Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Spiro & Brandon Jones.
Sarah and Brandon, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Brandon and I (Sarah) met a couple of years ago through work. Brandon manages Fontana Marina and oversees the harbor it serves, and I am a forestry technician with the National Park Service in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Fontana Lake borders the south side of the Smokies, so there are many areas of the backcountry that are readily accessible by boat only (unless you spend several days hiking in from the nearest road).
The park service keeps a handful of boats in slips at Brandon’s marina to access these areas. So after becoming familiar by crossing paths at the marina, we wound up going boating together with some other friends after work one day… and the rest is history! A year later, we found ourselves (along with our pup, Iko) moving onto a floating cabin in that same harbor we had our first date.
We had found a 225 sq. ft. build with 500 sq. ft. of dock space, and the floats were in good condition. We knew we could save money and live more simply in a tiny home, and finding a tiny home that floats sounded like a dream for us two nature-loving lake rats. Brandon knew the previous owner and was able to work out a private deal before it went to market. These floating cabins are grandfathered in – you can’t have any more on this lake! So they can be pretty difficult to get ahold of.
We lucked out, and immediately started renovations. The cabin was nowhere near move-in ready, as it lacked all basic amenities (heat, hot water, electricity, functioning water or septic, a shower, etc.). When we say it was a full renovation… we mean FULL. We took it all the way down to the studs, redesigned the interior layout, installed a solar system, plumbed and wired it up, and rebuilt it from the docks up! We worked on it together every day after work, and on the weekends.
We did all the work ourselves, with the exception of a couple of friends being nice enough to help out here and there. It was a difficult, but gratifying process, and of course saved us thousands of dollars of labor costs. Two and a half months later, we moved in! We’re coming up on 1 full year of living on the water. We later decided to start a YouTube channel about our life on the floating cabin, mainly upon many suggestions from friends, family, and random strangers!
“Keeping Afloat With The Jone’s” was born in January 2022, and has grown quickly and steadily ever since. It seems there are a lot of folks from all over the country & world who enjoy learning about how we live out here – mostly off the grid, full-time on a pristine mountain lake bordering a national park.
We love interacting with the many like-minded lake lovers, houseboaters, homesteaders, and nature-lovers that view our channel, and we plan to continue creating videos into the foreseeable future!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The renovation process certainly had its fair share of struggles, as we didn’t have electricity throughout the majority of it. We were limited to daylight hours, and keeping electric construction tools charged & functioning (using a generator) had its limits too.
Not to mention… building a solid (and at least somewhat square) structure on a floating, constantly moving dock was a trip. There’s no point in using a level, we just had to make 1000 little measurements across every piece of wood to try and line it up as square as possible.
Ideally, these floating cabins would be built new on land and then transported onto the lake. But since ours was an older build already floating, it would have been far more expensive and difficult to get it taken off and later put back on the lake than to renovate it in place. So we made it work!
Since living on it, the biggest struggle we have faced would have to be the wind this winter. We’ve had unprecedented winds (consistent 30mph most days, gusts up to 70mph!), and unfortunately have lost far too many things off of our docks as a result. We chronicle this in a somewhat humorous way in our YouTube videos, but it really is a struggle! We are sitting over about 80 feet of water, so everything that gets blown off is pretty much just lost for good.
We’ve lost our whole fire pit, many dog bowls, parts on our hot water heater, tools, plants, wind chimes, etc. Basically, if it’s not screwed down into the dock… there’s a good chance it’ll end up on the lake bed. Hopefully, that won’t continue to be the case as warmer fronts move in this spring/summer!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Brandon and I both have day jobs that we enjoy, which is an absolute blessing. Brandon manages Fontana Marina and oversees our harbor as the Harbormaster, and I am a seasonal forestry technician for the National Park Service in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
That being said, our YouTube channel is a true passion project and we have way too much fun with it. Creating fun and inspiring content is something that doesn’t feel like work, it feels more like a hobby! So it is super exciting to know that others enjoy our videos and draw inspiration from them.
I think that a lot of people, like us, are becoming more and more drawn to the pull of nature and simplicity… and away from the fast-paced rat race, as it were. Our aim is to share our unique & sustainable lifestyle off-the-grid & on the water with others in order to educate, inspire, and entertain!
We absolutely love connecting with the folks who watch our videos and share their own stories in response to ours, and in turn, we draw inspiration from them!
Subscribing to our YouTube channel is 100% free! Interacting with us in the comments & sharing with folks you know to help us grow our audience is the best way to contribute if you feel so led. We are always so grateful for each & every one of our viewers!!
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Brandon has lived on the water for many years, he actually spent most of his 20s traveling around and living on sailboats! Me, on the other hand.
Well, I think I could have counted the number of times I’d ever even been on a boat between my 2 hands. So while Brandon was an excellent teacher & guide of all things #BoatLife, I guess you could say moving onto the water full-time was a pretty big leap into the unknown for me!
I don’t feel like it was a risk in that there was something big at stake to lose, it was more of an exciting adventure that I just had no way of knowing the ending of. I still don’t! But I am learning, growing, and enjoying every bit of the process.
Contact Info:
- Email: floatingonfontana@gmail.com
- Instagram: @KeepingAfloatWithTheJoness
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/KeepingAfloatWithTheJoness
