![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/guide-to-tiny-house-in-Canada-2.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo: aehdeschaine\/Flickr\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nThe big reasons to go small.<\/h2>\n
Tiny homes come in all shapes and sizes (albeit small ones). There\u2019s no universal agreement on what constitutes a tiny house, but generally speaking, anything under 500 square feet falls into the category of compact living. Stephanie Donahue turned her garage in Collingwood into a 215-square-foot tiny home<\/a>, complete with a bathroom, kitchen, loft bedroom, AC\/heating system and a beautiful backyard deck. They have rented the tiny house to over 300 vacation guests and it\u2019s on track to haul in $40,000 in revenue this summer. The idea came to Donahue and her husband (a professional builder), after watching a documentary about minimalism.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you start getting rid of a lot of stuff, you realize, \u2018Wow, I don’t really need all of this,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can still have an amazing life. You just have more money because you’re not spending it on a bunch of stuff you don\u2019t need!\u201d The couple did all of the labour themselves and spent $22,000 on materials. On top of bringing in vacation rental revenue, it\u2019s increased their property value by at least $100,000.<\/p>\n\n The tiny house movement can also give first-time homebuyers an access point to get into a competitive market. Craig Race is a Toronto-based architect and sustainable housing advocate. He founded Lanescape in 2014, which set out to crowdsource an as-of-right zoning policy that would allow Toronto homeowners to easily and affordably build laneway suites. \u201cThe cost of houses are crazy right now,\u201d explains Race. \u201cThe easiest way to reduce the cost of a house is to reduce the amount of materials that go into it. Tiny homes can provide ownership opportunities for many first-time buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n In an urbanizing, warming world, tiny homes can also provide accessible and environmentally friendly housing options in dense cities. \u201cThere\u2019s no question that the more square feet of living space you have per person, the more energy gets consumed and the greater the carbon impact is of the building,\u201d says Race.<\/p>\n Race used to live in Portland \u2014 which pioneered the tiny house movement when the city made it easier for homeowners to build \u2018Accessory Dwelling Units\u2019 \u2014 secondary structures that have provided affordable housing in one of the hottest housing markets in the US. \u201cReally progressive municipalities are starting to create bylaws and standards for houses that are off-grid or transportable \u2014 or some combination of those two,\u201d says Race.<\/p>\n Tiny homes can be movable (where they\u2019re on wheels) or stationary (on a foundation). Whichever option you pick will largely influence where you\u2019re allowed to live.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes they\u2019re mobile \u2014 they don\u2019t have a foundation or service connections,\u201d says Race. \u201cThat is usually the most important differentiator for a municipality as to whether they\u2019re accepted or not. Most municipalities are very traditional and their review process only allows them to look at houses that have a foundation, are connected to the grid for water and electrical and the usual stuff. As soon as that doesn\u2019t exist, it throws a curve ball at them that they don\u2019t know how to process.\u201d<\/p>\n Basically, if it\u2019s on wheels, you\u2019re limited to where you can park it. \u201cThe reason is because there\u2019s an issue with people who own recreational vehicles parking them in neighbourhoods and using them as dwellings,\u201d says Race. Some RV parks allow tiny homes, but even then, you can run into issues. A couple in BC were turned away from a mobile home community because their rig didn\u2019t meet park standards.<\/a><\/p>\n In Toronto, you can build a very small house, as long as it\u2019s grid-connected and you apply for a building permit. For example, the city has gotten quite progressive when it comes to building secondary units on a primary property (a laneway house, for example). The city has a mandate to start looking at rear yard garden suites next summer. \u201cThe optimists in the city are hopeful that there will be a policy in place very soon to allow tiny homes in backyards all over Toronto,\u201d says Race.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also want to keep an eye on the square footage of your tiny house, since it\u2019s illegal to build a home smaller than a certain square footage in some municipalities. \u201cZoning and the building code are also becoming more progressive in that they\u2019re allowing much smaller unit sizes,\u201d says Race. This is primarily being pushed because of smaller and smaller condos rising in popularity. \u201cAs the code and zoning allows for really small units, that paves the way for really tiny homes to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n I was looking at old log cabins in Ontario to buy, but lately, I\u2019ve been singing a different tune: Buying land and building a tiny house on it.<\/p>\n In this case, it would still have to be on a foundation, but it\u2019s much more relaxed. \u201cIt\u2019s just a typical permit process,\u201d explains Race. \u201cThe beauty of being somewhere like cottage country is that being off grid and using rudimentary service connections is very common. Most cottages are on septics, they use solar energy or they harvest their own rainwater. Things like that are actually already in place for cottages and can be applied to tiny homes very easily in those areas.\u201d<\/p>\n Across Canada, the tiny house movement has faced some resistance \u2014 due to snail\u2019s pace policy changes and a \u2018not in my backyard\u2019 mentality in some communities. \u201cLike any kind of movement at all, people are just generally resistant to change \u2014 especially when it affects neighbourhoods where people live. People are very protective of their homes and any kind of change can often be difficult to stomach,\u201d says Race, who experienced some of this during the laneway house initiatives.<\/p>\n \u201cBut ultimately, if the right people are engaging with communities and coming up with thoughtful and effective legislation to protect the existing neighbourhoods and allow tiny homes and other kinds of infusions to fit into a neighbourhood in a respectful way \u2014 people will usually get on board and understand that it has to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n To ensure you\u2019ll have a place to park your little abode, consider the planning, zoning, and building requirements in your municipality. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":193554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2019-06-21T21:14:44Z","apple_news_api_id":"ed68684b-b750-42b6-aefa-8691f86cf575","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2019-06-21T21:14:46Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A7WhoS7dQQrau-oaR-Gz1dQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":["https:\/\/u48r14.digitalhub.com\/sections\/09b86915-7d2b-3acd-915b-b215002d01b7"],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11118],"tags":[11141,11221,11149],"coauthors":[10245],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>Photo: Stephanie Donahue\/Airbnb<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nHow to live in a tiny house in a Canadian city.<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0Nachelle Nocom<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nBuy land and put a tiny home on it.<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: Matt Harringer\/Flickr<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nChange is gonna come.<\/h2>\n