In response to owners reply. Yes he is correct. It is sitting in his marina. And yes they did fix the code violations. I had every intention of adding an addendum to this review when this nightmare was finally over. It would have been a bit different than what I am now going to report after seeing the owners incorrect statements. Yes I did purchase an UNUSED one year and one month old tiny XL. NO they never explained anything about how the boat was to be shipped. Actually except for the letter from the owner stating he would be "remiss" if he didn't tell me the houseboat was not designed for the Mississippi, at the eleventh hour, I had NO communication with the owner. NOTHING was ever explained. Trying to communicate with the owner or the son was next to impossible. I spoke to the son exactly twice. My first call to Harbor Cottage was answered by the owners son who said after I stated I was interested in their tiny houseboat "How did you get this number". The second time was when I reached him accidentally in total frustration because mysteriously the broker couldn't get the tiny xl registration information. That is when I found out that the woman who made the changes to the original tiny turning it into the tiny XL had not paid the sales tax. It wasn't until I spoke to her that I finally received information about the houseboat. The broker from BoatUS was constantly apologizing because of how difficult it was to complete the purchase. NO I did not decline shipping because of what harbor cottage charged. I was told by JD's son they couldn't make any money on transporting it and I had to get a "third party" to transport it. After I got the letter from the owner of HC about "not designed to handle the Mississippi" is when I had the HB Driven to Trifecta the company that was going to charge me 15,000.00 to bring this UNUSED HB up to code. Then the pandemic hit. And it sat there. When things started opening up I received a call from Barry, the broker who replaced the one who sold me the boat. Barry said he heard my Tiny XL was at Trifecta and hadn't been worked on yet so Barry offered, since HARBOR COTTAGE had built the HB they were more qualified to do the repairs. REPAIRS! BTW I still have the emails verifying what I am stating here. I asked BARRY if he knew what "repairs" were needed? He stated "no" . I then informed him that they were NOT repairs but work needed to bring it up to code. Which btw every code violation stated in the survey was followed BY the USCG REQUIREMENT as stated in their rules. Obviously I have the survey as proof. Barry got back to me after that and informed me they would do the required work for free if I brought the boat back. Which I did. At first they worked diligently on the HB. I was asked by Barry if I would sell the tiny XL back to harbor Cottage. I was told JD wanted it to put in his rental fleet so people could see this new design. When I said no, the work slowed. It has finally been completed. Yes he has not charged me slip fees, yet. Considering the nightmare I have endured, that is the least he could do. JD has completed and is manufacturing more of these beautiful TINY XLs. The interesting thing to note and I told the broker who sold me the HB. I was trying to find a slip in New Orleans marina. When I told the New Orleans manager I needed the slip for a houseboat she informed me no there were no slips available and there was a long wait list. I then asked her advice as to where I could find a slip for my houseboat and showed her a picture of the TinyXL. She said after seeing the picture "Here". "I will find a slip HERE". "People are going to want this HB". I WILL GET THIS HOUSEBOAT TO NEW ORLEANS MARINA come hell or high water. Without spending the 80,000.00 Harbor Cottage charged the woman who had the tinyXl built, to transfer it to her home in north lake Pontchartrain. Unfortunately when they delivered her HB 1. She couldn't get insurance and 2. The transporters couldn't get the tinyxl off the truck into the water. According to the original owner. There wasn't a ramp that could accommodate the delivery. So she sent it back to Kentucky and was originally going to put it in their rental pool. Changed her mind and put it up for sale. Enter me. I have learned the hard way, on my own, WITHOUT ANY HELP FROM ANYONE from Harbor Cottage. About how to get insurance, and various ways to transport a houseboat this large. In fact I intend to write an article and submit it to Houseboat magazine to inform people what to do and what to know about making their dream come true WITHOUT going thru the nightmare I have experienced. I really wish that when and if people ask me about my TINY XL, I could have shared how easy it was to make my dream come true. read more