4th August, 2024
A couple who bought a “mouldy” narrowboat on Facebook Marketplace and renovated it into their dream tiny home say it saves them £ 10,000 a year on rent in London.
Nancy Kerina, 26, and her partner, Dale Rankmore, 32, reportedly met during a ski season in Andorra and started looking to live together when the trip got cut short due to the pandemic.
The outdoor-loving couple didn’t want to be “tied down” paying a mortgage and decided to instead invest in a narrowboat. They managed to find a 1970s narrowboat on Facebook Marketplace for £22k and spent around £10k renovating it themselves, MyLondon online magazine reports.
The report says the pair save £ 10k a year travelling around London’s waterways on their boat and love the “freedom”.
Nancy, a crew member at the Royal Albert Hall, originally from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, is quoted: “We have loved it. I don’t think I could imagine just buying a house. We’re so used to the freedom of being able to move if we don’t like somewhere. It’s benefited our relationship massively.”
The couple met in 2020 while on a ski season but were forced to head back to the UK when the pandemic hit. They lived in Nancy’s family home in Essex while they figured out what to do.
“We both had a similar mindset. We wanted to live in an abnormal way. We didn’t want to live with mortgages and get tied down,” MyLondon quotes Nancy.
The couple started researching tiny homes and Nancy’s stepdad told them about the narrowboat community. Nancy said: “I got obsessed with it straight away. It seemed perfect.” Dale, who works in stage management, originally from Cardiff, Wales, added: “It was such a good option. On the financial side of things – we couldn’t afford to get a house. It was a cheaper way of doing things.”
Nancy and Dale bought their boat in September 2020 in Bath, Somerset, and moved in. The pair ripped it out and started renovating it while moving it to London.
Dale said: “When we moved on it, it wasn’t in great condition. There was mould and a bit of damp. We took it apart to the steel. We were living on the boat with nothing but an airbed.”
The couple reportedly spent the last three years working and scraping together cash to renovate the boat – doing as much as they can themselves.
They estimate they have spent £10k renovating it, but they insist it’s ‘all been worth it’. Nancy and Dale pay just £100 per month for a cruiser license – meaning they have to move from their spot along the canal every two weeks.
They spend just £ 150 a month from November to March keeping their log burner going and spent £1k on solar panels to now get free electricity.
They say their friends living in London pay £1k in rent a month for a house share and say it is the “bane of their life”. Their total bills and licence cost just £ 1,950 a year – saving them £10,050 on London rent.
Nancy said: “London is an amazing place to be. We have stayed in some really nice high-end places for £ 100 a month. It’s totally different seeing it from the canal.”
They said the canals are busy and feel safe, and coupled with their low bills, it makes canal living all the more worthwhile.
The couple also bought a van from Facebook Marketplace in June 2023 for £4,500. The previous owner had already renovated it but the couple fitted it with a fan, solar panels and decorated it.
The story continues on MyLondon
