Lizzy Belle was first launched into the water off of Nova Scotia in 1967. Dave Welsford first found the boat in March 2010 from a family friend. By that time, Lizzy Belle lacked masts … and sails … and an engine. She didn’t even float. But Welsford restored the boat, and now is living on it, and it’s one of the coolest tiny homes we’ve seen.

“What’s more important than having a big house is having a space that makes me feel good,” he tells his friend, Kevin Fraser, in this short documentary, TWENTY EIGHT FEET: life on a little wooden boat.

Reader support helps sustain our work. Donate today to keep our climate news free. All donations DOUBLED!

“I always built treehouses and climbed trees and built forts,” he says, and “when I first walked into Lizzy Belle, I was like, this is the perfect fort.” We kinda think he and Ethan Schlossler should meet each other.

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.