Building a tiny house (or having one built, as I am doing) might be the easiest part of going tiny! The big issue - particularly for a tiny house on wheels - is where to park it. There are very few places in Canada that it is legal to park a tiny house. Some RV parks allow them but it is not easy to find anywhere on private land (a backyard, a farmer's field, a business property, etc.) that they are allowed. In fact, at least where I live, you can't even live in one if it is your own land. It seems just a little bit crazy to me!
Town councils and city planners are only now starting to discuss and consider tiny houses as viable housing. A mere year ago, I contacted all thirteen of the local municipalities and received continual no's when I asked about zoning bylaws for tiny houses. Most said changing the bylaws was not even something in discussion or on their radar. Things are shifting though - we now have several municipalities discussing or working on this issue as well as one municipality interested in working with our group to develop a tiny house community if we are able to find land and work out all the details involved in such an ambitious project.
I am optimistic that by the time my home is ready (May 2017), that there will be legal options of places to park it. If not, I will have to make the choice of whether to put the house into storage temporarily or take my chances and find someone willing to accommodate me and my little house in spite of the laws. I wouldn't be the first to do so - there are countless tiny houses across North America that are living illegally. As long as the neighbours don't complain, it is not usually an issue. However, I would much prefer to be living within the law and without the constant worry of being discovered and evicted by municipal officials.
In preliminary research of potential locations, I have already found several possible properties. All but one have not worked out for different reasons. Two of them would have been, although not the perfect location, wonderful spots to live. Both of those fell through due to the owner simply changing their mind about either sharing their property or breaking the law and having a tiny house on-site. Both of those were big disappointments as I could have easily visualized living there quite contentedly. One of them was a great location but the owner was judgmental, outspoken and racist. Just a phone call with the owner was enough to make me know that I did not want to share a property of any size with that person in spite of the prime location. The one that is still an option is not in an area I want to live. Essentially, I want to live within a 30-minute commute from my workplace and in a place that I am not nervous about driving home to on a dark rainy (or snowy) night. Any of the other things on my wish list (near good off-leash dog areas, close to the ocean, surrounded by nature, privacy, fenced yard, etc.) take a back seat to those priorities.
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