Walking and biking around my new town, I find myself lusting every so often for one of the many houseboats here. I've had a thing for houseboats ever since seeing Duncan MacLeod's "home on the Seine" in the TV series of "Highlander." Yeah, I know that in real life a houseboat would probably be both cramped and damp, but still...
Around here, the houseboats are pretty staid. They're one-story affairs built on an existing barge rescued from salvage. And they're at a premium; there are waiting lists years long to either buy an existing one or secure a mooring for a new one. But there are places in the world where houseboats have become more of an artform. Sausalito, California is one such place. Back during the Days Of Hippie, and continuing forward to today, many enterprising people discovered an interesting fact. Houseboats are not covered by the city's building codes. If you're building a house on land, there are only so many ways you can make it look, all pretty boxy and uninteresting. Even geodesic domes are taboo in many cities' building codes. But in Sausalito, if you can conceive of it, you can build it. Here, for your edification and amusement, are a few such domiciles of the imagination. The first is a design study; the rest are real, and people live in them: [350] Shifting to links now, because the Yahoo editor sometimes throws up from multiple photos: <http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_I2OVjEyUR3M/Sr7YXKoC0ZI/AAAAAAAAAFI/9bVb2VHSP\ rs/s400/Almond+shaped+houseboat,+Sausalito.jpg> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_I2OVjEyUR3M/Sr7YXKoC0ZI/AAAAAAAAAFI/9bVb2VHSPr\ s/s400/Almond+shaped+houseboat,+Sausalito.jpg <http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_I2OVjEyUR3M/Sr7YXKoC0ZI/AAAAAAAAAFI/9bVb2VHSP\ rs/s400/Almond+shaped+houseboat,+Sausalito.jpg> http://www.paulbergeronrealestate.com/real%20easte%20photo%20book%2036%2\ 0liberty_files/sausalitohouseboat_lg.jpg <http://www.paulbergeronrealestate.com/real%20easte%20photo%20book%2036%\ 20liberty_files/sausalitohouseboat_lg.jpg> http://www.kuraoka.org/photos/sausalito-houseboat.jpg <http://www.kuraoka.org/photos/sausalito-houseboat.jpg> http://lunaria.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/jha-blog-dolkyam-house\ .jpg <http://lunaria.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/jha-blog-dolkyam-hous\ e.jpg> http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3492/3954238840_75c0089a5e_z.jpg <http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3492/3954238840_75c0089a5e_z.jpg> http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1139/1437947508_476546dd27_z.jpg <http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1139/1437947508_476546dd27_z.jpg> http://travelmonkeydotme.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/img_64201.jpg <http://travelmonkeydotme.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/img_64201.jpg> http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n56/watercolorman/654c64b5.jpg <http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n56/watercolorman/654c64b5.jpg>
