VERO BEACH — Orval Shelton really loved his houseboat. He loved it so much that the lifelong building contractor refused to give up living in it.
After winning a 1969 court battle with the City of Vero Beach over the right to live aboard the two-story, cedar-roofed houseboat at Vero Beach Yacht Club docks – now the city marina – Shelton memorialized the victory by constructing his 3,000 square-foot Vero Isles home around it, on a waterfront lot where the vessel would feel at home.
“He dug a big hole and took a crane and dropped the boat in,” said attorney and Vero Isles resident Louis B. “Buck” Vocelle, one of the partners in Indian River Real Estate LLC, which purchased the property in 2014.
The slightly eccentric contractor had passed away and his daughter was living in the home.
“It just seemed like a unique opportunity.”
But Vocelle’s partners in the deal – attorneys Charles Sullivan Sr. and Bobby Guttridge, plus a silent partner – couldn’t quite agree on what to do with Shelton’s one-of-a-kind creation.
“I wanted to tear it down from the moment we bought it, but some of the other partners didn’t,” Vocelle said. So they tried to sell it as-is, with sagging floors, creaks and groans and a basement that went into the dark underworld of the houseboat’s hull.
Broker Bill Mills showed it more than 60 times, trying to find a buyer who would appreciate the eccentricity of having a houseboat galley kitchen and only a narrow, metal spiral staircase leading to the upper deck of the home.
“Things would be going okay, but then it would come down to that point when I had to disclose that there was a boat inside this house,” Mills said. “The problem is that you couldn’t figure out how to remodel it because if you tore into that kitchen, with the boat there, who knows what you’d find?”
It seemed inevitable that the big pink house at 10 Sea Gull Ave. would meet its date with the wrecking ball.
That happened last week, as curious neighbors cruised by, wondering if the place had been sold, or what was going on. They’re looking forward to some new neighbors building a luxury waterfront home on the lot that would enhance their own property values.
The lot is the only vacant, buildable land for sale in the Vero Isles area right now, Mills said, and at $550,000, he said it would be a good value for an avid boater.
The property has 101 feet of frontage on a deep-water canal and has dock space for up to four large boats, or even a yacht plus a couple of fishing boats.
Two vacant, wooded lots that are not for sale sit adjacent to the property.
Those lots are owned by Sullivan, who uses them to moor his 63-foot Hatteras.
According to Vocelle, Sullivan has no intention of building on them or selling them anytime soon.
Across the canal is the colorful village atmosphere of Royal Palm Pointe’s restaurants and professional offices.
“This would be a million-dollar lot in Fort Lauderdale,” Mills said.
It took a full day for the frame house to come down, but there were some fascinating revelations as the demolition crew peeled back the walls of the house and tore down the boat.
“The houseboat ran east to west – I thought it ran north to south,” Vocelle said. “And it was a wooden hull, I was surprised that it was a wooden hull and not a steel hull.”
Mills said the project unearthed something staggering beneath the hull – the factor that might account for the structure holding up the 47 years that it did.
“He had actually dug out the hole and built up walls of concrete in the shape of the hull, so when he lowered the hull down, it had concrete walls and floor,” Mills said.