Grounded Habitat · small homes on the BC coast

Where this actually is

Powell River is a ferry ride up the coast from Vancouver. Mainland, not the island, which surprises people. It is a small town with the ocean at the bottom of the hill and forest at the top of it, thirty two lakes within a short drive, and some of the mildest winters in the country.

We are building in Wildwood, on the north side, which is the semi rural half of town. Farms and acreage around you, trails and beach at the end of the road, the harbour ten minutes away. There are almost no condos in a neighbourhood like this, anywhere. Condos get built downtown, on serviced land, in rows. That is the whole reason this project exists.

There are only a few units. You would have a couple of neighbours who chose the same thing you did, and that is the whole arrangement.

Drawn map of the coast north of Vancouver showing Powell River on the mainland, Vancouver Island to the west, and ferry routes up from Vancouver and across from Comox. — Two ferries up from Vancouver, or one across from Comox if you are coming off the island. Far enough that nobody arrives by accident, close enough that people do come.

The coast is not expensive. Living on it badly is.

People hear west coast and think out of reach. What is out of reach is Vancouver. Up here, most of the best of it costs nothing at all.

Beach camping all summerfree
Swimming in thirty two lakesfree
The Sunshine Coast Trail, 180 km of itfree
Chanterelles and pines in the fallfree
Watching the ferry go by, which people dofree
Oysters and clams off the beachlicence, about $25 a year
Crab, prawns, codtidal licence, about $25 a year
A slip in the harbourcheapest on the coast

The honest other half: you will not eat out five nights a week the way you might in Chiang Mai or Puerto Vallarta. Restaurants here are a treat, not a habit. For six months of the year that is an easy trade, and it is most of what makes the arithmetic work.

Who these are for

Half your year in Canada, half of it somewhere warm. If you already leave in November for Mexico, Thailand, Portugal, you know the problem. You still need a base here, and a full sized house is a lot of money and a lot of upkeep to leave standing empty for six months.

That is what these are. A base. Small enough to lock up and walk away from, cheap enough that leaving it empty half the year does not sting.

They are being built for that life first, not adapted to it afterward. The standard snowbird place assumes you drove here, you are staying put, and you are done working. That is not you. You fly, you land with two bags, you have work that follows you, and you are gone again in the fall. So the design starts from lock it and leave it: storage for the gear you actually keep, one room good enough to work a full day in, and nothing outside that needs a person while you are away.

I am one of these people. These are designed the way I want to live.

Six months here, six months warm

If you already winter in Chiang Mai or Oaxaca or the Algarve, you know the arithmetic. Your money goes a long way there. What you need on this end is a place to come back to, and it should not cost you twelve months of carrying to use it for five.

Six months is the number that keeps coming up. Provincial health coverage expects you to be in British Columbia for most of the year, and permanent residents have their own presence requirement to meet. Check the current rules against your own situation, because they change and they are not the same for everyone. But the shape of it is simple, and it is not a burden if the six months you spend here are the six you actually want.

And they are. You would be here spring through fall. Long evenings, water warm enough to swim in by July, the whole coast open. You would leave around the time the rain settles in for good, which is also the time everywhere you fly to is at its best.

You are not off the grid here

Fibre optic to the door, so the work you do from anywhere you can do from here. A bus stop next door. Town within walking distance.

You are not stuck with the ferry either. Pacific Coastal flies to Vancouver out of the airport here, and Harbour Air lands a float plane on the water. For a place this size and this price, that is an unusual amount of way in and out.

And then there is the place itself

Sailing people already know this water. It is one of the reasons anyone has heard of this coast at all. Beaches that are clean, empty most of the time, and warm enough to swim in through the summer. Fish and crab you can catch yourself and food you can pick off the ground in the fall. The air here has held a world record for how clean it is.

And for a town this size there is a surprising amount going on. A real arts scene, festivals through the summer, and people who say hello to you on the road.

There is work here too, if you want it

Summer is the season this town earns in, and the people who do well off it are mostly working for themselves. Food vendors do real business in a few good months. Schools hire. Health care is always short handed. If you have a trade, a skill, or something you make, the summer here is a market and the winter is somewhere else.

Nobody needs a job to buy one of these. But it is worth knowing that the half of the year you spend here is the half where the money is.

What we are building

Compact homes, smaller than a standard condo, and that is deliberate. Square footage is most of what you pay for. Closer in spirit to a good small apartment in Japan or Mexico than to a BC townhouse, where you buy a lot of room you use twice a year.

What we will not compromise on is soundproofing, privacy, usefulness and character.

Soundproofing and privacy because that is what cheap builds get wrong, and it is what you live with every single day. You should not hear your neighbour.

Usefulness because at this size every square foot has to do a job. Nothing in the plan is there to pad out a number on a listing.

Character because small and affordable is no excuse for building something forgettable. It should feel like somewhere, not like a unit.

Built with licensed local trades, and some of the work done by hand, the way I have always done it.

Line drawing of the inside of a small home: gabled ceiling, a large window with a desk beneath it, a wood stove and a shelf.

What is in them

Built in storage for your bikes and your canoe, so the gear is not living in your living room
A fireproof safe under the house for documents and valuables while you are away
One main room that genuinely works as living room and office
A separate bedroom, plus fold down sleeping so six can stay when family comes
No lawn. Nothing to mow, nothing to maintain, nothing to arrange while you are gone

What you are giving up

They are small. Somewhere around 400 to 450 square feet. If that number stops you it should, and better now than later.
It is a ferry ride. Two if you come from the island. Plan around the schedule and it is fine. Fight it and it will irritate you forever.
It is a small town, not a resort. There is one of most things and none of some.
It is not built yet. 2027 into 2028. If you need keys this year, this is not the one.

About the price

I am not going to put a number on a page for something that is not built. What I will put in writing is the target: cheaper than any condo currently for sale in Powell River, in a neighbourhood where nobody builds condos at all. Affordable is not a feature of this project, it is the reason for it.

Come in early and you get the lowest price and a real say in your own unit.

Who you would be dealing with

I am Tye. I grew up in real estate, fixing up and flipping houses with my dad. The first place I owned was an abandoned cabin, rotten through, that I rebuilt by hand. Since then I have bought and sold houses privately, by owner, because I would rather deal with a person than a sales office.

Which is also why you are reading this instead of a listing.

I live here. I am building this for myself as much as for anyone.

You could probably live here if you could afford it. Now you can.