A man ditched his one-bed London flat to live "mortgage free" on a boat - after watching a TV show. <br /><br />Calum Henderson, 31, was splashing out almost £1.4k-a-month for a flat in Elephant and Castle, London when he watched Sarah Beeny's 'How to live mortgage free'. <br /><br />Inspired by the programme, Calum found a brokerage selling the shell of a narrowboat for £44k. <br /><br />He purchased the vessel in March 2019 and spent a year and £50k renovating it - spread over 12 months, using the £1.4k he saved monthly by not having to pay rent and an £8k loan.<br /><br />Calum transformed the boat - installing lithium batteries, underfloor heating, <br /> and additional installation.<br /><br />After living on it for eight months, he sold it for £125k and bought a bigger boat - a 62-foot wide beam shell - in 2021 for £64k. <br /><br />Calum spent eight months and £66k turning his new boat into a home - complete with a large kitchen and living room, a spare bedroom and an astroturf roof. <br /><br />The renovations inspired Calum to quit his job as a hairdresser and become a boat fitter. <br /><br />Calum, who lives on the London canal system with his dog, Bilston, a cockapoo, seven, said: "It is a passion I never knew I had.<br /><br />"When you have a boat there is always something to do, something to fix - it is like having a part-time job.<br /><br />"I love the building process, we enjoy building the boats on the water.<br /><br />"You can be in the thick of a building site and step outside and you're on the water in the middle of nature.<br /><br />"Whatever I am investing is in my own thing rather than spending rent away, it is giving me the freedom to design and build my place to how I want it to be.<br /><br />"I don't have to worry about big mortgage payments, it has made me more self efficient, I am more aware of how much your spending a month."<br /><br />Calum said he "fell" into off-grid living after watching 'How to live mortgage free with Sarah Beeny'.<br /><br />He said: "I was renting a one-bed flat in London at the time.<br /><br />"I have always been interested in property development and there was a boat on the show which got us thinking. <br /><br />"I was a trainee plumber at the time too and did some work on someone's narrowboat bathroom."<br /><br />Calum and his ex-girlfriend started looking at ready-to-live-in narrowboats but they decided there was not enough storage for them.<br /><br />They then found a shell of a boat up for sale for £44k. <br /><br />Calum said: "We found a brokerage that sells you just the shell of the boat.<br /><br />"I had £25k saved and my partner at the time took out a £20k loan from her parents.<br /><br />"We put a £1,000 deposit down and four months later it turned up on the back of a lorry."<br /><br />Calum and his ex-partner moved into the boat two weeks after they bought it.<br /><br />He said: "We moved in just with a mattress, flashlights and water.<br /><br />"Lived on it like that for a year whilst I built it up.<br /><br />"We would use the £1,400 a month we saved up on rent and spent £50k in total." <br /><br />Calum did all the renovation himself and lived on the boat for a year with his ex-partner before selling it.<br /><br />This time Calum wanted a bigger project and bought a 62-foot wide-beam boat shell in 2021.<br /><br />Calum spent six to eight months renovating the boat, adding solar panels, underfloor heating, a large kitchen diner, and a bathroom complete with a bath and shower.<br /><br />He paid for the new boat by using funds from his old narrowboat and using his monthly salary.<br /><br />Calum said: "This boat is like my old boat but on steroids.<br /><br />"We upgraded all the old systems, we added more storage and probably did a better job learning from past mistakes.<br /><br />"This project took around six to eight months, usually it would take me three months to build but I had some client projects on at the same time."<br /><br />On the back of his two successful narrowboats, Calum launched Boat Fit Co, and he builds and renovates homes for people living off-grid on the water.<br /><br />Since launching five years ago, he has built 10 narrowboats, consulted on six and part built a further 10.<br /><br />He said: "With narrowboats, it is slightly more unregulated than houses.<br /><br />"You have more control - you get to design and build it your own way.<br /><br />"You really need to consider the client lifestyle too - how much water are they going to need on board or how are they going to be using that space.<br /><br />"You need to design a boat that they can live off-grid to suit their lifestyle."
