Floating Chapel Turned Luxury Condo Is the Ultimate “Tiny” Home on Water

This floating tiny home (though it’s not really “tiny”) promises to do all that while taking you on a water adventure. It is a floating luxury condo that was previously a wedding chapel on water. And it’s for sale.

This unique floating home has an equally fascinating story to tell. It starts back in 2004, when a Florida couple visited Australia and saw for the first time a floating wedding chapel. They got the idea to build their own, so they commissioned a naval yard (Daniel J. Avoures and Associates) to make them a fiberglass-hull, 60-foot (18.2-meter) catamaran on which they plopped an actual blue-roofed chapel.

This came to be known as Chapel on the Bay, believed to be one of the two vessels of this type in the world. It became famous, and for all the right reasons: with accommodation capacity of 110+ people, it came with hand-carved pews, altar, stained windows and even a bride’s changing room. It was the perfect wedding venue for the unconventional couple, who could opt either to have the ceremony docked or while casually exploring the waters at a cruising speed of 6 knots.

The floating chapel was – and remains to this day – completely self-propelled. It has twin 115 hp Diamond Series Cummins diesels that take it to speeds of up to 9 knots, which, granted, is not incredibly fast but it’s just perfect for the purpose it was built for. The catamaran hull gives it more stability than a typical barge would, and it uses a pair of electric winches power steel beams for anchor. These allow it to moor in shallow water and offer steadiness in bad weather.

Another plus is that the catamaran hull allows for docking directly on the dock, which means guests don’t have to use a dinghy to get onboard.

In 2013, the couple listed the chapel for sale, as the wedding-on-water business took a dive. Two years later, Sam Cribbs and wife Linda bought it and decided to convert it into a luxury condo – a waterfront condo, as it was now docked on Manatee River in Palmetto, Florida. Reports say the conversion set them back some $1.3 million and involved stripping off the old interior completely and building a two-bedroom, two-bath floating home.

On the 1,800 square feet (167 square meters) of the catamaran, the house offers 1,050 square feet (98.4 square meters) of living space.

From the chapel, the Cribbs kept the stained glass, the now-instantly recognizable blue roof with the spire, the wooden front door and the original flooring. Then, they added a generous open-plan living with kitchen with granite countertops, leather furniture and access to a patio with seating and barbecue grill. Also on the ground level is the master bedroom with ensuite and another guest bathroom.

Upstairs is another bedroom with sleeping for two and a sofa. In total, the floating home can sleep and accommodate four people in the utmost comfort. It comes with AC and extra fans, antenna satellite, WiFi and an 8-kilowatt generator to run the appliances off on when on water.

For a while, the floating house was offered for rent on Airbnb for $250 a night, but guests didn’t have the option to take it out. It’s currently listed with Special Finds (it’s been offered for sale before), with an asking price of $399,000 – and the new owner will be able to do as they please with it.

As per the listing, it would make for an excellent floating tiny home: you could live at the marina for as little as $900 a month and have complete freedom of moving around with your home. It sells with everything you see in the photos in the gallery above, from flat-screen TV to fully stocked kitchen and the furniture.