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Category Archives: Housing

Another view of the laneway situation from way down south — five reasons to embrace laneways

James Bacon of Bacon’s Rebellion has also written a blog post on the Wall Street Journal story — and he sums up the laneway situation quite eloquently.

Be sure to read the whole story, but briefly, his points are:

First, while accessory units may increase the population density of a neighborhood by today’s standards, they reverse a decades-long trend of de-densification….increasing numbers of accessory units allow urban neighborhoods to return to population densities for which they were originally designed. Why would cities support regulations to halt a healthy evolution?

Second, allowing homeowners to convert idle space (in the case of basement and garage apartments) or add new space (in the case of laneway houses) creates a revenue stream from the property.

Third, accessory units provide an alternative to institutionalizing the elderly in extended living facilities and nursing homes.

Fourth, there is a question of property rights. Conservatives believe in an expanded definition of property rights

Fifth, accessory units are fiscally efficient. They embed new housing in an existing urban fabric of streets, sidewalks, water, sewer and utilities.

I’m pretty sure James and I would not see eye to eye on many political issues, but on the concept of densification in our cities and laneway homes we have found common ground.

New Laneway proposals, you know, proposed

Jake Fry and the folks at SmallWorks were kind enough to send along the new regulations and guidelines that Vancouver City Council is considering.

Like us, Jake sees this as part of the evolution of laneway living in the city.

The regulations will be discussed at a Public Hearing on Tuesday, June 11, at 6 pm at Vancouver City Hall.

According to Smallworks, the proposed changes are:

Increasing the permitted floor area to .16 times the lot area, to a
maximum of 900 square feet;

Allowing an additional 40 square feet for storage space (either for
closet space or a separate storage room, e.g. for bike storage);
Increasing the permitted footprint of a one storey home by allowing it
to extend into the rear yard up to 6 feet so that all floor area can
be built at grade;

Continuing to require a 16 foot separation between a LWH and the main
house to maintain backyard open space;

Limiting the height of one storey units to the maximum allowed for a
garage (12 to 15 feet depending on roof form);

Allowing a 2 foot side yard on one side;

Allowing a 5 percent increase in site coverage (area that buildings
can occupy on a site) to a maximum of 45 percent.

DH and I are planning to attend the meeting — it looks like a great way to learn more about our city and its processes, plus connect with other laneway lovers.

 

Building on solid footings

It’s like a Hobbit house.  That is, its feet are larger than one expects.

The footings for the laneway house are now poured concrete, not just forms.

They are solid concrete — a sound foundation for our new home. Poured in the pouring rain.

Footings20130527

Footings.2_20130527

 

The rebar sticking out of the footings shows where the walls will go for our main floor.

Another super cool super small NYC apartment

Thius 425 square foot Manahttan apartment comes to us via the Inhabit website.

Manhattan-Micro-Loft-Specht-Harpman-5-537x357It’s another sleek, cool looking micro-apartment, built into a loft and over 3 floors.  Of course it is loaded with built-in storage — the space beneath the stairs is non-stop closet.  And it manages to maintain a comfortable feel while keeping clutter to a minimum.

The owners are using it as a pied-a-terre, not planning to live there full time, but I think it would be perfect for a single person (or a very compatible couple). I hope they hang a few paintings to take advantage of all that light.

BTW, you may want to subscribe to Inhabit’s newsletter.  It’s NYC-centric, but full of articles of interest to all sustainability and small-living fans.

Support laneway houses in Vancouver!

We knew that the City of Vancouver was discussing laneway houses.

But now they are asking for our input.

Want to show some support?

 Council referred proposed amendments to the laneway housing regulations and guidelines, and expansion of the program to Public Hearing on June 11th, 2013

interested in what they have to say?  Here’s the proposed amendments. I have to admit I flagged about page 32, but then, my evenings are full of placing items in cardboard boxes prior to the big move.  I will read it, and I will be at that meeting if it is at all possible.

Gotta walk the walk, know what I mean?

Thanks to the guys at Lanefab for the heads-up.

A new career opportunity? you could clean up!

We are packing and packing and packing.  And then we look around — and nothing’s packed.

It’s amazing how much crap er stuff one collects in just 13 years.  In less than 1500 square feet.  I’m throwing out tons.  And giving tons away.  But there’s still so much stuff!

Wouldn’t it be lovely if someone would come in and take care of all this for me?

Like Christine Smart of Designing Moves.

According to this article, she is just the sort of person who will take care of all those tedious details, like she did for the Thorpes of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

 She dove right in, arranging an auction, handling online sales on craigslist and eBay, and donating to charities. Ms. Smart also oversaw move-related details, such as cataloging items, space planning, packing, shipping and unpacking.

People in their senior years (ahem!) are downsizing from large homes to small. There is such a need for people who help the downsizers adapt to their new life that there’s  a National Association of Senior Move Managers.

Give me a few days and I will be on the phone to get their help.

Ain’t no place like a hole in the ground

I am crushed and downhearted by this recent provincial election.  Not because of the result.  I am disappointed by the result.  No, I am crushed and downhearted because over half the people in this province who were eligible to vote did not do so.

Really, people? Ever hear of the responsibilities of citizenship?  Universal sufferage?  One person, one vote?

I don’t want to hear your feeble excuses.  Woody Allen said that 80 percent of success is just showing up.  So next time, when we need you, show up already.

’nuff said.

Our home is currently a hole in the ground.  And as Bugs Bunny once sang, there ain’t no place like a hole in the ground.

with a big fat goon a’ floating around.

