“Do people actuallly live in there?” guests ask me, then point to the houseboats across the street. “Or are those holiday homes?” Haha that’s pretty funny because many foreign tourists can’t imagine how beautiful it is to live on the water, and that those “vacation homes” are still quite expensive. Is a houseboat a structure? Water residents are not quick to be surprised by changes in definitions. At one time, arks and houseboats were covered by the “trailer law. For a long time, the residents were “between shore and ship”: their living quarters were neither trailer nor ship and there was nothing to check against regulations, technical requirements or welfare. Recently, water residents have been living on a “structure.