Nike and I are still exploring the area when weather permits. A couple of weeks ago we were at Willamette Park on the Willamette river just south of downtown Portland and saw a curious group of houses attached to a pier structure on the river. This past Saturday we drove up to Sauvie Island, which is adjacent to the Columbia River and saw many of these floating communities. The houses are actually floating on the river and they are attached to pilings so they can move up or down with the water level.
I talked to a homeowner on the Willamette floating community, and he explained that there are several different types of houses built on barges, big blocks of styrofoam, or some sort of concrete structure that also floats. Do they sway in the water when the waves are up - yes! The quality varies, but these are pretty nice houses - not houseboats.
I've lived most of my life in Tennessee and South Carolina, and I've never seen this type of housing. I'm curious as to why it seems very prevalent here (I'm guessing over a thousand houses) and not in the Southeast where I'm from.
Sauvie Island is a big farming area near Portland with lots of organic farms and farms where you can pick your own veggies or berries. Unfortunately, there wasn't much activity on our little day trip, which shouldn't have been a big suprise in February.
2 comments:
Uh-oh. If word gets out here about this possibility there will be a whole new meaning to "Vol Nation."
I went to school (back in the dark ages) with a girl who lived in a "houseboat" on the north bank of Tennessee River between the Market Street and Walnut Street bridges. It was truly a house -- just like you'd find on land! My mother insisted on referring to her as the girl who lived in a "boathouse"!
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