Thanks to the nice people at Lanefab for tipping us off to the news that the proposed amendments to the laneway housing program are available as a pdf.
I’m all for them, but since our designer has already gone through the intake process at city hall, these are unlikely to affect our project. Which is good, because we have already got our plans at such an advanced state.
Johnny Sanphillippo had a dream — to own his own home. But, daunted by the housing prices in hometown San Francisco (and his salary as a housekeeper), he knew he had to come up with his own solution.
Read this Huffington Post article about how he managed to build a place he could call his own — without a mortgage.
My great-grannie always said that a lady should have her name in the paper 3 times in her life — when she is born, when she married, and when she died.
But great-grannie did not know of what she spoke. Because this morning I got a huge charge looking at page 3 of the Vancouver Sun to see myself looking back!
Columnist Shelley Fralic wrote the story “Meet the Lady Who Lives Down the Lane” after meeting with DD, our builder Laurel and I last week. She had heard about the blog on The Home Discovery Show and thought her readers would be interested in our story.
Be sure to check out the story. I am quite chuffed about this sudden celebrity.
Let’s see — radio, now newspaper. Who should I get to play me in the movie of my life?
Thanks to Style at Home, we can see how New York-based Canadian designer Brendan Kwinter-Schwartz re-made pilot Kerry Dempsey’s 680 square foot Manhattan loft into a sleek but comfortable home.
What’s not to love?
Especially those saucer pendant lights and the cowhide-as-area rug on hardwood. Armless slipper chairs are versatile yet take up less visual space.
But don’t plan on installing those light-as-air stairs unless you want to become BFFs with members of the board of variance. As far as I know, in Vancouver you are not allowed spaces between stairs large enough for a baby’s head to fit through (about 4″ or 10cm).
The Courier ran this story about information sessions on laneway regulations.
And the City of Vancouver’s website confirms the Information Session on March 7.
That linked page says:
Come to an information session to learn more about proposed changes to the City’s laneway housing program, which allows for smaller, detached homes built on a single-family lot near the lane. They provide more housing choices in single-family neighbourhoods, adding rental options for a diverse range of people including seniors who want to downsize or renters who want to live in detached housing in established neighbourhoods.
Currently, laneway houses are permitted in certain single-family zones (RS-1 and RS-5) in the city. We’re looking at amending the program to improve the fit of these homes in neighbourhoods and create more livable units. The program would also be expanded to include the remaining single-family home zoning districts (RS-1A, RS-1B, RS-2, RS-3/3A, RS-4, RS-6, RS-7).
Drop by a session to find out more.City staff will be on hand to answer questions.
I love Vancouver. I was born here (yes! native-born Vancouverites do exist) but I was also lucky enough to live in a small town, and I choose Vancouver because I love it.
But there is a heavy price for living in this city — literally. That price is the cost of housing. Housing is expensive here. If they put up thousands of rental units and hundreds of low-cost condos the housing price may even out — temporarily. Because more and more people are going to move here, and those houses and condos and rentals are going to be filled up and it’s just going to be on a giant roller coaster of prices — it’s never going to be cheap to live here. It’s like when they build more freeways to bring people into town from the suburbs. Guess what! That means more people will move to the suburbs and those freeways will be filled up again in a few years and you go back to the beginning, world without end.
But the cost of housing here is not reflected in our wages and salaries. So most of us are caught in a real squeeze, especially if you are raising children. Affordable private housing for families of 3 or 4 usually starts at about $650,000 (if you are lucky enough to find it).
So it’s always nice to see someone trying to do something for those families.
In this story in BC Business, a proposal for co-housing has been brought to Vancouver City Hall for approval. The idea is a hybrid of private ownership and co-op housing.
As opposed to a co-operative housing complex, wherein a corporation or association owns units and residents own shares in that corporation, co-housing allows each individual to own some living space outright, and share other areas with fellow residents.
I lived in a co-op with my children for over 12 years, and for me, it was great. There was always someone for the kids to play with, space for them to play in, people watched out for each other, and we made a community. But you always knew that you weren’t living in your “very own” space. It was just like having a nosy landlord — except all your neighbours were your landlords.
So I welcome the idea of co-housing. And the price will be more reasonable than detached houses. But it won’t be cheap.
the complex estimates the price of a 875 sq. ft. unit to be $480,000.
Hot on the heels of my previous post about ownership of our laneway comes this article on the Senior Living website.
The “canny senior” , Ann Eynon has built a laneway on her daughter’s property (such a clever idea!). She says
“It’s lovely to free up the cash rather than sitting on it,” she says while pouring over travel brochures. Where to go next?
