Home For A Year

Scallop boats in Digby Harbour, NS
photo: Tim Hewett

Sometimes you don't choose a place to visit or to live. Sometimes a place will choose you.

When we moved in to our place on Vancouver Island a decade ago, Linda walked in the front door with a heavy box in her hands. When we left in June I helped her transfer over the threshold of our patio doors into her chair before our quest could commence.

A big part of our journey was toward a more appropriate home that would be easier on both of us. It took a while, but we found it.

Similar to how we found the perfect van for our quest, we found a fully accessible home in a beautiful rural setting 5 minutes outside of Digby, Nova Scotia, a small fishing village of 2,000 in the southern part of the province.

After contacting many rentals that were not wheelchair friendly I saw the following ad on line:

For Rent: Wheelchair Accessible Seniors Duplex. 2 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom (one with roll-in shower, the other with tub).

Built in 2013, this unit has a pellet stove, in-floor heat and a heat recovery ventilation system.

Rent includes fridge, stove, washer, dryer and lawn care/snow removal.

While we aren't seniors yet, we require a similar level of accessibility.  Linda and I went to look at the unit, and were pleased to see it had everything we have been looking for. Now we have a home that suits our needs for the next year in a rural farming area.

A bonus is it comes with a wonderful, supportive community that immediately came to our aid helping us get settled in. After our landlord's whole family emptied the contents of our van into our home, he asked why we chose Digby. We feel like Digby chose us. 

Mini-size My Home

An adorable and affordable 400 sq. ft. home in Nova Scotia, Canada.

There are not many small houses where I live on the west coast of Canada. Houses here, based on a rough estimate, range from 1,500 to 3,500 sq. ft with the average being around 2,400.

In the upper range are homes of 5,000 to 9,000 square feet.

Prices range from about $350,000 up to several million, with the average house price in my immediate area being a resoundingly unaffordable $490,000.

The east coast of Canada is a different story.

Nova Scotia has a vast inventory of small houses at the bottom end of the size range, with many houses in the range of 300 to 1000 square feet. Prices range from $20,000 to $50,000, which often includes several acres of land.

The inside of the mini-sized home is very practical and functional.

I like the efficiency of living in small spaces. It must be attractive to others too - just look at the words realtors use to describe houses in the bottom end of the size range. I have seen small homes described as "cozy", or "quaint",  or "adorable".

Even better is "easy to heat".

But my favourite realtor adjective used to describe smaller homes is "affordable".

Smaller homes put the concept of enough into practice.

As has been pointed out in our "house size forum", a well-built large home may use less resources to run than its small, poorly built counterpart.

But by that same logic, it is also true that a small, well-built home would be even better yet.

One of these inside a tiny home and a woodlot out back can go a long way toward being prepared
for inevitable energy shortages and price increases.

I want my shelter to be Mini-sized. Smaller dwellings use less resources to build, heat or cool, and maintain. To me it feels like the nature-endorsed way to go.

Plus they are just so darn cozy.

Micro Houses Monday

Hand built micro home made with repurposed materials.

There are tiny homes, and then there are micro homes. I have always been interested in small hand built dwellings just large enough to get the job done. Such structures provide a warm, dry micro footprint, and they are often appealing in their craftsmanship and utility.

Another micro home, stark in its simplicity.

The original guide to building anything from a micro to a tiny home is the 1914 book "Shacks, Shelters, and Shanties" by D.C. Beard. Although marketed as a guide for "boys of all ages", there is something in it for anyone that wishes to build their own shelter.

A nice mobile micro home.

The classic 'you can build it' book describes how to create over 50 dwellings from the most primitive lean to up to a fully equipped log cabin. All the structures can be built from local materials, and would degrade harmlessly back into the environment after their useful life.

Warm, dry, simple, cozy.

A micro home meets the basic shelter needs of the occupants just as well as considerably larger, less efficient dwellings. Now with the internet there are many resources available to make a tiny or micro home a real possibility.

A small home built from 3 shipping containers.

I think micro homes are elegant, adequate, and sensible in a time of expensive and depleted resources. They cost less, require less maintenance, and are easier to heat. And they are so darn cute.

A company in Vancouver BC is marketing their brand of tiny home for eco-conscious consumers.

At least one company is counting on consumers turning to tiny dwellings. The outfit is marketing a home that sits on a 10 X 10 footprint, considerably smaller than your average house size. It is attractive inside and out if you like a more modern industrial design, but is still expensive.

They are hoping to sell them for "less than $30,000" dollars, which is still a lot considering one could build a micro home from repurposed materials for considerably less.

If a micro home is "cute" - what is a giant home?

Plus there is something about building your own shelter with your own two hands.

Ultra-Tiny Homes For $200... And Under

Tiny, tiny home - $200, Sunshine - Free

Carpenter Derek Diedricksen's tremendously tiny homes may not be practical for most people when it comes to daily living, but they do an excellent job of illustrating what may be done with discarded materials, a bit of imagination, and some elbow grease.

Diedricksens's projects all take advantage of discarded construction materials, and were built for next to no cost. The wooden structures are creative and pleasing to the eye. Their diminutive stature could lead one to think they are art installations rather than places to dwell.

24 sq.ft. of stylin' shelter - mortgage not required

The largest of the dwellings is 24 square feet and the smallest a claustrophobic, Japanese-style 4 sq. ft., which is more of a 'sleeper' than a home.

What I like about Diedricksens's buildings is how he uses reclaimed scrap materials in their construction. Where others see waste, he sees possibilities. I like the size, too - they are small enough that they could fit into a regular home's garage, with room to spare. They are spartan and cozy.

Derek, and other small home proponents, see affordable shelter for all - tiny dwellings for a tiny planet.

In this case perhaps not a home, but there are lots of possibilities for a writer's or artist's cabin, or hard-sided portable camping shelter.

See more uber-tiny shelters here.