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The couple has already discovered a shared enthusiasm for unusual homes and big projects. In 1982, they rashly paid $8,000 for the bones of a rickety wooden tugboat. “The wood was so rotten, you could grab a handful of barricades with your bare hands,” Brand wrote in his book. How to learn buildings. The locomotive, its name MerinShe was built in 1912 in Coos Bay, Oregon, and after a long career hauling freight and pushing boats, she ended up docked on the Sausalito waterfront. Brand and Phelan heard about a local builder named Pete Ritondo, and rowed a canoe to his waterfront house to ask for help. Ritondo was not yet certified as an architect, but he led a crew that eventually rebuilt it Merin A wonderful treasure, with a polished wood interior and a versatile kitchen.
They moved into the locomotive, and in October 1983, they were married. the Merin It was a cheerful home. The dining table came from a nearby ship operated by Otis Redding; Legend has it that Redding wrote “(Sitting on) the Pier of the Bay” on this deck. The living section, towards the bow, contains spacious bookshelves, two comfortable leather chairs and a wood stove. Every New Year’s Day, Brand and Phelan would sail into San Francisco Bay and invite their neighbors to join. The waterfront was full of young couples like them. “There’s a lot of partying, people jumping out of their boats into the water, and a lot of nudity,” Phelan says.
There were drawbacks. A tugboat is a constant exercise in… maintenance. And patience. Their wood-paneled bedroom was in the pilot house, and they climbed an outside ladder to get to it. “After a decade or so, with everyone living on boats, what do they long for? Land,” says Phelan.
One day in 2005, Brand and Phelan were sailing Merin On the Petaluma River when they saw a beautiful property, a horse farm located next to a marsh. It appears to have been abandoned. “Stewart and I looked at this farm that looked abandoned, with this huge, huge hay barn falling through the roof. And we both said, ‘Gosh, if we’re going to buy property, this is the place we’re going to buy it, right here on the river.'”
