These creative Torontonians are re-imagining what a home can be

Faced with steep rents in Toronto, Adam Crawford decided to ditch land altogether and move full time onto a sailboat.

Since 2013, home has been on his 38-foot boat, purchased for about $70,000 and docked at Bluffer's Park Marina in Scarborough.

"It's like a small apartment," he told CBC Toronto.  

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The boat has a kitchen with a freezer, fridge and stove, a queen bed, a diesel furnace for heat, and a bathroom with a functional shower he can stand up in.

"I love it," said Crawford, who works full time in the film industry. "My living expenses are about $800 a month."

That money gets him his slip, or boat parking space, as well as parking spots for cars, electricity, and access to the marina's coin laundry room.

Crawford even has space to house his 15-year-old son in a tucked-away bunk when he visits, and frequently hosts his girlfriend.

His favourite thing about a life on water? The community that comes with it.

"Everybody down here has their own story, has their own reason for being down here, and we all look out for each other," he said — though it's not for everyone.

"I've seen a lot of people who've [come] and they'll last maybe a season," he said. "If you don't have the proper heat and the proper set up, it's cold."

For Crawford, though, it's the perfect deal.

"I want to able to spend my money on things other than a roof over my head. I want to be able to take my kid to a hockey game, I want to be able to take my girlfriend out for dinner," he said.

From small condo … to tiny house

A short drive away from where Crawford docks his boat, another Toronto family is considering its own unconventional housing strategy: making the jump from a North York condo to a tiny house.

"This is a good size for us here, but it is a little more than what we need so downsizing would be beneficial," says Vanessa Culliton.

She and her husband Jeremy have two kids under the age of six, and want to build a pint-sized house that would have a tiny bedroom for each of their kids. So-called tiny houses generally have 500 square feet of living space or less and some can even be put on wheels so they can be towed.

The issue, Jeremy Culliton explains, has been locating a piece of land in the Toronto area that they can rent or buy, and figuring out which bylaws would apply to the tiny home they want to build, since rules vary in different parts of the city.

"In Scarborough for example, you're technically not allowed to have a second structure [on the property]." he says.

The couple also considered putting their tiny house on wheels to dodge some building bylaws, though a city spokesperson told CBC Toronto that individuals are not allowed to live in vehicles in the city.

For the Culliton family, it's as much about reducing their environmental impact as keeping costs down.

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"[Tiny homes] are also a movement, kind of a lifestyle change too, because everything in your home has a purpose," Vanessa Culliton says.

"The size of houses right now are beyond what we really need. And terms of the environment and the world and the future, I think that we do need to go smaller again."

They aren't the only ones considering a severe downsize. 

To move the process forward, Vanessa Culliton posted a Kijiji ad searching for a piece of land, but said they've had no offers in Toronto, with the bulk of the replies coming from other people looking to go the tiny home route as well.