>> MAT: Hey everyone in this video we're gonna take a look at this extremely minimalist
floating micro cabin. It was all built with locally milled timber it has a
metal sloping roof and it was also built on pontoons that allow the cabin to be
in the water year-round because they're designed to freeze into the ice.
The floating cabin was designed by our friend Bonnie and the idea behind this
was to create a really simple space where people could come and enjoy nature
and the water and experience spending time in a space with just the basic
necessities. And so she calls it The River Zen. We actually met Bonnie two
years ago when she gave us a tour of her incredible houseboat and now she's just
finished working on this project and she's going to show us around.
[Inspiring Music Playing]
So welcome to The River Zen, this is my new boat.
[Taps Gong]
Come on in.
This boat is a lot smaller than The River Den, those of you know The
River Den. It's a 8' by 10' cabin. This is it, what you see is what you get!
So it's a small space it's really designed for for someone who wants to be on retreat
or just spend the night here. It's fully insulated, it has four four inches of
foam insulation on the floor, and the roof, and all the walls. The framing is
done in a post and beam structure and all the framing and the rafters are
cedar, rough cedar, and the trim is douglas fir, the floor is cherry, and all
the wall is pine tongue and groove with a special oil that I used for
finishing, it has citrus in it, it's a natural oil and so that was really...
it smelled really good. And all these shelves are live-edge cedar as well.
The wood all came from the sawmill up in Lac Ste. Marie where I work, yeah so
these are 2 inch cedar rafters and they were...it was like a curved tree that was
milled, and an amazing builder helped me put the structure of this
together and then I did a lot of the finishing work with my friends.
[Ambient water sounds from the river]
When I was designing the layout of the furniture, it was a...
kind of a bit of a puzzle to figure out how we were gonna make a bed that was
gonna be like retractable and all these special features. When I closed my eyes
and imagined the perfect space there was nothing in it, so I was like
Okay well this is my project and I can do whatever I want so I decided to make it
a minimalist space and have the least amount of stuff possible. And it's also
an experience for someone to go stay somewhere where there's not a bunch
of stuff I think people are seeking that out more and more and they want to live
more simply so this is an opportunity this is a place where they can have a
little taste of that and see what they really need actually. So there's a few
shelves pretty much there's not much in here there's a few towels and blankets.
This is a propane heater so it's a direct vent propane furnace and it's
super easy to light, I have two propane tanks on the back with a double
regulator so when one tank runs out it just switches to the other tank
I have a special little table feature here that I custom-built.
The people I was working with on the boat they really wanted to have a table
and chairs and I was like, no I want to sit on the ground, we need to sit on
the ground. So this is the little table design for that. The leg comes out and
then it just hooks up.
So during the daytime there can be these... these are Thai yoga massage mats.
They're really comfy. So these mats can be out and then at nighttime the table can go up
and the mattress is just bungee strapped to the wall and it comes down.
The bed is just like with a bungee system so there's just screws and hooks
with two bungees and then it's just... it's just a four inch foam so it's
really...it's really comfy. It's a dense foam. I've slept in here lots
and I find it so comfortable.
[Ambient Electronic Music Playing]
It's completely off grid, there's no electricity or solar
there's this like little solar lights, there's a little gas stove to cook
outside with a butane fuel. There's just battery-operated lights and
some solar lights but that's about it there's there's no running water either
it's completely off grid. So it is quite a challenge to stay here for a couple
days like one night it's pretty cool, you know people go to restaurants, but if you
stay here a couple days you really get a taste of what it's like to live
without power and all these amenities that we're used to.
Here we just have a custom shelf and this is a little kind of pirate chest
custom thing that I made. This is my first box.
So in here there's utensils and this is the little gas stove.
It's not the best setup to have dishes outside because there's animals and stuff
but for now, it is what it is, and it might be that I build something inside
to store dishes and have a little cooking station for the winter.
This is the bathroom, the way we're using this sawdust
composting system is that there's one bucket for liquids, so pee in one bucket
and one bucket for solids with a bag and sawdust. So poo and toilet paper goes in
the bag with sawdust and that's composted and then the pee we bring it
and we flush it down the toilet. Something I haven't finished yet
is putting a canvas over here so that's like a curtain so it deflects the wind
and the rain and the snow in the winter.
Inside of the cabin is 8' by 10'
and then there's 6' of deck that's covered by the roof and then there's
2.5' on each side to walk around which the overhang pretty much protects.
This is an extra floating dock that I've tied on to the front it's just
uh it's just an extra deck space and it'll stay here all winter long, too.
It's a real dream come true to be able to do this.
I feel so lucky to be in a position where I can conceive an idea,
and then work with people to bring it to life,
and then offer it for rent and invite people to stay here.
It's such an amazing feeling...yeah I feel really lucky.
[Music Playing]
>>MAT: I hope you enjoyed this video. If you want to check out this boat we'll put a link
to it in the description of the video. If you want to see more alternative living
stories and spaces, subscribe to our channel, we post a new video
every single week. Thanks for watching, see you next time.