For Lonnie Jones and Rita Schaefer Jones, living “the lake life” never really crossed their minds until April of 2015 when they bought their first 16-foot bass boat. This Nashville, Tenn., couple loves to fish, after all, and they had a bright and sunny spring full of time on the lake to get a feel for it.

Thus their conversion to living on the water began.

“We saw very quickly that the bass boat was just too small for us to maneuver in,” Rita says. “We found a 20-foot Parti Kraft pontoon boat and we were off to better fishing spots.”

It didn’t take long for the Joneses to realize they were spending all of their time out on the lake, and the only thing that could make it better was if they could stay the night on the water, too. By November that year, Lonnie and Rita had tracked down a used 36-foot 1976 Silver Queen houseboat to call their own.

“We did a makeover with new curtains, new upholstery, and fresh paint,” Rita says.

The Joneses loved staying aboard the Silver Queen for overnight trips—but again, that itch to stay on the water even longer settled in.

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