Idea for a Guest Cottage

Pacific Domes in Ashland, Oregon makes these appealing looking geodesic domes.

Who would have guessed that toilets could be so interesting?

Clearly, having only one bedroom is fine for one person, but could create problems when guests are around.

So I decided to remove the toilet from the bathroom, leaving space to put in a two-person sauna. I then created two new small rectangular bathrooms for the sink/toilet combo, one accessed from the kitchen, the other from the yoga room.

Here is a picture of the Caroma sink/toilet combo:

Then I was told that a sink over toilet looks like a jail toilet, and I read that you have to straddle the toilet to use the sink.  Clearly not ideal.

Here is another interesting solution by Sink Positive, a company in Greensboro, North Carolina which is a retrofit you can use to turn the toilet lid into a sink, delivering a clean, environmentally friendly, and touch-free hand wash with every flush.  This currently retails for US$139.  Compact, yes, but with the same drawbacks as the Caroma.

And for an ultramodern look, there is this option manufactured by Roca in Spain which has galleries in Madrid and Barcelona.

My solution will be to use either a corner toilet or compact toilet, with a tiny sink to one side of it, and change the room to a 36" to 42" square room.  A corner vanity could complete the bathroom.

Here is a compact toilet:

and small vessel sink I am considering from the Montreal-based company Bath Depot.

And my wish list includes an outdoor shower, for which I found a great plan with pictures.

Tiny House Kitchen and Bathroom

Designing a tiny house kitchen and bathroom requires a fair bit of creativity and research.

First, I did extensive research into small appliances and fireplaces, both online by visiting various stores and came up with a preliminary list and budget.  I discovered that it is very difficult to find much in between the tiny half fridges (not big enough) and the average fridges, which are too large.  

After a long look at all options, my initial list includes:

Kitchen:

•  a small 9 cubic foot fridge sourced at Costco
• a two burner electric glass cooktop from Home Depot
• a speed oven (combo oven, convection oven and microwave in one small unit the size of a wall oven), 
• and an all-in-one washer and dryer combination.  Since the tiny house can be built so economically, it makes it feasible to get higher end appliances.

Bathroom

• a combined sink/toilet from an Australian manufacturer called Carcoma
• a designer soaker tub with handheld shower

The idea was to have a single bathroom with two doors, one from the kitchen, and the other from the yoga room.

Design Phase

To help me with the design and provide an initial estimate, I contacted a tiny house company located in Fernie, BC, and a local builder on Gabriola.  Basing my design on the Jay Shaefer’s Marmara house, I created my first rough draft of a tiny house plan. 

This is a picture of the Marmara house and layout.

The idea would be to sleep in a double-bed sized loft that was 4 1/2 feet high in the middle, and to use the downstairs bedroom (also the size of a double bed) as a tiny yoga studio.  I would add double French doors to the living room area to open out onto my deck.

Once I discovered that I was not obligated to build the tiny house on wheels, and could legally put it on my property, I started working on the design of something a bit more appealing that did not have to be long and skinny.

And on Friday, October 23^rd, I sent my tiny house plan, version 2.0, to my builder, Elisha Bandel, who agreed to prepare a professional plan.  I made the house L-shaped, decided to only have a loft on one side, increased the size of the rooms, gave the yoga room/guest bedroom an outside entrance, and added a carport.  This is what the layout looks like:

But after thinking more about it, I made a few changes to include an outdoor shower, indoor sauna, and two separate mini bathrooms with toilets and sinks, one off the kitchen, and the other off the yoga room.

Here is Version 2.1:

Why Gabriola?

All my life I have dreamed of living by the ocean, and preferably on an island.  When I was in my thirties, my friend Margaret retired and moved to Salt Spring Island, which I loved, and where I even started looking for a piece of land. 

Much later, when a colleague told me that he had bought a house which he and his family were planning to retire to in a few years on Gabriola Island, I was curious to know more. I discovered that it was a beautiful little island located just off the coast of Vancouver Island, at the same latitude as Vancouver, that can be reached by ferry from Nanaimo or Vancouver, or by sea plane.

Unlike Victoria or Vancouver, real estate on this island is still affordable, even waterfront properties.  There are more than 250 artists who live in this community, with a vibrant cultural life including theatre festivals and concerts.  This delightful island community has most of the basics covered -  one grocery store, a hardware store, a handful of cafes and restaurants, a doctor’s office, a lawyer’s office, Descanso Bay Regional Park, which has a lovely campground, various beaches and hiking trails, a few bed and breakfasts, several yoga studios, and golf club, and two marinas.  Ocean kayaking and sailing are at your doorstop, with stunning views over the ocean towards Vancouver and the mountains, and towards Nanaimo, or south towards other Gulf Islands.

For for past few years I have been scanning the house listings on Gabriola, and dreaming about possibly moving there.  In the meantime, my brother moved to Vancouver Island, my sister and her husband were living on Salt Spring Island, my son decided to settle in Calgary, and my daughter, currently finishing her biology degree at the University of British Columbia, hinted that she would probably be staying out west after graduating.

