This is

99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

When you own a home, water is your greatest enemy.

So much work is put into keeping water from coming in,

and so much engineering is built into getting whatever water that inevitably seeps in

back out again before it pools and causes rod. This is one of the reasons why

I am so fascinated by the houseboats of Sausalito, California, which seem to tempt fate with their very existence.

The floating homes that fill up and spill out past the docks of this Marin County town

started appearing at the turn of the 20th century.

But it was during World War II when tens of thousands of people flooded into the area to work

in the shipyards that the real housing boom along the saucile waterfront began.

Housing was scarce and workers made homes out of old boats and any other materials they could

scrounge.

Today there's a wide variety of houseboats dotted along the bay.

Some are real boats that could unmore and sail across the sea. But many have no means of locomotion at all and are just

houses on floating pallets. Some are multi-story opulent weekend retreats and

some look decidedly original recipe like they were indeed made

out of Driftwood during World War II.

When the staff came to the Bay Area for our most recent retreat, I took the team

kayaking on the bay near the houseboats. It is so peaceful it is one of my

favorite activities. If you enjoy walking around your neighborhood and

wondering about the lives of the people inside, kayaking near houseboats, is

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