Watch above: a 136 square foot home is generating interest around the city
SASKATOON – A 24-year-old Saskatoon woman is the proud owner of a 136 square foot home she and her friends built from the bottom up.
“I started to look at plans when I was 16 and every house I looked at had bonus rooms and just too much space,” said Lydia Holden.
“It’s that much more space to heat, that much more space to cool and to store junk in, and to clean.”
Now, her $30,000 home is energy efficient, eco-friendly and everything she needs.
“I have a living room with a day bed, which I call the reading nook, I have a propane fireplace for heat, the kitchen has a two burner stove, and a cooler that sits in a drawer under my counter space,” said Holden.
“There’s also a sink with a tea dispenser for instant hot water and a regular faucet, and the bathroom has a composting toilet and a shower.”
Watch below: From 16X9 – It’s a new trend in modern city living – homes so small they could easily fit in a garage
She also has an outdoor solar oven where she does much of her cooking.
“It’s an amazing way to live, it’s really freeing and it’s an excellent low income housing solution. It uses almost no power and no water, about 20 liters of water per day, including my shower,” added Holden.
The “amazing way to live” seems to be picking up momentum in Saskatoon. Holden has been fielding hundreds of calls from others interested in following suit.
“I get requests almost daily to help … Overwhelmingly it’s people that want to downsize, want to cut stuff out of their lives and want to travel.”
City of Saskatoon Planning and Development Director Alan Wallace said this way of living is 100 per cent legal in the Bridge City. The city has no minimum square footage guidelines, so these mini homes can be as small as the owner wants as long as they follow the building code.
“There’s really nothing that dictates the size of living room, size of kitchen but there is building code stipulations on size of hallway and accessibility, stuff like that,” said Wallace.
He added, if the home has a foundation it can be put on any lot but if it has wheels it has to stay in a mobile home park.
“We have had enforcement issues with people living in trailers, and there’s a real fine line between trailers and a mobile homes, like a camper trailer.”
Holden believes her style of living is still ahead of the City of Saskatoon but said it shouldn’t be long before they catch up with the trend.
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