Home, sweet (very tiny) home

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This article was published 29/10/2015 (3812 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The tiny-house movement has arrived in Manitoba.

The province’s first custom designer and builder of tiny houses — Mini Homes of Manitoba (MHM) — is holding its first public open house this weekend in Winnipeg to show off its first completed project — a two-bedroom, 342-square-foot “park home” mounted on a custom-built 8.5-metre-long trailer.

MHM co-founder Anita Munn said she and her husband, Darrell Manuliak, have sold three mini homes since the middle of last month. The one that will be on display this weekend took them and a friend about a month to build.

“We have the second build starting next week and after that, the third,” she said.

Although the concept has been around for years, the tiny-house movement has taken on added life in recent years in the wake of rising rents and soaring house prices, particularly in larger cities. A growing desire, especially among younger people, for a simpler, more ecologically sustainable lifestyle, coupled with a slew of reality TV shows (Tiny House, Big Living, Tiny House Nation and Tiny House Builders), have also helped to boost the profile and the demand for the lower-cost housing option.

Munn said MHM’s goal is to offer Manitobans affordable housing that will give them both financial freedom and the ability to enjoy their energy-efficient homes year-round.

She said the three homes they’ve sold so far are all “park home” models that cost between $45,000 and $68,000, depending on the size and the level of finishing. Although they can be used as recreational vehicles, the three buyers intend to use them as their primary residences, she said.

Winnipegger Alison Marquez was the first Manitoban to sign on the dotted line. It’s her house that will be on display at this weekend’s open house, which runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at MHM’s shop in Unit 13, 1557 Brookside Blvd. (west of Route 90).

The web designer and mother of two young sons — Avery, 7, and Gavin, 4, — said she considered buying a condominium, a traditional small home, and a mobile home.

“But I would have had to take out a mortgage for a long period of time,” Marquez said.

Then she heard about tiny homes, came across MHM’s website, and after several meetings with Munn and Manuliak, “just sort of took a leap and did it.”

She’ll be parking her energy-efficient home in the yard of Winnipeg relatives. She’ll pay them for the use of their water and electricity, and her home will have its own composting toilet.

“We’re not breaking any rules,” she said. “People are allowed to have a trailer on their property… That’s what this is, and that’s how it’s insured.”

Marquez said she likes the fact her home is mobile, and her bank loan — she couldn’t get a mortgage because it’s considered a trailer or recreational vehicle — should be paid off within five years.

“I will have a home and won’t have any mortgage. We can do a lot of different things with that (extra) money.”

She admits there will be an adjustment period as she and her sons get used to living in a home that’s a little more than a third the size of the condo they’re now living in.

“We’ll obviously have to get rid of a lot of stuff, and once we’re in there we won’t have the option of accumulating a lot of things,” she said. “But I’m also kind of teaching my kids something by doing this as well — that you don’t have to have a really big house or a really nice car or whatever. You can kind of live simply and have the freedom that comes from that.”

Munn and Manuliak, who grew up together in The Pas and describe themselves as longtime “minimalists,” have previous experience renovating homes.

Before launching MHM, they managed a local fishing lodge for two years.

Munn said designing and building tiny homes is something they’ve dreamed about for a long time. If their new venture is successful, they also hope to buy some land outside the city and build a tiny home for themselves and for each of their five children.

“Both my husband and I think they are just the neatest thing ever, and we think the (tiny house) movement is just amazing,” she said.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca