Hoping that this finds you all well. I wanted to reflect on one of the cool things that happened for me while living afloat on Lake Union. The below was originally published in 2018 after CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich came to tour our Seattle’s floating home neighborhood. The television piece aired nationally on Christmas Eve and many people saw it while waiting for their flights at the airport. I am still friends with Vanessa to this day.
Courtney Cooper Neese and Vanessa Yurkevich on camera for the CNN special that aired Christmas Eve 2018.
Seattle Floating Homes - It Comes Down To The Love Of Water
The last two days have been spent well out of my comfort zone being interviewed and filmed by a crew from CNN. Anyone who knows me knows how very out of character that is for me. I say no to every filming request that we get from shows like Househunters, Tiny Houses, etc. We greatly respect the privacy of the Seattle Houseboats community and want to protect this coveted lifestyle. I was happy to step out of my personal norm and do this because I wanted to show off our floating homes community and our beautiful city on a grander scale. We are fresh off of the 2018 Seattle Floating Homes tour and I have an ever growing love for this historic neighborhood in which I call home.
When I got the call to talk about Seattle floating homes by an extremely respected network, I agreed. We planned a modest boat ride around the lake so that I could show off the various floating home communities that make up our overall houseboat neighborhood. As luck would have it, my Duffy electric boat decided to be moody the day before they were set to visit, so I called upon one of my friends at the time who didn't hesitate to come to my rescue and his beautiful boat is so much better! He dropped his entire day and toured the film crew around in style around the lake while I was interviewed on the bow of his boat like I was cruising the riviera.
As I was interviewed about the various aspects of our community and what it was like to live on a floating home, I was reminded of why I live on one. It's all about the water for me. I love the reflections of it on my ceiling and the sound of it as the waves come in and are dispersed gently over the logs that make up my float pack. I love the rain pouring on the roof and lake around me. It was fun to see how excited the camera crew got about the littlest things around our homes. The gardens on the docks and other creative artwork here and there added such vibrancy to the story they were trying to tell. Such an outstanding community of neighbors that care about each other and all share the common bond of loving the water.
As newer folks move in and others move off the dock, the character and mood changes at times, but overall the spirit stays the same. I was asked a lot about gentrification of the neighborhood and how that had affected the docks, but it all keeps going back to the common bond that we all share - old or young, rich or poor. We all love the water. It was such a pleasure to show off our incredible neighborhood! I got to tour them through our listings, too! Here is the finished piece:
Vanessa giving me a little pep talk, although once you get me going it is difficult to stop me because I do love my neighborhood. I think she is still secretly dreaming of living here.
