7 things I’ll be looking for at the Tiny Home Show
By Maria Sturova, Editor of Tiny Homes in Canada.
Ontario’s first annual Tiny Home Show is bringing the tiny home movement together for a four-day summer extravaganza! As the editor of Tiny Homes in Canada, here are the things I’ll be looking for at the show:
1. Homes that cost less that 200K.
Yup, that’s pretty much the point of all of this. Homes that are more affordable than whatever’s been going on in the Ontario housing market. Although, even tiny homes are not free… builders have been complaining to me about supply issues and lumber prices since the pandemic.
2. Sexy models. Model HOMES that is!
Let’s stop and think about how amazing it is that we can tour multiple tiny homes in one place! Tiny homes shown at the show will include tours of the latest build from Fritz Tiny Homes – and you just know every detail of this home will be discussed at dinner tables of tiny home lovers for months!
Not one, but two tiny homes from the famous ZeroSquared will be tourable, the legendary Domek from Acorn Tiny Homes, a turnkey model from Tiny Footprint Homes, as well as a converted van from CAMPR. Last, but not least, you can also see container homes, trailers, bunkies, and cabins.
3. Making tiny homes a reality and finding LAND for tiny homes in Ontario.
I’m excited to meet with several speakers at the show that help us take the tiny home “from dream to reality”. The amazing Jen McCarthy from Teacup Tiny Homes has a presentation titled just that – because she knows all the emotional and logistical rollercoasters you will ride in your tiny home journey.
Heather and Kevin from Fritz Tiny Homes will show you how they build custom floorplans that are ultra-adapted to how YOU live – they famously get people off the fence about living tiny.
There will be MULTIPLE speakers there to talk to you about by-laws, zoning, land planning, working with municipalities. All that stuff that REALLY makes tiny living a reality.
Finally, the big moment. Bianca Metz’s Tiny Homes on Leased Land presentation. She’s been pretty closed-book about it as she worked out all the details of her framework, but when it’s unveiled at the show, this will be a shift for tiny homes in Ontario.
4. The live build by Girls Can Frame.
This particular side of the tiny home movement – women building their OWN homes to live how they like, where they like – literally gives me shivers of excitement. And who better to speak to them than someone who dedicates her voice to encouraging women to go into the building trades. My favourite quote from Brittany @girls_can_frame: “I absolutely love framing because you get to work with your hands and it’s basically an adult jungle gym”.
5. Off-grid living and green community planning.
I always say that the advent of tiny homes in Canada is a chance for us to re-examine HOW we live. Tiny homes offer a smaller footprint in so many different ways – physically, environmentally, financially. And they can be a part of a bigger picture of designing lifestyles that make less harmful impact and encourage us to have more respect for the nature that makes Canada amazing.
At the show, I will be looking for ideas on how to design a lifestyle, both individually and as a society. I am definitely attending the presentations about microgeneration wind energy (did you know you could have your OWN wind turbine?), solar energy, living off-grid, designing communities ecologically, and approaching tiny living as a system.
6. Municipalities taking a serious look at integrating tiny homes.
This is kind of a cool part of the show that will happen in the background on the Thursday. The Tiny Home Show is organizing a Municipal Conference Day and inviting municipal decision makers to come together for a discussion on how to take advantage of the opportunities brought forward by tiny homes.
I am told that there are representatives from over 20 Ontario municipalities already signed up – Mayors, Councilors, Chief Building Officers – all the people you want to see and touch real tiny homes and then take this information back to the table for discussion.
7. Q&As, where we can get real.
Where else do you get to be in a room with hundreds of other people who love tiny homes? The Q&As are actually sponsored by Tiny Homes in Canada and I can’t wait to meet you all and bring the right people on stage to answer your pressing and REAL questions about living tiny. See you there!