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The two had already found a common passion for exotic homes and great projects. In 1982, they hurriedly paid $8,000 for the skeleton of a damaged wooden freighter. “The wood was so rotten, you could hold a handful of squares in your hands,” Brand said How Architecture Learns. A tug boat, called MirenaIt was built in 1912 in Coos Bay, Oregon, and after a long haul of cargo and pushboats around, it landed on the shores of Sausalito. Brand and Phelan hear about a home builder named Pete Retondo and row a boat to his beach house to ask for help. Retondo had not yet been approved as an architect, but he led the team that eventually rebuilt it. Mirena in a precious room, with varnished wood and a portable kitchen.
They boarded the yacht, and in October 1983, they got married. The Mirena it was a happy house. The dining table came from a nearby ship owned by Otis Redding; Legend has it that Redding wrote “(Sittin’ on) Dock of the Bay” on the spot. At the front there are lots of shelves, two leather chairs and a wood burning stove. Every New Year’s Day, Brand and Phelan took a walk on the San Francisco Bay and invited their neighbors to join them. There were young couples like them on the beach. “A lot of parties, people jumping off their boats in the water, a lot of nudity,” says Phelan.
There were obstacles. A tug boat is a work in progress in … maintenance. It’s patience. Their wooden cabin was in the pilothouse, and they climbed an outside ladder to get there. Phelan says: “After a decade or so, almost everyone who lives on houseboats, what do they want?
One day in 2005, Brand and Phelan were on the beach Mirena on the Petaluma River when he saw a beautiful place, a horse feed just past the swamp. It seemed abandoned. “Stewart and I looked at this ugly-looking farmhouse, with a big, big haystack falling off the roof.” And we all said, ‘Gosh, if we were going to buy land, this is where we would buy it, right here on the river.'”
