelhouse which will lead into their industrial steel kitchen. This will have corten steel for splashbacks and a concrete worktop…. all made by them.

As they get stuck in, it’s a steep learning curve that comes close to costing them dearly. The couple visit a specialist blacksmith who helps them build their stove from a scavenged iron buoy. Faced with a £20k quote, the last big challenge for Charles was to learn how to build the wheelhouse. It’s a long road – will the pair pull off a near miracle to produce a Thames floating home fit for a cool stylish first home?  

Credits
Assistant Producers
for Channel 4
Distributed by Cineflix