A retired couple moves into a 82-feet floating house in the middle of a swamp: “They told me I was crazy”

Valdemar Negreiro, now 80 years old, is a true inspiration to anyone determined to make their dreams come true, no matter how ambitious they may seem. When he was just 10 years old, Negreiro dreamed of living on a boat and sailing the Juruá River, which flows through parts of Peru and Brazil. After his retirement in mid-2019, that childhood dream began to become a reality.

Built entirely of wood, the houseboat that Negreiro created with his wife now sits on Lago Verde, a lake that took on its current form thanks to his hard work. When construction first began, the site was little more than a swamp and a dumping ground. With the support of their entire family, Negreiro and his wife, Lucimar Gomes, cleared away all the rubbish and transformed the area into a suitable home.

The houseboat, also designed by Negreiro, measures 82 feet long and 16 feet wide. Like a conventional home, it features a bathroom, two bedrooms, a kitchen and leisure areas, and it can accommodate more than 40 people, as demonstrated when 40 university students visited to study its structure. “While I was building it, people told me I was crazy,” he says, “but when it was finished, people came wanting to buy it.”

Despite what its size might suggest, Negreiro’s floating home has no motor and does not sail on the river. Its purpose is simply to serve as a floating residence on the lake. To ensure the house was stable and secure, Negreiro focused all his effort on designing the lower portion of his dream home.

“I built it because my family always travelled by boat, selling our products,” he explains. His life on the water does not end with this house; to continue sailing, a small six-person boat is moored nearby, which they use to explore the Moa River on the border between Brazil and Peru.

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On that river, Negreiro used to distribute refreshing drinks to local communities and schools and take tourists on excursions. “I have stopped travelling long distances,” he says, “but I still keep this boat for trips, to go up into the hills, and for fishing.”

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