- I am soaking wet.
Hi, I'm Garrett.
- And I'm Niki.
- We're fascinated by how other people live.
- So we're gonna try to find some really interesting
living situations.
- [Garrett] And live there, see what it's like to have a
totally different lifestyle.
- [Niki] And see which ones bring us closer together.
- [Garrett] And push us further apart.
- This week we live in a houseboat.
- [Garrett] I thought we were gonna be drifting
a little bit closer.
- [Niki] Yeah, you didn't paddle.
- [Garrett] I wasn't paddling very hard.
(upbeat music)
- Hello.
- I'm Garrett.
- And I'm Niki, nice to meet you.
- Come on.
My name is Lisa and I have lived on the Coop De Villa
for almost nine years.
It's the best move I've ever made in my life.
- Thank you.
- There's one of the cats.
- [Niki] Cat.
- That's Wally, she's the friendly one.
- This houseboat has two cats and I'm allergic to cats.
- Cats on a boat, that's pretty funny.
- I've never been on a houseboat.
I think I've seen houseboats before.
- It's a house on water or it's a boat you can live on?
- I guess I was on a cruise ship, is that a houseboat?
- All these people that live on boats here,
this is considered the lobby.
Everybody stops by here, so if you're sitting out here
enjoying yourselves.
- [Garrett] Somebody else may stop by?
- [Lisa] Yeah, they all stop by.
- So my checklist for living in the houseboat is
can I survive with cats?
Is there a kitchen that's big enough that I feel like
I could live here?
Is there a Garrett-sized shower?
- This is the living room.
You can see there's lots of room in here.
- [Nike] Yeah, this is awesome.
- [Lisa] A full-sized kitchen.
- My checklist for living in this houseboat is
that one, Garrett and I have enough space to share.
Two, that I have some of those private spaces
where I can either close a door or be in a different room.
Three, I live living in quiet places.
I don't like living near busy roads or highways
and I don't know what it's gonna be like on a marina.
- A houseboat isn't really like living on a boat.
It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms.
It has a washer/dryer.
I've got a full-sized kitchen with full-sized refrigerator
and electric stove, pretty much everything you could need.
You go here and go down to the right.
- [Niki] Oh?
- [Garrett] Is there a downstairs?
- [Lisa] Yeah, this is the bedroom that people
usually stay in, down there.
- [Garrett] Oh wow.
- [Niki] There?
- [Garrett] Oh my goodness.
- [Lisa] Yeah, so it's pretty comfy.
- [Garrett] It actually looks really cool and oh wow.
Look at that, you're like right at eye level
with the water.
- That's cool.
- Yeah, this is like a little hideaway.
- Wow, boats.
- The challenges are probably storage.
The biggest surprise is how little I could make do with.
I moved from a 5,000 square foot house and put everything
into a U-Haul with my two cats and drove out here.
This is where I love to sit in the evening.
The sun sets right over there, it's beautiful.
- [Garrett] Oh my gosh, look at your view.
- Well, dumb question.
Does it rock?
- This is ... no.
I mean, this is so wide and the bottom is flat.
It doesn't rock much at all.
- [Niki] This is awesome.
- Lisa, we're not just saying that because the cameras
are rolling, this is like--
- [Lisa] I knew you guys were gonna like it.
- Niki and I are friends now.
We're definitely work friends.
In the meantime, Niki got married, which I'm very happy
for her.
- He did not come to the wedding
even though he was all ...
- So nice to finally meet you guys, come to your wedding.
- He did get us a gift which was very nice.
He didn't have to do that.
Here we go.
I'm very excited about this.
- Home buddies, sweet home buddies.
- So Garrett and I have lived together on two occasions now,
this will be our third time living together.
- To keep building this relationship, I think we need
to figure out how to move past work friends
into like friends-friends.
- [Niki] I'm gonna go in here because I think
this is the easiest.
- Which means I go down below.
I hope there are no kitty cats.
- Are you allergic to cats?
- Yeah.
- Uh oh.
- My goal for the houseboat is to see if we can
make plans to hang out outside of work
because I think that will be the actual difference
between work friends and real friends.
- This is so cozy.
- Niki?
- [Niki] What?
- You need any baskets?
I have extras.
- [Niki] You have baskets, what kind of baskets?
- Extra baskets.
Get off of my bed.
- No.
- [Garrett] I fit perfect, look.
- I also fit perfect.
- Look at you.
You're actually adorable.
- I'm an introvert, Garrett is not.
My goal is to find some alone time.
That's not to be antisocial.
That's not because I don't like Garrett.
For me to be a sane and caring human being,
I need some time alone.
Look at all this space.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- To our houseboat.
- Houseboat.
- You actually drank alcohol.
- I've tasted it before, I'm not gonna drink that.
- But doesn't it taste better on a boat?
- Sure.
- Today was day one on the houseboat.
I expected the houseboat to be so much smaller than it is.
- It totally feels like we're living in a normal apartment
but we're on the water.
- We're a lot closer to the neighbors than I thought.
- Hello.
- Good. - How are you?
- Sound travels so much freer.
