Representative Image of a sunken pontoon boat transformed into a cozy houseboat, featuring solar panels and a small wood-burning fireplace (AI-generated image)
They bought an old 24-foot pontoon boat for $4,000 and set out to turn it into a houseboat they could share. Their original plan called for a build lasting three or four months and costing about $10,000. Instead, the project took 14 months and cost approximately $40,000, according to The Boston Globe. By July 2026, the finished houseboat had attracted substantial attention both online and from boaters near its mooring off the Massachusetts coast. What they had expected to be a relatively short project became a 14-month undertaking. The Boston Globe reported the total project cost at about $40,000 but did not specify whether that figure included the boat’s $4,000 purchase price. The finished houseboat has about 100 square feet of interior space, with furnishings and appliances arranged to make the most of the limited room.
A later sale or a change in the listing’s status has not been confirmed in the public reporting available for this article. A sunken boat might seem an unlikely place to start building a home, but that was the challenge Massachusetts friends Jake Doggett and James Little took on. Doggett recorded the work for his Salvage to Scenic audience, following the pair as they tackled the structural and practical problems involved in turning a damaged boat into a place to live. The build demanded resources beyond the pair’s initial budget. Family and friends contributed time and advice, while Doggett sold his truck and motorcycle to help finance the work. Its features include a shower, an oven, a sink, a refrigerator and a freezer. The seating area incorporates a table that lowers to form the base of a bed, allowing the same space to serve different purposes. Solar panels supply power to the boat’s electrical systems and appliances, and a small wood-burning fireplace is part of the interior. The project transformed a damaged pontoon boat into a compact floating home, but it also became a lengthy exercise in design, construction and problem-solving. Doggett and Little had set out to build something they could share for years. Along the way, their project developed an audience far beyond the friends and family who helped them bring it to the water.
The original pontoons could safely float about 5,000 pounds, while the proposed structure was expected to weigh roughly 9,000 pounds.
using the vessel as the base for a houseboat presented a different challenge: supporting the weight of a fully built interior Although the seller said the floats had been repaired. The friends responded by adding more pontoons, eventually expanding the flotation system beyond the original arrangement.
The boat had previously sunk after holes developed in its pontoons.