In April of 2014, I took my first trip to Gabriola Island, staying at the Twin Beaches Bed and Breakfast, shown below, located near the two beaches on the northern part of the island, which is run by Josephine and Shaun, who came here from Nottingham, England.

While there I met with an engaging local real estate agent, Carol Martin, who took me on a power tour of the island and took me to see a number of different properties I had selected.  One of these sounded promising and was affordable, with fertile land that had been used in the past for market gardening.  It even had a tiny house studio on it, which was the first tiny house I had ever seen.  As we turned on to the road it was located on, Carol mentioned that it happened to be located beside the Gabriola Rod, Gun and Conservation Club... That was definitely a deal breaker.

Though I loved getting to know the island, none of the houses really caught my fancy.  Then a short time later after I got back home, I discovered a lovely property located on the southern part of the island near Drumbeg Park. As another trip west wasn't possible right away, I asked my daughter Sarah to visit the property and to give me her opinion.  Although I had only experienced it through her pictures and comments, I felt strongly drawn to this land, and by July the property on Whalley Road was mine.  This is a picture Sarah sent me when she first visited the property.

It had an old trailer on it when I purchased it, as well as a partially covered deck, a shed, electricity, and a well and septic system.  The trailer was not worth keeping, but I had a large tent which I used and camped on my property for a gloriously sunny week in July of 2014.

This is way to Drumbeg Park from my property, a mere five minutes away.

Views of Drumbeg Regional Park on the southern tip of Gabriola Island:

This bald eagle had a favourite tree where he would hang out.

On the last day of my week long visit, as I sat contemplating the gorgeous ocean view, I thought to myself, what would really make things perfect would be to see something like a seal.  Within minutes this cute little sea otter swam by me, then got out and posed for me before swimming away.

Back east, I thought by purchasing this land that it would help me define where I was going. After all, I had a destination now, and a special piece of land.  But it wasn't clear what to do next. I spent over a year deliberating, pouring over house plans for log cabins, tiny homes, and post and beam homes, and drawing up several different house designs, while continuing to look at Gabriola house listings.  The thought of building a home and starting a new garden from scratch was daunting, and nothing really called to my heart in a deep way. I also struggled with figuring out what my life would look like on Gabriola, whether I would find a part-time job, continue to teach yoga, or start a casual bed and breakfast.

Then in October of 2015 I saw a listing for a beautiful waterfront home on the east coast of the island with stunning views looking towards Vancouver and the mountains that was almost affordable, and got excited again.  Though the property had just sold, it made me realize that it was time for me to make a move.

My story

Unlike my parents, I had no particular desire to get married or buy a house.  After obtaining a B.A. from McGill University - majoring in Latin American Affairs and minoring in French - in Montreal, I found it difficult to find a satisfying job.  Feeling restless, I decided to head south to Latin America, and lived in Caracas, Venezuela for a month, than spent a year working in Panama, and several years living and working in Guatemala in the early 1980s.  I worked at the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala City, but under contract and on a local wage scale - $600 per month.  I also got married and my first child was born there.  The marriage was short-lived, so at the age of 27 I returned to Canada with my 14-month old son – and approximately $1,000 in savings - to rebuild my life.

Feeling that quality of life and having time to spend with my son was more important than amassing a fortune, I worked first as a research assistant and later as a multilingual translator, but still was not making much money and lived for several years in an apartment and subsequently in a condominium owned by my parents, who partially subsidized my rent.  The prospect of buying a house – especially as I was self-employed and only working part-time – seemed very far away or impossible.

When I was 36, I met my husband and we found a dream home, a century old farmhouse with barn, pond and stream running through the property, and swimming pool on five beautiful acres in rural Kanata.  We got married, and within a few years our family had grown to four children – my son who my husband adopted, our two children, and my niece who we adopted when she was six.

At the time, our plan was plan was to pay off our mortgage in twelve years.  We both had well-paying professional jobs at solid organizations – him with Nortel as a chip design engineer and me as a senior multilingual translator with Export Development Corporation.

However, instead we decided to build a garage with a family room on top, which sadly became our downfall.  The planned addition grew to a huge and expensive project that more than doubled the size of our home.  We created a beautiful family room with cathedral ceilings, post and beams and wood burning fireplace, with a large picture window looking out over the stream, added two bedrooms, bathroom, office, and second family room above the garage, increasing the size of our home to about 3,000 square feet.  Although we endeavoured to do as much of the work as we could, it was an enormous project.  I remember installing all the insulation, which is not a fun job!

Suddently we found ourselves with a huge debt, and became “house-poor”.  My plans for frequent travel to exotic destinations with my family needed to be radically curbed.  And eventually the combined stress of never-ending renovations and heavy mortgage payments contributed to the end of our marriage as well.

Starting again, I cashed in my meager retirement savings of $20,000 and used it as a down payment to buy a small bungalow on half an acre in Dunrobin Shores. And now, eight years later,  I find myself unemployed and reluctant to return to the 9-5 grind, the lengthy commute to downtown Ottawa, and to the mind-numbing office work I was doing a few years ago.  With my children now finishing university and on their own, once again I am free to pursue a new life.