Check out the homes on the 2017 Floating Homes Tour in Sausalito.
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Dock A 1C "Shanti Ghar" (Peaceful Home): 1,280 square feet, two stories
Backstory: For over fifteen years, the barge for this floating home was moored next to the owners' old houseboat in the Co-op waiting for the Waldo Point Harbor renovation project to create 38 new slips, one of which would be theirs. With the aid of architect Robert Hayes, the couple designed a home with every feature they wanted in less than 600 square feet. When finally built, the home was floated here to one of the four slips created this year.
Owners: Michael Labate and Catherine Lyons
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2 West Pier "Fairy Tale": 1,000 square feet and two stories
Backstory: The hull of a 35-foot lifeboat built in 1944 -- just two months before the D-Day invasion -- this charmer was turned into a houseboat in Alameda in 1968 by Ken Gutherson and Ron Muskar. They had purchased it for $200 and put another $2000 into its conversion. Now, sitting atop a ship-shaped concrete barge -- which provides additional storage space -- she is cozy with a warm wooden feel. As you walk aboard on the front deck, notice the profusion of wind chimes. The deck also affords a view of Kappas Marina's lawn area which will be the scene of much activity on tour day.
Owners: Julie Durbin and Ed Lopez
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Dock A 2 "The Alpha": 3,000 square feet, three stories including the basement
Backstory: The Alpha has its origin as a World War II Naval photo lab office on Treasure Island. Barged to Sausalito in 1961 it was subsequently remodeled to the current triplex configuration (an owner's unit and two studios). The Alpha's original barge had previously been used to carry stones to build the Bay Bridge. Put on a concrete hull in 1988, the Alpha has experienced multiple renovations by six owners.
Owners: Mike Lewis and Barbara Rycerski both grew up in the Bay Area and met while attending graduate studies in geology. Their careers have taken them to several locations in the USA and the Middle East. Their décor reflects their geologic interests and love of travel during their careers. Volunteering locally and traveling to exotic places is high on their list of activities.
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34 Issaquah Dock: 1,700 square feet, three stories
Backstory: Those who saw this boat when it was "a work in progress" for the 2012 Floating Home Tour will want to return to see the wonderful way it turned out with its open feel, wide views and special features. These include three fireplaces, heated seats on the bidet toilets, a solar power system, wood tiled decks and a beautiful wall-filling bookcase in the library custom built by well-known local contractor Curt Myers.
Owners: MJ Willard spends a week a month in Washington DC with her husband Allan who works there (they have a bi-coastal marriage). Allan is in government consulting and MJ works for non-profit program that places people with physical disabilities into telecommuting jobs. MJ works out of an office in Mill Valley when not traveling. She says, "The Zen part of my day is the bike ride along the wetlands to work." She adds, "We’re in love with our boat, the houseboat community and the lifestyle."
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39 Issaquah Dock "Wayward": 1,600 square feet, three stories
Backstory: The owner recently remodeled the main floor, creating an open living/dining space with a modern kitchen, wine bar and a wine refrigerator. He replaced a wood-burning stove with an in-wall gas fireplace that heats the entire space. Bamboo floors accent the bright, airy feel. The half bath on this level has a sink with a waterfall faucet that sits atop a unique conical cabinet.
Owner: The project took two years, with Paul Winward doing some of the work himself. All the art on this level was done by neighbors. The watercolors are all by Annie Sutter, the painting "Suspicion" is by Jim Woessner, the photographs of the Maltese Falcon sailing yacht and the Golden Gate Bridge are by Ric Miller. Tomas Ludlam created the Murphy bed style folding dining table as well as the compass rose cabinet. Don't miss the neon Elvis clock. Upstairs, Paul has created a master suite where there used to be two separate bedrooms. In the huge bathroom, the photo of the homes on the dock - what Paul refers to as his "hood" - was commissioned from Ric Miller. Downstairs is a large storage area and guest amenities, including an entertainment center, a convertible couch, Jacuzzi tub, half-kitchen, dining table and a collection of San Francisco 49ers memorabilia.
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44 Issaquah Dock: 1,600 square feet, two stories
Backstory: This modern home is painted in the style of Mondrian. The color scheme is the work of a well-known interior designer who also lives on the dock, Gayle Van Dyke. The artistic theme continues inside. As you walk in the front door, you'll notice a modern and whimsical lighting installation made by Quasar in Holland. Among the art displayed are the works of patients of Napa State Hospital where the owner once worked.
Owners: Ted and Malia Rudolf own the floating home. Ted has spent several years collecting Hawaiian koa wood and has made this dramatic wood a feature throughout the house. The kitchen has custom birds-eye maple and koa cabinets and a unique lighting system that features red Venetian glass.
