Architect Builds $3 Million Shipwreck House Overlooking Folsom Lake

NEWCASTLE (CBS13) — Above Folsom Lake, there's a new ship in town, a labor of love taking years to build and it's finally on the market.

Yes, it's a home transformed into a vessel, and it defines a nautical oasis crashed on shore.

"They considered it unbuildable because there are no leech lines, nobody would ever buy it, so I thought I'll figure it out," said architect Martin Tarafdar.

He purchased the property knowing he'd have to hoist the home in order to build sewer lines underneath, "but what would fit?" he thought.

"It was a solution to the problem and in this case it was a septic problem and look what happened you know," he laughed looking around.

It came to him: shipwrecked on shore.

"I went and sketched it within 15 minutes, it doesn't look any different now than it did when I sketched it out," he said.

Martin took on a concept and brought it to life using the sun as an axis to build, every inch of the roof mathematically engineered.

"No sun comes in during the summertime and during the winter time it comes in deep and warms the space up," he pointed out.

Inside, the floors are ocean blue, each ceiling high window captures a breeze and opens onto a deck with an infinity pool.

The roof is suspended by cables, the entire exterior fire-wise. And hovering above is the second floor.

"This would be two bedrooms up here," he showed off.

Building it became an obsession, which took on a life of its own.

"I did all of the aluminum cutting and welding," he said and it took forever to complete. "Almost 10 years."

He says it was worth it, but now he's ready to hand over the helm.

"If you ask me again, no I won't, no I won't do it again," he said.

From the high beams to the flooded floors, Martin hopes someone will come aboard permanently into this shipwrecked home.

If you're looking to buy it you can check out the website.

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