I swapped London renting for a £21,000 narrowboat — it's a life of extreme highs and lows

Kyrie bought the narrowboat in 2022 (Picture: PA life)

Struggling to pay her £1,300 a month rent, the 33-year-old freelance writer from Middlesbrough used inheritance money to buy a £21,000 narrowboat — and set to work renovating the rundown ‘floating shed’.

Kyrie’s tenancy was about to end, and while she wanted to stay in the city, she found it difficult to find somewhere affordable that would also accept her dog, Snoop.

Having often dreamed of canal living, she took the plunge when her granddad passed away and left her some money, opting for the cheapest boat she could find on Facebook Marketplace

As it had no running water, toilet, or electricity, Kyrie had to shower at the gym, charge her phone at work, light a fire for warmth, and wear a head torch when it got dark.

Until recently, she also didn’t have a fridge, and lived off a lot of tinned food, warmed on a gas camping stove.

It’s taken a lot of work to make it more comfortable (Picture: PA life)

‘I would describe it as you get these extreme lows, but the highs are extreme as well,’ she says. ‘There’s a feeling of freedom and adrenaline I’ve never personally found anywhere else, and I absolutely love it.’

Kyrie has now spent roughly £12,000 on doing up the boat, getting solar panels connected to 12-volt batteries for electricity, a diesel heater for hot water and a cassette toilet she empties manually.

Although work on the kitchen and bathroom is still ongoing, she has also revamped the flooring, painted throughout, and added a fold-down sofa bed to make the space more comfortable.

And despite the fact it’s still ‘very, very basic’, Kyrie’s new floating home has allowed her to cut her spending on essentials to around £800 a month — which covers canal licence, insurance and food.

It’s been far from plain sailing though.

Just over a year after she first began cruising the capital’s canals, Kyrie felt she ‘needed something different’, so left her hospitality job and embarked on a 357-mile, seven-week journey from London to Leeds.

She planned to settle in Leeds and work on her music and writing, but shortly after she arrived, the boat’s engine blew up and it had to stay moored in a marina before being towed to a boatyard in Goole for repairs — forcing Kyrie and Snoop to remain in the East Yorkshire port town for the past six months.

To make matters worse, in January 2025, Kyrie accidentally knocked over a candle, sending the curtains up in flames.

‘Within 30 seconds, the whole side of my boat was on fire,’ she says. ‘I got the dog off and… I used the first extinguisher, the whole wall was engulfed at this stage.’

After using up two more fire extinguishers and numerous buckets of water, she managed to put the fire out. But while third of the boat was damaged, and the ceiling, woodwork and paintwork had to be replaced, the fire did not hit the electrics, and she didn’t lose anything valuable.

A fire in January caused severe damage (Picture: PA life)

Kyrie recalls: ‘I came out thanking my lucky stars… it messed me up for a little while – when I saw the flames on my stove my heart started to go.

‘I think it must be some kind of PTSD but over time, that’s worn away, and I’m alright again now, but I’ve just got a new mentality about candles.’

In spite of the challenges, Kyrie has no plans to go back to a traditional home any time soon.

Looking ahead, she hopes to continue living on the boat and exploring the UK for the foreseeable future, documenting her journey on social media as she goes.

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