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60 Issaquah Dock "The White Pelican": 1,200 square feet, two stories plus roof-level decks
Backstory: The White Pelican was created in 1980 by Bill Fethon – builder of nearly two dozen homes in the community. A new, larger concrete hull was built in 2001. The original hull was retained inside the replacement, with the result that even in the most active storms, this home is stable. An oversized clerestory with large windows in all directions, glass bricks on two walls, and working portholes bring light into the open floor-plan of the main deck. Sliding glass doors open onto the deck overlooking the Waldo Point Harbor lagoon.
Owners: Jen Gennari and John Schlag own the floating home. John grew up on the Maryland and Delaware shores. Jen, a former reporter who now writes children's books, hails from Vermont's Lake Champlain. Her writing room doubles as a guest room when one or more of their four grown daughters visit.
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16 Issaquah Dock: 1,600 square feet, three stories
Backstory: There may be a remarkable feeling of spaciousness about the interior of this relatively snug floating home, but it is the views outside that strike the visitor the most. Perhaps this is due to the floor to ceiling sliding glass doors. From the water side of both the main floor's open living/dining/kitchen area and the top floor's master bedroom, the view of the lagoon is spectacular. Water-side patios with open railings call to owner and visitor alike. On the dock-side off the master bedroom is another railed patio deck, this one offering a view of Mt. Tamalpais, a local landmark.
Owner: Mark Sommer recently moved here from the San Francisco Peninsula, but he has family here in Marin. The pull of the water has always affected him. "It calms me" he says. Another pull for him was the vibrancy of the floating home community. His renovation of this nearly forty-year-old floating home takes full advantage of the opportunities for openness. He removed the earlier, bulkier fireplace and replaced it with a sleek, standalone one. He replaced all the floors but points out that it is the octagonal ceilings of the home that are the most dramatic interior feature. The deep hull allows the lower level to be used for a guest room as well as the den which Mark calls his "man cave" but which also doubles as an in-home office and an entertainment center.
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1 East Pier "Dol Khyim" ("Place of Sanctuary" in Tibetan): 4,000 square feet, three-stories plus a roof deck
Backstory: Built in 1975 as architectural offices and redesigned as a home in 2001, this is a unique structure architecturally, with large open spaces along with angles and views everywhere. The redesign was by noted "green" architect Sim Van der Ryn. The artifacts inside are also unique. There is ethnic art from Africa and Asia acquired over the owners’ nearly 50 years of work in diplomacy, anthropology, and leading journeys to exotic places.
Owners: On the walls on the main deck, scrolls from the Dalai Lama thank owners Carole Angermeir and Wilford Welch for their work in the 1990s to enable 1,000 Tibetans to move permanently to the U.S. and a Japanese cavalry banner captured by the Chinese during World War II. Carole is a Life Board member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. From 1991 - 2015 she was CEO of Cross Cultural Journeys, a company that creates travel experiences to over 30 countries. In the 1990s, she co-founded with Wilford "Quest for Global Healing Gatherings" in Bali for 1,000 people from 40 countries, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu. Wilford is a former U.S. diplomat, professor of international business, president of a world-wide newspaper and author of books on social entrepreneurship and global sustainability. His newest book, In Our Hands - Handbook for Intergenerational Actions to Solve the Climate Crisis, came out this year.
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69 Issaquah Dock, 1,900 square feet, three stories
Backstory: The main floor is a multi-level open space with the kitchen and dining room separated from the step-down living room by a half wall that hides the television screen from view. Out the bay side door is a large deck with a ramp down to an almost equally large floating dock at which what Eammon calls "the fleet" is tied: two boats and a paddle board. Upstairs is the master suite -- a bedroom with skylights, a bathroom with an easy-entrance tub and a private dock-side deck with a fabulous view of Mount Tam and the floating home community around the lagoon. On the lower level is a bath with built in sauna, an in-home office and a guest room with a separate room that could be used as a nursery behind it.
Owners: Eammon and Louise Keegan are now into the third month of the second year of life aboard what they call their last home. "We're never going to leave," says Louise. They immigrated from "the old country - Ireland" in the 1960s. After retirement (he was a stock broker, she an elementary school teacher) they came from Kentfield to look at a smaller home in Sausalito. They spotted an open house sign in the floating home community and fell in love. #69, on the bay side of the dogleg of Issaquah with its to-die-for view of Strawberry Point and the Belvedere Peninsula across Richardson’s Bay, called to them. "When the afternoon sun hits Strawberry it looks like a Monet painting" says Eammon.
