A couple reveals how they built a floating tiny house for $90,000 so they can live off-grid on a North Carolina lake with their dog – who has to row to shore to go to the toilet

This really is a house where you can let all your worries drift away.

A North Carolina couple has revealed how they built a tiny 300-square-foot floating house on the lake so they can live off-grid, with their monthly expenses now just over $1,000.

Sarah Spiro, 27, and Brandon Jones, 40, spent two months and $90,000 bringing their well-proportioned design to life in a video for YouTube channel Tiny House Giant Journeythey say they couldn't be happier.

Forestry Technician Sarah reveals her favorite part of their unique Lake Fontana lifestyle, saying in one clip, “The quiet, the peacefulness here. It's just our cup of tea all day long. We absolutely love the peace and quiet.

'We love having such easy access to the nature around us. You're really part of that nature and in sync with that, especially because you're off-grid here. It feels like we're really moving with those cycles and that's something that I think has dramatically improved our quality of life.”

During the YouTube video, the couple reveals how they built the foundation for their home from scratch on the shoreline and then worked around the clock to finish it on the water.

To keep the roost in place, four mooring lines run from each corner of the structure to the mainland.

The interior spaces include a living room, a kitchen, a master bedroom, a bathroom-cum-laundry room and a raised platform reached by a ladder that doubles as a guest bedroom.

Outside, the tiny house has 400 square feet of deck space where the couple can relax and where their little dog Iko can stretch his legs.

To save on construction costs, the couple did most of the work themselves and also purchased materials as cheaply as possible from sites such as Facebook Marketplace.

Sarah says one of her favorite items in their home is a copper sink, which came with all the fixtures for just $350.

Before building their current home, Sarah and Brandon built another smaller floating cabin on the lake.

They said they learned many skills from their first build that helped them the second time around.

They rented their first cabin through Airbnb for a short time before recently selling it.

Now their annual mooring fee is $5,000, which works out to $416 per month.

Their other monthly expenses include $20 for pumping out the septic tank, $45 for gas for the washing machine and the two dinghies, $110 for Starlink for their high-speed internet connection and $36 for a new propane cylinder.

Meanwhile, a solar panel system means there are no costs for electricity.

Overall, this amounts to $664 per month, with groceries and other expenses bringing the total to just over $1,000. During the summer months they can also save on food costs thanks to the abundant trout stock in the lake.

As for their day-to-day duties, Brandon works on the lake and manages Fontana Marina, while Sarah works seasonally for the National Park Service as a forestry technician.

Her commute involves taking one of their two dinghies to the coast, before driving about an hour in their car to her base.

To supplement their income, the duo has ventured into the world of social media and regularly posts videos on YouTube, where they have over 18,000 subscribers. Instagram where they have over 147,000 followers.

Although Sarah says she wouldn't change anything about their family life, she shares five small downsides to living on a lake in one of her Instagram posts.

First, she says that rowing the dog to shore to go to the toilet can sometimes be annoying, while in issue two she says that “dropping things in the lake” is a constant fear.

She says, “This is something we've gotten a lot better at over time, but I mean, it doesn't matter how careful you are, it just happens every now and then. [It] just comes with the territory [but] it kind of sucks.”

The third disadvantage of living on the water, according to Sarah, is that 'there is definitely more maintenance involved with a floating house than with a normal house'. [and] anything on the water will spoil more quickly.”

The fourth drawback Sarah mentions is the fact that there is no food delivery service available, while her final complaint is that they don't have a physical address so they have to have things delivered to the marina, which isn't always possible.

Looking ahead, the couple says they see themselves on the lake “in the near future,” but their long-term goal is to retire early and sail around the world for “a few decades” on an “epic adventure.”