A spitz is in fact a perfect size and shape for a house:
Cargo place is about 30m x 5m = 150m² plus the shippers house of about 20m²,
Adding a terrace can give more than 200m² in total living area
The height is more than 2m
Walls are straight and floor is in one surface
The red bars at the top are enforcements to avoid that the ship lateral collapses (e.g. when carrying heavy metals). As a house-ship and with structural enforcements in the middle, these can be removed.
The floor can be single metal or double metal or metal with wood on top; in case of floor heating, please take into account the fact that metal & water steals heat very easily.
By visiting other boats, I had the impression that as soon you link the main living room (cargo place) with the former shippers house, you get in the diesel smell from the engine room below the shippers house. For that reason; I did not make any pass through between the shippers house and the cargo place.
We do have a spitz with has the driver cabin behind the shippershouse; this was an older principle than you find on most Spitz’es were the driver cabin in in front on the shippershouse;
Very interesting lecture is made by the student Waander Devillé, who has made a whole thesis on the architecture of ships of the Spitz type.
In Dutch, sorry:
Back to our ship now,
Seems the owners had a reference of an expert turning barge boats into houseboats, not far from where we live. We should contact that guy to see how he can help. Name of the company is “Renobato” (www.woonboot.be).
So when home, I wanted to put a plan on paper to ask for a quote to the expert. So made a number of drawings how I thought the boat should look like. Then made a word-file with all the drawings explained in text. As I’m project-manager in the professional live, I needed to clearly describe the Scope, Time and Cost for this project. This will avoid to have misunderstandings.
In the meanwhile, I contacted all instances to find out if I could find all permits to have this boat in place:
WENZ (Water- en Zeekanalen) was ok to grant me a place nearby our work. We could even choose the North instead of the South of the Canal because closer to work.
Electricity, could not do anything for us until we are there and got a real address
The city was ok to grant us an address once there.
Don’t buy a boat when not sure you can have a place to put it. You are able to reserve a place even before you actually buy the ship. Think in Belgium even 6 months in advance.