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7 East Pier "Blue Pirate": 2,000 square feet, two stories
Backstory: This steel-hulled barge, one of the few in the floating home community, was originally built by a Los Angeles shipbuilder for his personal use in 1963. Rumor has it that he was aiming for the Delta but stopped in Sausalito, fell in love -- and never left. Over 15 years ago, this was a scruffy boat with little to commend its exterior. Then, the cable network HGTV upgraded the look for an episode on its “Curb Appeal” program. The show's designers came up with an update on a Caribbean theme. They did an amazing exterior makeover, adding picture windows, etching a front-door seascape, adding flower boxes, and more. This is the exterior design you see today.
Owner: Elana Yonah Rosen and her 15-year old son love the sense of community, proximity to the ocean & the city -- plus the stellar neighbors.
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14 West Pier "The Nautilus": 2,000 square feet, two stories
Backstory: Coco the Cockatiel welcomes you to this getaway home and in-home office. The high curved wooden beam and panel ceiling provides a feeling of openness, while the see-through fireplace draws your attention out to the water and trees beyond. The fireplace heats the small deck behind the sliding glass doors so that you can stand outside with a glass of wine on even the coldest of evenings. The kitchen, on the dock side of the main floor, boasts large sliding windows that open onto a meditation garden with its goddess fountain. A certain Asian feel pervades the entire main floor with the Indonesian screen separating the living/dining area from the kitchen that is nicely outfitted with a refrigerated wine cabinet.
Owner: Ted Bravos and his wife, Joan Keddell, use the home for visiting instructors of the International Tour Management Institute. ITMI is the first certified school in America to train Tour Guides, which Mr. Bravos founded in 1976. Since then, ITMI has certified more than 8,000 graduates who have found work leading tour groups in various countries around the world. The name of this floating home is a reference to the symbolic logo of the Institute: The Chambered Nautilus.
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30 East Pier "Water Song": 1,300 square feet, two stories plus a roof deck
Backstory: This boat provides a unique combination of artist's studio, writer's library and attractive, comfortable domicile. Art abounds in the house from the glass window curtains in the bedrooms and the glass appliqués on the guest shower enclosure created by the owner, to the original Native American paper feather in the master bedroom, the Tim Tate glass piece on the east side of the living room near the round window, and the hummingbird painting by Eon Burchman over the fireplace. Dominating the dining area's wall is a triptych of sails on the bay the owner created and titled "Wind Farm."
Owners: "Water Song" is the name of a series of glass pieces owner Teddie Hathaway created before she and Brad Hathaway moved here from Washington, DC. A premonition? Perhaps. But it seemed the perfect name for their boat. Teddie is a glass artist working with reclaimed glass from old windows and patio doors. She needed a fully equipped studio, so in their 2013-14 remodel they extended the front of the main floor to create her work space. Brad is a writer of both fiction and theater-related non-fiction. He needed an office/library, so they made the front room on the lower level serve both those functions as well as that of a guest room with the addition of a Murphy bed.
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17 Yellow Ferry Harbor "A Little Tenderness": 300 square feet, two stories
"A Little Tenderness" is actually the guest house for the neighboring, slightly larger one named "The Morning Sun." Both names are references to songs associated with Otis Redding that mean a great deal to the owners, retired civil rights attorney Lois and semi-retired medical doctor Bob.
They relocated here from San Francisco's Noe Valley after attending a Floating Homes Tour and realizing that life on the water called to them. When they moved into "The Morning Sun" they discovered the importance of their views made possible by the small stature of their neighbor, which was coming on the market but was in terrible condition. Their fear was that someone would buy the tiny home, tear it down and build a bigger, higher one in that slip. The solution? Buy it themselves, renovate it and use it as a guest house. While its interior is tiny, the multiple decks make the spaces feel more open and provide additional usable areas. Enter from the water-side main floor deck into a small but open great-room with kitchen, eating and sitting areas. Behind it is a small bedroom which has its own deck. Upstairs is another bedroom -- this one actually has two decks, fore and aft! That level also has the bathroom with its wooden shower tub. While in Buenos Aires, Lois and Bob commissioned Argentine artist Alfredo Martinez to create the name signs that adorn their dual floating homes. The one on "A Little Tenderness" is flanked by the morning glories that drape the timbers anchoring sponsons to stabilize her.
