From Expansive Rental to Tiny House
The Torrance Family Leila, 27; Andrew, 31; Henry, 11 months
It’s fair to say that when it comes to her home, avoiding a big monthly payment ranks high on Leila Torrance’s to-do list. That’s one reason why, in 2015, Torrance and her husband, Andrew, decided to move out of their 1,700-sq.-ft., $2,200-a- month rental in Edmonton. The place was weighing them down — and not just financially. “We weren’t even using half of it. It was empty space collecting dust,” she says. The couple packed up and headed about an hour north to
Westlock County, Alta., where they bought a five-acre property for $50,000. At first they lived in a 22-ft., fifth-wheel trailer straight out of the 1970s. But in October 2017, they moved into a tiny custom-built home. The 350-sq.-ſt. space has a kitchen, bathroom, living area and two sleeping loſts. It’s a fraction of the size of their home in Edmonton, at a fraction of the cost — this one was an affordable $85,000. There’s a bigger-than-ever demand for tiny houses, in part because of their huge popularity on home-and-garden televi- sion shows. Robert Leonardo, a founding board member of the nonprofit Tiny Home Alliance Canada (THAC), a resource for people interested in building tiny homes, says there’s been an “explosion” in the movement since THAC launched in 2014. “At that time there were only one or two builders and no information out there. Canadians were asking questions about this type of living on US websites because there wasn’t really an industry here at that time,” he says. Leonardo is interested in all things tiny homes — he spent
a couple of years researching and reading everything he could find on the topic. When he and his wife realized they were
getting “priced out of the middle class” in Ottawa, they decided to live a more minimalist lifestyle. They relocated to Loreburn, Sask., purchased and modified plans for their own tiny home and are now eagerly anticipating living in a 270-sq.- ſt. space on wheels by 2019. Including appliances, cork floors, off-grid systems (solar and water filtration), Leonardo guesses his final bill will come to about $70,000. “There’s definitely a financial driver — we can’t control our income, but this is a way to control how much we’re spending on our home,” he says. “Whether you have money or not, larger houses equal larger mortgages, and people are highly motivated to get out of spending thousands each month on where they live.” Other pros, of course, include eco-friendly living. Maryse
Gauthier, quality assurance manager with Ilo Tiny House in Napierville, Que., says these homes use minimal construction materials. Plus, it’s easy to use green technologies to reduce your carbon footprint because the houses are built to work with solar panels. There is also a psychological advantage. “When you decide to downsize, you are making a conscious decision to get rid of stuff you don’t need — you only keep what’s necessary and that is very liberating,” she says. Meanwhile, the Torrances, with some extra cash in their
pocket, are looking forward to what their simpler life will mean. “We both have school debts to pay off and love to travel, so we wanted time and money to do that,” Leila says. “We’ve also been trying to get off the consumerism bandwagon. We want to be forced outside, spend less time cleaning and more time planning adventures.”
36 | CPA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2017
Photos courtesy of the Torrance Family and Steve Zaleschuk/Finished Right Contracting
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
