Meet Sarah Spiro

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah Spiro. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.

Sarah, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us today. We’re excited to dive into your story and your work, but first let’s start with a broader topic that might be stopping many of our readers from pursuing their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. How have you managed to persist despite haters and nay-sayers that inevitably follow folks who are doing something unique, special or off the beaten path?
Living full-time on an off-grid houseboat in the middle of the Great Smoky Mountains is a dream come true for my fiancé, Brandon, and I. But for many people, it probably sounds a little crazy. Now don’t get me wrong – we also get plenty of support from likeminded folks who see the value in living in so intimately intertwined with nature. We share our lifestyle on social media via our “Keeping Afloat With The Joneses” accounts, and as with anyone doing anything different (or really….anything at all) on social media, we do also get our fair share of “trolls” and people who just can’t imagine why we would want to live this way.

Beyond nameless keyboard cowboys, we also got some pushback from our loved ones when we first moved onto the water. My parents wanted to support me, or at the very least, allow me to make my own mistakes, but I could also tell that they thought this was likely to be a phase, at best. Or perhaps a mistake I would get a good life lesson out of. I’m not sure this lifestyle would be anyone in my family’s cup of tea, so you can imagine they weren’t 100% onboard (no pun intended) when it came to me diving in headfirst to life on the water with little to no true boating experience (other than riding around in Brandon’s old ski boat). And when I told them we had no phone service or wifi out there? Ooof. And I mean… I get it.

Nonetheless, we followed our hearts. MUCH easier said than done, no doubt. But being nature lovers who spent most of our time fishing, wakeboarding, or chasing sunsets on the water, the prospect of living full time in a place where all of our favorite activities could be done right off our front porch… Well, it felt like a no-brainer to us. There are no more liveaboard houseboats allowed on the lake we live on, and some folks might try their whole lives to get their hands on one of the existing ones that have been grandfathered in and allowed to remain on the lake. So when we had the opportunity to buy one from someone we knew, we didn’t even think twice about it. In fact, we bought it sight-unseen. Another red flag for my family, I’m sure. And the red flags didn’t stop there. Once we did see what we were getting into, we realized this was going to have to be a full tear-down project in order to make this place livable. There was no running water, no electricity, no shower, no heat, leaks and mold, uneven flooring, and the whole house was slanted – it sat higher in the front than the back. And to make matters worse, we had just sold the house we were living in beforehand to make this dream happen. We found ourselves effectively homeless, & with a massive renovation project on our hands in quite possibly THE most inconvenient place you could imagine renovating a home. Big yikes.

Long story short, somehow… we actually did it. We worked out butts off for 3 months while a very kind neighbor in the harbor let us stay in their houseboat before they arrived for the summer. We did all the work ourselves, and we brought our dream to life. We turned that dilapidated shack into a charming dream home on the water, all while on a major financial & time budget.

All this to say… while it was very understandable that folks may have had their doubts about us accomplishing this dream, we didn’t let anyone’s (admittedly valid) concerns or opinions stop us from at least trying. So now, when we get the internet trolls saying how dumb we are for living in such a “dangerous,” “inconvenient,” or “pointlessly difficult” way… all we can do is laugh. Getting to this point at all was, without overstating anything, a massive feat. We have learned and grown more– not only from this lifestyle, but also from the journey it took to get here, than we ever did living in a more traditional way. And that’s not at all a dis on traditional living situations. I just mean to say that, even though it may be difficult to understand for some people who are used to the straight & narrow, this unique adventure has brought us more out of life than we could have ever imagined. So although the “haters” have some valid points (it IS inconvenient, difficult, and in some ways dangerous), we know from our day to day real-life experience that none of those “cons” could hold a candle to the “pros” that we have gained.

If you spend too much time on the internet (something that we, like anyone, can still be guilty of sometimes too) you lose touch with what it’s like to center in on what it actually FEELS like to live the life you’re living. We get so caught up in how things LOOK to others on social media, that we forget to ask ourselves, “But how does this actually make me feel?” When I read negative comments, I just have to remind myself that the life I am living actively feels good. Actually, it feels great! Not every day, of course. But overall, I feel absolutely free out here. I am living within my means, saving money for hobbies and travel. I am living in sync with nature, and in a way that respects and preserves nature. I am living in a way that makes access to my favorite activities undeniably easy. I live with my best friend and the best dog in the world. I have a better view off my front porch than I could have ever dreamed up. SO much to be grateful for. So if someone wants to tell me they think it’s silly… that’s fine. It’s not for everyone. But it IS for me, and all I have to do is tune back into real life, in the present moment, to be reminded of that.

-Sarah

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
If you are interested in following along with our journey, you can find us on YouTube, Instagram, & TikTok. We are “Keeping Afloat With The Joneses,” and we like to share our home renovation projects, lake lifestyle, and the challenges & triumphs of off-grid living in a tiny floating home.

We also recently launched our first floating vacation rental house right here in our harbor. We are located on Lake Fontana in Fontana Dam, NC (an hour and a half west of Asheville). Feel free to look up our rental on Airbnb or head to any of our socials to find the link in our bio to book a getaway and experience this lifestyle for yourself!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The ability to dream big, the determination to stop dreaming and start doing, and the patience to keep at it even when it’s hard.

These are all things that my fiancé, Brandon, absolutely excels at. I have learned and grown so much from witnessing the way he lives and works. For that reason, I feel that if you can surround yourself with people, or even just 1 person, who can inspire you in these ways, you will grow much quicker than you ever could have by yourself.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
I would like to answer this one on behalf of Brandon. He always talks about how his parents gave him a particular gift, and I think it’s one of the best gifts a parent can give their children. They gave him the gift of freedom. They never tried to impress their own desires or preferences onto his life, they didn’t try to live out their dreams through him or hold his hand every step of the way. Even from a very young age, they respected his autonomy, personality, and desires. Not to say he got whatever he wanted, but rather, that he was always able to safely express himself and grow into whoever he wanted to be at various phases in life without fear of their judgment. This has created a confident, independent, risk-taking, hard-working adult whose dreams know no bounds. He is intelligent, he thinks outside the box, and he could care less what others think about him. People-pleasing isn’t an issue he has ever struggled with, because he was raised to do things that made him proud of himself, rather than for the sake of external validation. I don’t think we would have made the leap to live this beautifully crazy and unique lifestyle if Brandon wasn’t so confident that he’d be able to navigate the challenges as they arose. But he has. We have. And I do believe, in many ways, that wouldn’t have happened if his parents hadn’t given him that wonderful gift so many years ago.

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