Author Archives: Laura

Hastings Highlands shown on the map below in pink, just passed a new by-law that will allow you to build a minimum of 348 sq. ft. on marginal agricultural land.

Here is what 350 square feet looks like.  I can think of lots of ways to change this up!  1. get rid of the kitchen wall, make the main entry where the tv is, and bump out the bedroom closet to meet the bathroom so this is a walk in closet with a laundry.  Also I would want a bedroom wall and many more windows.  

Back to Hastings Highland, they will let you build on a slab or piers if you do not want a basement; however, not having a basement at Tiny House Ontario is a huge regret for me.  I would love to have the off season storage, and a cooler room in the hot weather would have been really great too.

The anonymous person  who gave this news, wrote to say that Frank Mills, the building inspector (not the pianist) was behind the push to pass the by-law.  Apparently, in a refreshing twist, he is very helpful when dealing with the building code.

Sounds to me like they have a forward thinking person on staff and not just another moron who blindly follows arbitrary rules set by people 50-100 years ago!   Hats tipped to Frank Mills!  Can we clone you sir?

This municipality is roughly one hour drive North of Belleville.  One and a half hours South West of Renfrew, and one and a half hours North East of Peterborough. It is adjacent and South East of Algonquin Park.

UPDATE!  DON’T BUILD YOURS LIKE THIS!!!  IT GOT SO HOT THAT THE WAX CAUGHT FIRE!  I WAS FORTUNATE TO BE THERE AND BE ABLE TO GET IT OUT OF THE HOUSE!

Over the last couple of years there have been a lot of posts about candle heaters, cornish heaters and boat heaters.  What ever you wish to call them they are all pretty much the same thing – even though they are not at all equal.

Some people think that the entire idea is a bunch of nonsense because (The Law of Conservation of Energy, I think…) you know you don’t get more energy out then you put in.  Of course you don’t!  Each candle will give about 80 watts.  That is it.  The smallest electric heater that I could find online is the 200 watt Lasko personal heater which is designed to add heat a room or a cubicle.  What I mean to say here is that four candles are going to give you 320 watts of heat.  What the candle heater does is catch the heat and store it to disperse differently, and this is why they work.

I have come to understand from having my own candle heater at THO and from doing lots of further reading that the key to a good candle heater is LOTS of metal to conduct the heat from the flames into LOTS of thermal storage (AKA flower pots) to store and disperse the heat.

Like I explained above, I am NOT saying that a flower pot heater can be the sole heat source in an uninsulated 3000 square foot house that is 40 degrees below zero.  But what I am saying is that they are a good solid heat source for a tiny house if you have good insulation and vapour barrier and the temperature is not too far below zero.  If you live in a really cold climate, you would have to have more of these to heat your house.  So for a tiny house or a small room they will do the trick.

The BIG BONUS for these heaters is that, not only will a flower pot heater work to heat a tiny house – but it will also take care of the dampness.  Yes, you read that right.  They absorb moisture.  This is because the colder moist air is attracted to the warmer air in the pots and the clay absorbs the moisture.  I am not sure why this works, but this would be a very interesting project for a science project.

Anyway, I decided to build a super-duper deluxe, hanging model for Tiny House Ontario a few weeks ago, and I thought I would share the how to should any of you have been considering building one.  I was going to write more about how it functions in the house, but have not yet installed it there, because I was in a car accident.  Unfortunately, I am too sore to drive the long distance and to operate tools at the moment too, but I wanted to share before it gets to be summer!

So this post just covers the SHOPPING LIST and the HOW TO, as well as the above blurb on why they work.

