Author Archives: Laura

To everything there is a season.

The time has come for me to move on to the Kitchener area, and therefore my very beloved Tiny House Ontario is for sale.

There are about 9 acres of land, which are all forested, and the property is listed at $198,000.  The taxes last year were just under $900 and the heat was about $200 for the winter.  We run our power off solar so this and insurance are the only costs of keeping the property.  So our ANNUAL costs are similar to a one bedroom apartment for a month.  The place is 24 km from downtown Kingston and just a kilometre off the main road on a well serviced roads.

The land is on an escarpment and about 600 feet above sea level, so you can see the Rideau Canal, and even the windmills of Wolfe Island on clear days.  If you would like to have a view, you will love this property!  Note: in the video at 124 the drone starts to show the escarpment. It is quite high – about four stories.  It gets a couple of good veiws of it.

All furnishings are included except the bedside table that my cousin Vernie made for me.

Here are some photos from inside (last year)

For information please contact Jason Sands at Sandsland.

I can’t help but sing, The times they are a changin’.  Feel free to play this in the background while you read along.

Alicia wrote to me (thank you) to let me know that she found this gem while looking around the Stone Mills Township website.  It is absolutely awesome news for those who own property in Lennox and Addington.

Not only are you able to build a secondary dwelling on your property that you can rent out, but it looks like for the time being you can apply for a $20,000 grant to help with the costs.

While looking all of this up to be sure that it was accurate, I also found out that the City of Kingston has also opened up for secondary dwellings!  And they too have a grant program for home owners!!!

When I posted this, my co-Admin Lulu (awesome thanks!)  let me know that Simcoe County is also allowing secondary units and the have a $25,000 grant available as well!

Since Canadians are not accustomed to having secondary dwellings, I will share some options – my suggestions would be to match the style of your house so that the smaller house fits your neighbourhood.  Fence off a small section of your yard or property  and put in a separate driveway, so that that the neighbouring house is clearly seperate from your own.  If you are in town, corner lots are ideal for this.  If you are rural it is just a matter of finding a place on your land which is most comfortable to separate.

• You can build yourself and rent out the secondary dwelling.  (requires personal investment)
• You can look for someone who wants to build a tiny house and have a land lease drawn up.  I would suggest something like a 50-100 year transferable lease with the homeowners having the first option to buy.   (requires very little personal investment)

I am SO HAPPY that these options are finally opening up!

I have had a few people send me messages on Facebook to say that they would like to put a deposit down for a lot/house and so too would I be willing and able to do this.

QUESTION: What I would like to know is this.  If I took the time and money to hire a lawyer and open a trust account with this lawyer would you be ready and able to put $15K in there within ten business days?

WHY AM I ASKING???:  Because, if ONLY 50 of us were to put $15,000 into the account, we would then be able to purchase the land in Breslau (with a condition that the community will allow a tiny house development here).  Then if another 50 of us put $15,000 into the same account we would have collected 1.5 million all together; this would, I believe give us the money to sever lots and to develop the land with water, sewer and hook up lines to the first central structure.

This 8.31 acre property is of course 361983 square feet which if my guestimate is at all accurate makes each square foot of land cost roughly $4.15 per square foot but of course this raises to probably more than double that cost/ square foot for the lots due to the fact that we loose space and money to the main house, walkways and roads.  I would guess this would bring lot cost to roughly $15./square foot.

We would make two sizes of lots available.  Again this is a guesstimate on numbers because I really am unsure what a lawyer costs and also what development of lots costs… so here is the ballpark:

—  LOTS —

For about $21000, (56×25) 1400 square foot lot for houses that are 400 square feet and under (these lots can only have a garage if it sits under the house).  They can also have a basement and fruit cellar.

For about $37500, (56×44.65) 2500 square foot lots for maximum 500 square foot houses that may have a garage (under or beside).  They can also have a basement and fruit cellar.

—

Your initial investment of $15,000 (minus your legal fee) is to go toward a deposit for your lot, OR returned to you once the majority of the lots are sold.  Once the property is purchased and the trades have to be hired this deposit money will also be used to pay me a living wage of $800/week for organizing all of this and for consultancy due to the fact that I will have to work full time at this for a few months.

If all if this seems agreeable to you and you are ready to invest please comment here (I will NOT make it public) or send  Tiny House Ontario a private message on Facebook.  If there are 100 of you who are ready and willing to put your money in then I will hire a lawyer immediately.

Here is the style of homes that I would like to see in our tiny house community.

Do you want LEGAL tiny house community in Kitchener???

Well you are not alone!  In May of 2016 I was contacted by a person who works for the City of Kitchener, she let me know that this city REALLY WANTS a tiny house community to be developed. Over a hundred comments came in from people who want to make this happen.  We even had a potential investor and this fell through because no developer came forward.  While I am NOT a developer and I sure as heck don’t have money to purchase a 600K property, get it zoned, developed and so on… I certainly want to have one of these communities in this area and I would purchase a lot and build there!

Now it has been about two years and nothing is happening!

I have 700,000 people who read this blog and I ask each of you to donate $5 or $10 or whatever you can afford… DO this IF you believe that there should be a legal place for tiny housers to live.  For the cost of a Starbucks coffee you could be building a community.  If you think you would want to (and can) live in this community let me know and I will be sure that whatever you donate will be considered a deposit for your lot.

What I envision is lots size would be 25×56 feet, houses would not be allowed to be larger than a 500 square foot, footprint, plus single garage.  These houses would never be allowed to grow beyond 500 square feet.  The lots would be privately owned but people would act as a collective corporation so that all services can be incorparated.  In other words, water, sewer cable, wifi, electricity and the running of the central building,  which would have guest rooms, laundry facilites and a large meeting room would be covered by a small condo fee of less than $100 a month.  It would also cover snow and garden maintenance as well as the central building maintenance.  Each house would be on the grid connected to the central system of the central house.

You do not have to want to live here, just to believe in this as a cause!

PLEASE DONATE!