Now our land is well dug up, we were expecting to be moving along quite briskly.  But as Yosemite Sam might say, “Hold on, there, pardner”.  Life is a little more complicated than just building a hole in the ground and having someone pour concrete around it (see cartoon, above).

First:

  • our builders (Novell) will be preparing the site for WCB safety – tarps over dirt, barrier from falls, safe path of travel for surveyors and workers, etc.
  • there will be an inspection by Geo-Technical Engineer – for soil stability
  • there will be an inspection by WCB – for safety
  • then once they have the above items squared away, Novell will schedule the land surveyor to come and lay down markers that denote the corners for foundation.
These inspections will take at least a few days – by next week we hope to be into forming the foundation walls.
We’ll meet Novell for our first semi-weekly meeting next week.
Till then, as far as the build goes,  that’s all folks!

Day 1, Week 1

We were very excited when Laurel our designer told us that the excavator could start work on Monday, May 13.

So we were delirious when she said that they could actually start on Saturday, May 11!

The first thing I did was to take down the wall calendar and with my so-handy-for-labelling-moving-boxes Sharpie, marked a big “30” on the box for Saturday, May 11, and counted down each Saturday until November 30 — a 30-week build!

We were pretty busy yesterday with moving chores, but DD was on the spot to commemorate the moment when the excavator arrived.

Day1.7

It didn’t take long until the concrete slab at the back of the lot was demolished.

Day1.2

Day1.3

Day1.4

Day1.5

Day1.6

We dropped by after the fact to get a good look at a big pile of dirt.  No surprises in the way of oil tanks, boulders, or abandoned graveyards.

We are definitely on our way.

Laneway homes in the news

Two stories in the Vancouver Sun today about laneway homes:

West Vancouver is considering allowing laneway homes.  Or, as they say in the carriage trade, “coach houses”.

As a community planner put it all into perspective,

“We have a community that is aging, that needs different housing options. We have younger families who are having difficulty establishing themselves or remaining in West Vancouver because of the cost of housing,” Mikicich said. “At the same time, it’s a community that highly values the established character of its neighbourhoods.”

It’s a way to increase density in this charming suburb of Vancouver without incurring the “monster house” syndrome. As Jake Fry of Smallworks remarked,

“You may have more roofs per acre, but they’re going to be smaller roofs. They’ll probably even have less square footage per city lot, but there’s going to be more families and you’ll see the … communities become much more dynamic”

In this story, homeowners who have build laneway homes and applied for HST (now GST) rebates were instead charged bills by the CRA.  The Canada Revenue Agency rules are not just confusing, they can be contradictory.

It LOOKS straightforward, you build a house and apply for a tax rebate.

But where the rules may get sticky — especially in high-priced Vancouver — is when it comes to determining the value of a laneway home built as a rental.

“The GST/HST new residential rental property rebate is limited to rental units that are less than $450,000 at the time of substantial completion of construction,” CRA said.”

Most laneways can be built for less than $450K, but if you take the value of the property into account the value would be much greater.

To me, this is ridiculous.  You cannot find a property in Vancouver that is worth less than $450K.  As the writer, Don Cayo, says, determining the added cost of the property is difficult and moot:

But simple division may, in fact, overestimate the land value — it hasn’t been subdivided and it can’t ever be, so there’s no market reference to determine its value. Land assessments are usually based on “highest and best use,” but there’s no other use — or only unlikely or very limited use — for pieces of property that small. So their “worth” is highly hypothetical.

I’m taking more than a casual interest in how this plays out, so stay tuned for updates.

We have a cunning plan

We went over to see Laurel at  Novell and signed the contract and looked at the final plans and picked up our copies of the plans and the permits and signed a whopping great cheque.  And all is well. Better than well, really.

Would you like to see what the place will look like?

Like this:

Plans3.1

 

(click on the images to embiggen)

That’s the main floor — nice, dark bedroom with a lovely bright bath with the walk-in shower we wanted. Plus the washer/dryer, the clothes closet outside the sleeping space, and the storage for our shoes int the bottom two stairs.  Then upstairs

Plans3.2

the adorably small sitting room with the kitchen of our dreams — compact but just what we want. Plus the walk-out to the deck with green, living roof  all around it. A little deck off the north side stepping into our garden.

By the way, we were wondering the outside dimensions of the sectional we will be getting for our sitting area, so Novell kindly marked out the measurements — 4’2″ by 6’91/2″.

That is not the whole plan, of course, there is also a look at what the outside will be:

Plans5.1

That’s what you’ll see walking up the lane — except with lovely plants around the front door on the lower left. The pitched  metal roof is rolled steel, continuing onto the cladding on the front of the deck. the siding and the board and batten will be painted to match the main house.

Going clockwise, if you can sneak between the fence and the house, on the west side:

Plans5.2

See how you walk in on the lane level of the house and walk out on the yard level, with all the light coming through the windows. We have great plans for a green space between the home and the fence.

If you walk out the basement of the main house, you’ll see this:

Plans5.3

The metal roof is rolled steel, and you see how the foundation continues below grade — that’s our bedroom.  You see the bedroom window, with the little window between the counter and the upper cabinets of the kitchen on that side of the house.

And of course, the east side of the building:

Plans5.4

The bump up on the garage roof will be covered in living roof — with bulbs planted for a beautiful spring garden just outside our kitchen window.

S’pretty swell, isn’t it? You see how we couldn’t just buy a plan off the rack– the slope of the lot, plus our need for the special engineering the living roof requires meant that we needed something a little more…custom

Start of build will be May 13, and should last 30 weeks.

Bon yoyage, our little home!


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