Exactly! Plus there’s some info on how different families are handling the ownership “situation”.
Some families enter into joint ownership; others agree to forgivable loans. Put everything in writing, especially when adult children are involved……… amortizing …payback over 25 years and clarifying a payout schedule if, or when, the unit changes hands.
Or, if no payback is expected, as in Ann Eynon’s case,
she made sure everybody understood her situation before she broke ground. Ann will have her laneway house appraised and then assign percentages of its value to each of her two children.
I was showing a friend the plans for the souped-up kitchen in the laneway house (more on that in a future post) and even dragged out the little square of wood veneer to show how the cupboards will be finished. She oohed and aahed, I kvelled, it was a pleasant time. Then she said “It just makes sense to spend money on the kitchen, because of the resale value.”
And just like a needle being dragged across a record, the conversation veered off from cozy decor to cold hard facts.
We are paying for the laneway home to be built. And we’ll be spending a little more than absolutely necessary to get exactly what we want in the way of finishes, appliances and building materials. And we will live in it. But we won’t own it. The owners of the main home on the property own the laneway house as well. That’s the rule.
All our money is buying us is the right to live in the house until…..we don’t want to live there anymore.
Oh, we’ll get our money out of it. Eventually the property owners (DD and DSIL) will eventually start making payments to us for the amount we paid to build the home — but no more, no matter how much the property may have appreciated in value.
It works out very well for us all. They get a free babysitting at hand, we can share shopping trips, it’s a nice convivial living situation for everyone involved.
But we are stepping off the real estate merry-go-round forever. And that’s the way we want it.
We cannot have our cake and eat it, too. We can stay in this condo and watch it go up in value every year, but we can’t take that money and use it. Yes we are sitting on the proverbial gold mine, but that’s just it, we’re sitting on it, not mining it.
Building the laneway home gives us a chance to live mortgage-free in a lovely neighbourhood in our favourite city in the world. Next to the nicest neighbours we could imagine.
What more could we want?
The folks at LaneCraft homes blogged today on the evolving rules surrounding Laneway Home construction.
While it’s good that there is continuing discussion about laneways, and methods of making them more popular not just with the home-owners but also with their neighbours……there are current talks with the city about the problem with parking.
It’s true that most people who build enclosed parking spaces for their laneway homes are using them for living space. And that means that they have to use street parking (or pay for parking elsewhere). But for us, if they change the rules in mid-stream, it is going to mean problems.
Right now we have an enclosed parking area in our laneway. There is a proposal that laneway homes should also include another space. To quote LaneCraft:
To address the issue, the City is proposing to require an unenclosed surface parking spot when building a laneway house. This would address the issue by ensuring at least one on site parking spot, but, by reducing the buildable footprint (keeping current setbacks and height limits in place), would create more challenges in designing liveable spaces.
Creating more challenges right now would send our designer back to the drawing board and delay start on our project. I hope nothing happens in the next few weeks to jeopardize our current design receiving a building permit.
I feel for the city and their wish to reduce street parking. But no one wanders up alleyways with a flashlight to make sure that every garage contains its quota of automobiles, and has not been converted to a workshop, a studio, or even a storage area.
Big cities want to attract citizens — people who live right downtown, not just commute from the suburbs to work. One of the reasons Vancouver is such a vibrant city is because people live in the downtown core. At any time of the day or night you’ll find people going to restaurants, coffee shops, bars, concerts, sporting events, but also walking their dogs, dashing out for grocery shopping, visiting their neighbours. I know lots of large cities where the downtown area becomes a science-fiction dystopian landscape at night, the only cars the occasional police car or delivery van.
According to this Houzz article, Mayor Bloomberg is trying to find ways to bring people back into the city to live. And right now, that means getting more apartments into smaller areas.
The city states that there are 1.8 million residents who are singles and couples, but only 1 million studio and one-bedroom apartments in all five boroughs.
He called for a design competition, and a couple of weeks ago he announced a winner. An exhibition of the entries will be held at the Museum of the City of New York until this September.
If you are in the area look it up.
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Artist and Desert Dweller with Big City Style.
Domenic Garisto / LIFE IS NOT A REHERSAL,SO LIVE IT..if you can't be the poet, be the poem..havau22.com
Lane Way Housing for the Nervous Novice
Lane Way Housing for the Nervous Novice
building a home that's not too big and not too small
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Words on Music
Small house designs with big impact
Lane Way Housing for the Nervous Novice
Lane Way Housing for the Nervous Novice
The Lady Who Lives Down the Lane 