My Floating Home

Mark Evans follows Heike and Torsten Birke on an adventure designing and building a novel floating home - from the factory in Havelberg to testing it out on the German waterways.

Londoners Lily and Natasha are in their mid-twenties and keen to get onto the property ladder. Currently renting a one-bed flat in east London, they have impulsively decided to buy a 35-year-old narrowboat at a knock-down price that needs considerable work. They are determined to save money and do all the work themselves, but it's a significant challenge as neither has any experience of fixing up - or living on - a boat, let alone any knowledge of plumbing, electrics, fabrication work or anything renovation-relevant.

Mark Evans meets people who aspire to live in dream aquatic homes. Karen and Tony Ainley are continuous cruisers, spending their time exploring the UK's 4,700 miles of canals and rivers, and have decided to go all in and commission a fully bespoke narrowboat, designed entirely to suit their lifestyle.

Mark Evans follows the exploits and journeys of people who aspire to live in dream aquatic homes. Here he meets retired engineer Tony Boynton and his stepson Graeme Stone, as they tackle the restoration of a 40-year-old narrowboat so that the latter can step away from the daily grind and find somewhere peaceful to call homewith his partner Emily. Bu the project presents all kinds of complications - not least the fact that the boat is moored in Lancashire, 130 miles away from their Scarborough home.