Ontario

Ontario Tiny House By-Law Questions

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Laura

Housing-Questions

Due to the fact that I have a tiny house and I am so far the only tiny houser in the area who writes about the experience, I have a lot of people writing to me to ask if they can legally live in the tiny house that they dream of building.  The honest answer is that I have very little idea.

The problem is, the question is not a simple one.  The Canadian Building Code is used as a guideline by all municipalities in Ontario (as far as I know); however, each community can amend these guidelines to fit their own vision of a community.

On Undeveloped land:

Most communities will not allow an RV to be parked there and a tiny house will fit into the same category.  So far I have not learned of any areas that allow you to live on wheels on land, whether you own it or not.  You can get a permit to live in an RV short term while you are building a house and as far as I know this is the only time you can live in an RV, unless you are in a licensed RV park.

You can typically build a structure on undeveloped land but this is variable depending on your area.  You must check yourself with your building inspector.  In the case of the area that I live, I am allowed to have a building with a footprint of 108 square feet (many are 100 square feet, I know of one area that has 120 square feet and I am sure that there are other sizes outlined too).  The said structure can be no higher than 15 feet which is a gift because this allows me to have a half floor loft.   I cannot live there but I can visit it as much as I like.  This said without a permit to reside there, my house may well be at risk when new administration or inspectors come on the scene.

On Developed land (land with a house):

You are allowed to park a house on wheels on your own property in most areas but not all.  This is why you often see RV’s at storage facilities.  You cannot live in an RV beside someone’s house as far as I am aware.  The only exceptions are are some communities which allow you to have a garden house which is livable as long as it is movable.   There are some communities North of Toronto that welcome movable garden houses.  The hitch here is that you must put expensive infrastructure in place.  With the exception of the ones that exist already and these movable garden houses, most communities in Ontario strictly prohibit 2 families on one lot.

So far I have never heard of any communities which allow garden houses to be built in back yards but I suspect as our population climbs and cities become denser, this will change.

In short, I can’t really answer this question for you.  The answers are very specific to your area and your building inspector.  I suggest that anyone who is wants to know call their building inspector.  This is their job to know the answers, so don’t feel that you are wasting their time.

If anyone knows specific rules for their city and county please leave this information in the comments section.

I will amend this article as information becomes available or known to me.

Amendment #1: Unorganized Townships: 

Barbara Sheridan writes: “If you live in an unorganized township they follow canadian building code not a municipal code (since there is no organized municipality). The Canadian code does not set out building size requirements.”  What this means is that you can build a tiny house here, as long as it meets building code.  Be aware ladders to the loft do not meet code so you have to make room for stairs that are up to code if you want a second floor.

 

Categories: Building code, Community, Neighbours, Ontario, Tiny house | 153 Comments

Winter End Check up

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Laura
The sky is crying because it knows that THO is sad to see me go

The sky is crying because it knows that THO is sad to see me go

I was at Tiny House Ontario last week, but had a medical crisis and thus headed back early to Hamilton.  We had intended to stay until Wednesday afternoon, but due to my health, my husband had to pack everything up on Monday evening for us to rush back.  It was raining like crazy when Hj, the dogs and I pulled out.  Unfortunately, the medical stuff was serious enough that I was unable to fly to Memphis; but fortunately it is nothing terminal – just painful and annoying.  More than that though, it was a sad disappointment for me to miss my first ever tiny house event.  I strongly hope that any of you who had tickets were not even slightly disappointed by my absence.  The nice thing is that Deek (http://relaxshacks.blogspot.ca) has another iron in the fire, so hopefully I will be able to meet the community later this year and perhaps some of you as well.

I am sure that there won’t be a bit of snow left when I return but of course, there should not be anyway.  The area where the house is is under flood threat and a few people have asked me if the house is at risk, but it is not.  I am way up on a hill and because I am on well faulted limestone bedrock, the drainage is excellent.  I am 100% sure that THO is a dry.  The only weather condition that ever gives me any pause is wind.  This is because I have so many trees large surrounding me there and the ground is shallow above the rocks.