Here if you like mine, here is the SHOPPING LIST

wall hanging Bracket $14.99

Five flower pots that fit inside one another and a glazed base that matches the circumference of the largest of the pots (with a 3/8ths hole drilled in the centre with a masonry bit) $10.25

1 of – 3/8 Hanging eye nut (found in boat supply stores) $4.99

1 of – 3/8, 12 inch long carriage bolt $4.36

12 of – 3/8 x nuts $2.30

12 0f – large 1/2 inch washers $3.90

Total $40.79 plus tax ($46.91)   Sorry, I know this is a bit expensive due to the hanging bracket being $15 so if you already have one of these, you are way ahead of me.   I had some fireproof caulking but you should consider getting a little of this, if you don’t.  You will see why later.

HOW TO:  First attach your hanging wall bracket to the wall.  Ensure that this is on a stud because this is a very heavy heater!!!  Don’t hang it so high that you can’t see the candles to exchange them, but put it a little bit out of the way as not to bonk your head on it every time you go by it.  The pots are somewhat fragile and also, no one wants to bang their head, right?

1 – Drill a 3/8ths hole in the very centre of the flower pot base then put a washer on the carriage bolt and put the bolt up through the bottom of the base.

2 – Put a nut to the very bottom of the threaded part of the carriage bolt, add a washer and then the smallest pot.  Then add another washer and then another bolt, tighten this bolt down until the pot is held tight but not so tight that you will break it.

3 – Repeat this for all the pots small through large.  Each set of pots will have at least two washers with one bolt between them.  (You might need more bolts if your pots don’t have a small space between them.)

4 – When the last pot is on add the last washer and a bolt.  If you have space on the top of the carriage bolt add a few nuts then cap it with the hanging eye nut.

5 – Hang it up, on your wall bracket, if you have some fireproof caulking, you might want to caulk the bottom hole around the carriage bolt on the base, so that if you spill wax it won’t leak or create a fire hazard.

6 – After caulking you can add tea candles into the base and light.  Please use only METAL tea candles for this because these little metal containers were designed for these conditions.  Originally to keep food warm.  Safety first, right?  Once these are lit, the metal parts in your hanging candle heater will get HOT pretty quickly.  They are a burning hazard (DON’T TOUCH THE METAL!!!!). Also after a little while (depending on your indoor temperature) the pots get hot too.  Please be careful these will also burn you!  Candles are open flames too!  I don’t assume any responsibility here.  So please use some common sense, okay?

Note: the tiniest pot inside would not work because the washers did not fit it.  If I had a smaller washer I would have used it though.

Note five pots and one base.

Crappy pic – hard for hubby to hold it up since it is about 15 pounds on the end of a cantilever

Here it is hanging outside of our house on the flower hanger with the oven temp gage hanging on it.

Four jumbo tealights lasted 6 hours running outside.

When I get a chance to install and run it at THO, I will certainly update.

As you all know, we built a house for Fred in December.  She is living there now and doing okay.  There are a number of things that you should all know.  Firstly, she looks better and seems to be doing better all the way around since we lifted her off the ground.  So we did a good thing.  I do not want to invade her privacy, but at the same time I think that it is important that we recognize that the situation that brought her to this is connected to her mental health and so there are things that she will and will not allow which might be a little unusual to those of us who are mentally well.

I share this because it is important to know that she rejected a few pieces of her build.  She did not want to have hooks to hang her coat and other items, she also rejected the smoke and carbon monoxide tester.  Further to this, she also did not want to have a kitchen cupboard to cook on and also did not want to have a butane cooker.  She also did not want to have a propane stove for heating.

This said, without the smoke and carbon monoxide tester, a butane cooker or propane heat would be NOT be safe.  Frankly, I am not sure that it would be the best idea to trust her to manage the stove anyway.  I would not want the very house that we built in order to give her some degree of safety, to be the thing that killed her because she is unable to take care of the heat situation properly due to her mental health.

So this is a bind isn’t it?

