In Beccles, Suffolk, Mark meets Simon and Mary who live on a barge with their son Nate and their cats. They are designing and building a new, one-of-a-kind floating home for themselves, a futuristic-looking floating pod.

Alan and Val have cashed in their savings, sold and downsized their home, and have entrusted a boat builder in Liverpool to make them their dream narrow boat floating home. But first, they need to learn how to live on the water.

Seasoned floating home couple Pat and Sue Willan plan to buy their very last boat and opt for a state-of-the-art, all-mod-cons Dutch barge. They have a budget of over £400,000 and plans for very contemporary kitchen fittings.

Keith has lived and worked in New Zealand for the past 25 years. He wants to return to the UK for part of the year and go touring the waterways. He's commissioning a brand-spanking-new semi-cruiser narrowboat complete with all the latest gadgets.

John has been living with his parents for several years while looking for his own home. His search has led him to floating homes on the Medway in Kent. With his dad, John tackles a cut-price riverboat restoration using various ingenious workarounds.

Londoners Lily and Natasha have impulsively decided to buy a narrowboat at a knock-down price that needs considerable work. They're determined to do all the work themselves, but neither of them has any experience of fixing up, or living on, a boat.