(dog barks)
What is that?
- Garrett and I have our own rooms, which I think is
really gonna help this experience.
I have my own space and I can close the door.
- Lisa was telling us about all these different kinds
of activities.
I think we're gonna go sailing tomorrow.
That's gonna be unbelievable.
- I feel like, for the first time, Garrett and I don't
have to be thinking so hard about where we're living
and I think that will allow for our relationship to grow
in a way that it hasn't been able to in the past.
- My nose is getting congested because of these cats.
Good night, Niki.
You look very cozy.
- I am.
- Okay, lights out, young lady.
- [Niki] Okay, good night.
- Good morning.
It's actually a really beautiful morning.
Oh, look, another one.
There are basically two times when being 6'7" sucks.
One is on airplanes.
Two is anytime you have to shower.
The boat actually has two showers, but they're used
for storage so we have to go use the showers in the marina.
I'm in the shower, kind of.
Hey Niki, you want coffee?
Okay, it's brewing.
- Thank you.
- [Garrett] Good morning, happy Friday.
- [Niki] What are you doing?
- Shaving, Niki.
It's a natural part of a boy's body.
By the way, the little hairs go into the ocean.
Same reason why I'm cutting my fingernails here.
- [Niki] Are you serious?
- Yeah.
- That way you don't have to worry about--
- Eww. - Them flying everywhere.
- This is really gross.
- It's not that gross.
A lot of people with dogs walking by and looking at me
like I'm kind of a weirdo.
But that's boat living.
- Lisa's neighbors usually join her for breakfast
in her lobby area.
So a few of them are joining us for coffee this morning
and then her friend her friend Chuck
is gonna take us out sailing.
What are you doing, Garrett?
- Making you eggs before we go sailing.
- [Niki] Yay, thank you.
- You're welcome.
- I'll get us by this barge and then I'm gonna turn
this over to you, okay?
Steering is on of the things I can teach you the fastest.
(soft music)
- [Niki] Sailing was so amazing and Chuck let us steer
for a little while.
- [Garrett] Blown away with how good Niki was at sailing.
She was doing these complicated steering maneuvers
while he was tacking the sails back and forth.
It was really amazing to behold and we did it
for three hours.
- After sailing, Garrett and I went kayaking
for a little while.
Stroke!
After that whole day on the water, I was pretty ready
to find some alone time.
- The thing about living in a houseboat is that everything
is wet, these shorts are wet.
The shorts I'm wearing now are wet.
This shirt is wet.
- I found the perfect spot here on this houseboat.
I'm on the top deck hammock chair with a great view.
- Niki, I noticed went upstairs to read alone.
- Garrett came up to join me and it was one of those things
where like when your new friends and there's nothing
to talk about and silence can be kind of awkward.
It was totally fine and I didn't feel awkward at all.
I didn't feel like I needed to fill that space.
- Being near each other but not really interacting,
just sort of knowing the other person was there.
If either of us needed anything, we were there
for each other.
- I think that was a really interesting step
in our relationship.
- Niki and I are about to go to dinner.
We had a pretty incredible day.
I think if I said, "Hey would you want to hang outside
of work?"
She'd say yes.
So at dinner tonight, I think I'm gonna try
to achieve my goal.
So we just finished dinner but the place was very loud
so there was never really a time for me to ask
so I didn't.
I thought I was going to.
We're only in this houseboat for another 12 hours
so hopefully, tomorrow morning I will ask her.
I don't know, we'll see.
- This time has flown by because we've had so much fun
and I really enjoyed being here.
It's kind of sad that we're leaving tomorrow.
This is the third time Niki and I have lived together.
What happens so far, every time, is that sometime
on the second night, she and I start talking about
really real shit.
It's really wonderful.
- It was like the first time that Garrett and I
were really alone.
He was telling me about this job that he used to have.
He asked about the wedding.
It was like, for a moment there, felt like old friends
catching up.
- Wow, of course, it is a gorgeous freaking morning.
(cat meows)
This thing has been making noise at me all morning.
- [Niki] Good morning.
- Good morning.
- [Niki] Good morning, Lolly.
- I think, at some point in my life,
I actually could live here.
- Being on the water is something that is actually
really fun, I really enjoy it.
- This part of the country is gorgeous.
Look at this.
Waking up to this every morning?
That's unbelievable.
Hey Nik, do you want to get brunch next week?
- Yeah.
- [Garrett] Like on Saturday?
- Yeah, okay.
After living on this houseboat with Garrett,
it is definitely a place that has brought us
closer together.
We had enough time to be in our own spaces
and our own rooms but also we did so many fun activities
together, we went sailing, we went kayaking.
We had great space to just sit and enjoy coffee together.
- Now we're starting from like friends,
becoming a better and better friend
actually takes a lot of intimate work and I'm excited
to go to brunch.
- Or maybe when we're both 80, we'll be houseboat neighbors.
- Bye houseboat.
- [Niki] Bye houseboat.
- It's brunch.
We did it, we're getting quick brunch but still counts.
Happy Saturday, Niki.
(upbeat music)