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10 B Yellow Ferry Harbor "City of Seattle": 7,800 square feet, two stories plus pilot houses
Backstory: The flagship of the 23-slip Yellow Ferry Harbor is the eponymous Yellow Ferry. Originally christened "The City of Seattle," she was built in 1888 as the first ferry to service Puget Sound. For twenty-five years she carried people and freight from Seattle to West Seattle. In 1913 she was towed south to become an auto ferry, running across Carquinez Straits between Martinez and Benicia. During World War II she worked as a yard ferry for Mare Island Shipyard, supporting the war effort by carrying as many as 900 passengers on a six minute run between Mare Island and Vallejo. After the war, she was merely moored and allowed to deteriorate. In 1958 she was rescued by the Tellis family and remodeled as a private residence.
Owner: Chris Tellis
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10 B Yellow Ferry Harbor "City of Seattle": 7,800 square feet, two stories plus pilot houses
In 1988 the Tellises completed a further restoration on a new hull in time to celebrate her 100th anniversary. She is now as trim and strong as any time since her launch 129 years ago. At 135 feet the SS City of Seattle is one of the largest residences in the Sausalito floating homes community. Originally, she was basically a big open barn with pilot houses at each end.
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10 B Yellow Ferry Harbor "City of Seattle": 7,800 square feet, two stories plus pilot houses
The Tellises retained the feeling of open space, inserting minimal walls, restoring the decks and providing glass walls at the ends. The smokestack is adorned with the insignia of Poseidon by the Greek artist, Yanko Varda. The paddle wheels are still visible, one of which is the dominant feature of one of the most dramatic bedrooms on the bay.
emilyriddell.com
10 B Yellow Ferry Harbor "City of Seattle": 7,800 square feet, two stories plus pilot houses
The Tellises retained the feeling of open space, inserting minimal walls, restoring the decks and providing glass walls at the ends. The smokestack is adorned with the insignia of Poseidon by the Greek artist, Yanko Varda. The paddle wheels are still visible, one of which is the dominant feature of one of the most dramatic bedrooms on the bay.
emilyriddell.com
10 B Yellow Ferry Harbor "City of Seattle": 7,800 square feet, two stories plus pilot houses
The Tellises retained the feeling of open space, inserting minimal walls, restoring the decks and providing glass walls at the ends. The smokestack is adorned with the insignia of Poseidon by the Greek artist, Yanko Varda. The paddle wheels are still visible, one of which is the dominant feature of one of the most dramatic bedrooms on the bay.
emilyriddell.com
10 B Yellow Ferry Harbor "City of Seattle": 7,800 square feet, two stories plus pilot houses
The Tellises retained the feeling of open space, inserting minimal walls, restoring the decks and providing glass walls at the ends. The smokestack is adorned with the insignia of Poseidon by the Greek artist, Yanko Varda. The paddle wheels are still visible, one of which is the dominant feature of one of the most dramatic bedrooms on the bay.
Emily Riddell
When the World War II shipbuilding operation Marinship closed in 1945, Sausalito's northern waterfront suddenly became available.
Artists, Beatniks and free spirits took over the docks and built ramshackle houseboats from old shipping parts. By the 1950s, Sausalito's community of floating homes and its celebrated counter-culture movement was thriving. Acid-trip parties, impromptu poetry readings and music jams were all part of the scene in this water-bound neighborhood that became known as Marinship.
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Today, the community is far more eclectic with artists and writers sharing the docks with physicians, lawyers and executives. Multi-million-dollar custom dream homes rock next to former Navy ships converted into functional dwellings with loads of character.
But the Bohemian spirit and stories of the community's wild past are still alive, and you can get a taste of the culture on the annual Floating Homes Tour on Saturday, September 30 when 15 boats welcome the public onboard. (Tickets cost $50 if you buy ahead and $55 at the door.) This year's event is focusing on the community's past and highlighting its connection with Marinship (and the Sausalito area still called "the Marinship") as the shipyard celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Visitors are encouraged to attend in 1940s attire.
You'll get to tour "The Alpha" that was originally a World War II Naval photo lab office and was later used to carry stones to build the Golden Gate Bridge before being converted into a houseboat with two studios. Tour takers can also step inside the "Fairy Tale," a 35-foot lifeboat built in 1944 — just two months before the D-Day invasion — that was turned into a houseboat in Alameda in 1968.
The "City of Seattle" ferry boat, dating back to 1888 when it first carried passengers across Puget Sound, will also be open to visitors. During World War II, the boat worked as a yard ferry for Mare Island Shipyard, supporting the war effort by carrying as many as 900 passengers on a six minute run between Mare Island and Vallejo.
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Today, the SS City of Seattle is one of the largest residences in the Sausalito floating home's community with spacious loft-like living spaces, gleaming hardwood floors and exposed beamed ceilings.