However, the important thing to note here is that how she has chosen to heat and cook as well as to warm water for personal hygiene is with candles.   The candles which work best for her area available at Walmart.  There are two kinds which she uses.  The first are jumbo tea light candles which are $9.99 for a large package.  The others are in a jar scented candles there are small ones for $1 each.  These are placed in the two metal containers that we got her and are on a table so they are contained just as they would be in your own home.  I feel that she manages this well.  However, this also means that she has an $80/month bill for candles which given the fact that this is her heat, light and cooking and since she pays no rent on her house it is not such a terrible living expense but it is not great either!

Also there is the issue of her needing to eat, clean her house and also have some dignity, which for her is having containers of water to clean herself and her home, doing laundry, and wearing a little bit of makeup.

Getting to the point, last night I brought her to Walmart for groceries, cleaning supplies, water, and candles. The bill was  $414.97 and I will also bring her to do laundry tomorrow which will be another $30 or so dollars I imagine.

There was (until last evening) a small surplus in the account that was set up to get her house built however, there have been no further donations to help support her.

Unfortunately, I cannot afford to support her so I am hoping that some of you might be willing and able to donate.  If so you can do do here: https://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser-widget.aspx?frid=480688“>FRED’s HOUSE

If you are in the Hamilton Area and you would LIKE to donate but do not feel comfortable donating cash please consider dropping by Walmart to pick up some jumbo tealight candles, some jarred scented candles, an LED camping light with batteries, bottled water, canned food or gift cards for Walmart or Tim Hortons.  She is allergic to nuts so please no peanut butter!  If this is your preference to you please write to me here or on Facebook and we can work together to get these items to her.

Thank you to all of you who are invested in her well being!

❤ L

Thank you Alain for sharing this with us.

Another tiny house community is going in in the USA.  This is exactly what I am talking about! In fact, the image of this community is almost exactly the way that I would envision a pilot community in Hamilton (or anywhere, really) would look.

You all know why the USA is doing this? Because it works! It is sustainable not just for the planet, but also for the tax payer. It is also a beautiful way to live for human beings that have been dehumanized by their poverty and other issues, such as mental illness, grief, and the threat of eviction… It is an affordable way for people – ALL PEOPLE – to live. It allows dignity, in an inexpensive and sustainable way.  These tiny houses are reminiscent of the early settlers places except with conveniences and that they allow people survival when they have nothing (or wish to thrive using very little resources).

Hamilton needs this, but really all of the major cities that have a housing crisis and or homeless crisis need this!

So let me put this out there. If you are the mayor/leader/person in charge of any community in Ontario that has a housing or homeless crisis. Or if you work for the city and have the ear of the leader you have please share this.  I am putting out a call to any community in Ontario that will have us.

What we need is a serviced building near the downtown core that is usable and has a yard that is about an acre and a half, or larger, in size.  We also need cooperation, the machines and manpower required to put in the pigtail infrastructure for septic and water to a bunch of tiny houses.  Mostly we need the good will of your leadership and community

This structure must be suitable for myself and other volunteers to stay in while we build and it will eventually house the staff you hire, laundry facilities and a common area,

I would also donate my skills as a fund raiser and I am sure that I could raise 100,000. Lowes has already shown their interest, as well as my almost half a million reader and solid volunteer base.

Contact me if you are interested. You can do so here or at my blog. There are a lot of details to iron out, of course – but we can do this! It is not so hard and it is not so expensive!

The structure you donate to this cause could even potentially be a proceeds of crime building that you have acquired.  This would certainly bring the cost of housing your homeless down, right?

What I would like is to build thirty 200 – 300 square foot houses, up to code (unless you have arbitrary size requirements which you will have to arrange to be omitted for the purpose of this pilot), each would have a small but full bathroom, bedroom, kitchen/dining/living room as well as a linen closet, bedroom closet and a porch.  Similar to this:

Even if the cost of these houses were 10K each, the cost of 30 houses is just 300,000!  This would bring 30 people (more if you choose any couples) off the street.  I am willing to do fundraising, bring in volunteers and find companies who are willing to donate.

Anyone who has a community that fits, a house and a little power – let me start this pilot for your people!  You can contact me here.