Two Massachusetts friends bought a sunken pontoon boat for $4,000 and spent 14 months turning it into a floating home now listed for $140,000

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. 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. 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. By July 2026, the finished houseboat had attracted substantial attention both online and from boaters near its mooring off the Massachusetts coast.A bigger build than the original boat could carryThe boat had previously sunk after holes developed in its pontoons. Although the seller said the floats had been repaired, using the vessel as the base for a houseboat presented a different challenge: supporting the weight of a fully built interior. The original pontoons could safely float about 5,000 pounds, while the proposed structure was expected to weigh roughly 9,000 pounds. The friends responded by adding more pontoons, eventually expanding the flotation system beyond the original arrangement. They also bought a trailer to support the boat during construction and invested in stainless-steel components intended to withstand salt water.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. 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.A compact home on the waterThe finished houseboat has about 100 square feet of interior space, with furnishings and appliances arranged to make the most of the limited room. 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 extra pontoons are a key part of the finished design. Rather than simply placing a living space on the original boat, the friends had to expand the flotation system to accommodate the weight of the completed structure. The houseboat is moored in the channel behind Crane Beach. In a report published in July 2026, The Boston Globe described it as a draw for boaters visiting the surrounding Essex Bay area.How Salvage to Scenic found its audienceDoggett had been making and documenting projects before the houseboat took shape. After converting an old truck into a camper, he filmed a six-month road trip around the United States and shared it through Salvage to Scenic. His work has focused on practical projects, repairs and the process of making something useful from salvaged materials. The houseboat gave that approach a larger project to follow. Its progress depended on solving a succession of problems, from the vessel’s carrying capacity to the details of fitting a functional living space into a small footprint. The online response grew alongside the build. In July 2026, The Boston Globe reported that Doggett had more than 1 million followers across social-media platforms. A 45-minute YouTube video documenting the project had reached 1.7 million views by the time of the report.The houseboat goes up for saleThe pair’s plans for sharing the boat changed when Little took a job in Florida. With the friends no longer able to use the houseboat together as they had intended, they decided to put it up for sale and divide the proceeds, according to The Boston Globe. As of July 2026, the Facebook Marketplace listing was asking $140,000. The newspaper reported that the listing had been removed because of suspicious activity and was back up when the story was published. It also reported interest from potential buyers, including a possible arrangement in which someone would buy Little’s share while Doggett remained involved.A later sale or a change in the listing’s status has not been confirmed in the public reporting available for this article. 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.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.