Now that I am feeling slightly better, I will head back up on Easter Saturday and stay there for ten days until my next medical appointment.  I really want to spend the Spring Equinox, Ostara, and Earth Day there in my woods.

Here is a painting that invites me to enjoy this season, I look it up at this time, year after year.

 

Also, I do have an other little update… During the three days I had at the house, I noticed that there were a couple of tiny problems that happened this winter.  You can read about this at Tiny House Listings.

 

 

 

Categories: Art, Forest, Kingston, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , | 7 Comments

Carbon Footprint 2013

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Laura

I took the carbon foot print test for Tiny House Ontario.  I am happy to say it was down a lot.  I reached my goal of bringing my footprint to 2 metric tons.  In fact I surpassed my goals.    In 2012 I THO used 3.01; whereas in 2013 I was down to 1.1!

Though the number of kilometres were similar, a car makes a lot less carbon than a motorbike so this is good.  Also my secondary use dropped because I did not purchase any electronics.  The year before I accidentally brought my new computer swimming (actually I got caught on my motorcycle in Hurricane Isaac) so I had two computer purchases.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know what this figure does not include the figures for my standard house in Hamilton.  Too, I don’t live in THO in the winter yet, so from November until the end of March the house is only used for holidays, so there is very little heat used there.  This means that the house is used only for 7 months a year plus about a month through the winter in various visits.

On the other hand, with ten acres of forest which offsets 1-2 metric carbon tons per acre, THO actually offsets its own carbon plus takes care of the carbon of our other home and then some.

Screen Shot 2014-02-25 at 8.42.06 PM

Categories: Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Buried

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Laura

IMG_1085

Tiny House Ontario September 2013

Tiny House Ontario September 2013

It is quite different looking at the house in the fall and in the winter.  The snow is about 2 feet deep there now, but around the house it is only about a foot deep.  I guess it must protect itself from drifting because of the angle of the house to the prevailing winds.

I thought you all might like to see how buried under the house was when I arrived yesterday.

It snowed in the night, and I beat my cousin Kenny in getting there.  He had not been in with the plough yet, so we walked in.  We had a perfect day for it!

The long midday shadows are gorgeous this time of year

The long midday shadows are gorgeous this time of year

 

Categories: Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments

The Wooden Horse

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Laura

Today it is Chinese New Year and we enter the year of the Wooden Horse.  The year is said to be the one of renewal in which we throw out useless ideas and purge ourselves of unnecessary attachments.  The Wooden Horse, I think is a perfect year for tiny housers, because along with this purging the year proclaims that progress, modernity and unsentimentality will reign.

According to this tradition it is a good year to clean out your closets, to work as hard as a horse and to advance.  Just my kind of mentality!  I have just been reading a little on the the year and it makes me hopeful that this will be the best year of my life.  I hope this is correct!

All these thoughts about how the year of transformation has closed and we pass into the year of moving forward, made me think about how this is reflected in my own little homestead.  Last year was the first time that I concentrated on the beauty of my home instead of the utilitarian function.   I think that this was accomplished with the addition of all the stone work.  Yet I ordered the stove in that year too and this will transform the house into a reasonably practical year around sanctuary.  The fact that I picked up my new wood stove yesterday and the plans to install it are moving forward this spring seem timely and meaningful within the context of this tradition.

What I mean is that installation will be a lot of very hard work.  The stove while tiny, weighs about a hundred pounds.  As well I do not want it in the house but rather in a box outside, so again next spring I am going back to work again in stone.  I know I have a lot of physically hard work ahead of me, but this will transform Tiny House Ontario into an almost fully functional home.  A simple tool for heating means a lot.

I am giving too much thought, perhaps, but I love that this year, the year where wood and horses intersect, that I will be doing the work of adding a wood burner to my home.  Somehow, everything just feels right.

Here is the box and a peek inside.  I did not take it out yet because it is very heavy and I because I still have to move it to the tiny house, I want to keep it packaged and safe.

The box A peek inside

Categories: Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario, View | 4 Comments