Toronto's Smallest House for Sale - Again

March 26, 2010 9:09 PM

We saw a post about the Little House back in 2007. It sold for $139000 then. About a year ago it sold for approximately $173000. Now, it's up for sale again at reportedly $180000. It's been renovated and now has it's own site complete with a gallery, history, and celebrity endorsement.
posted by juiceCake (24 comments total)

Let the bidding war begin...
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:38 PM on March 26, 2010

Hey, if they ever put that second storey bedroom on it as planned, it might be quite a liveable place, assuming the purchaser could live down the shame of being associated with such a twee website.
posted by maudlin at 9:41 PM on March 26, 2010

This is less than $10 per Mefi-ite - or if 1% of Metafilter members put in $1000...

We could paint it blue!

(Yes, I'm in, even for several shares...)
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:45 PM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

If that house was in Vancouver (and many like it soon will be since laneway housing was recently approved) it would be a good deal. Residential vacancy rates here are hovering around 2% and a typical bachelor suite can cost as much as $950 per square foot.
posted by Pseudonumb at 9:46 PM on March 26, 2010

If only Boston would take a hint and let us build on 4000 sq ft lots. Maybe I should send a picture of this house to Mayor Menino?
posted by 1adam12 at 9:57 PM on March 26, 2010

But was Little House, like Tiny House, built too small?
posted by sallybrown at 9:57 PM on March 26, 2010

Forgot to mention that we've now got 270 sq.ft. "micro lofts" here too. Almost Tokyo-esqe.
posted by Pseudonumb at 9:58 PM on March 26, 2010

yeah...that's small all right, but i bet the doorknobs are too high, the chairs are unwieldy, and it's high-ceilinged rooms mock my tiny stature.
posted by sexyrobot at 10:05 PM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Just the other day I was speculating that the perception that a property should be cheap might drive more customers toward it and drive the price up. And, with the way MLS hides priors and comparables from the public in Canada, I bet that effect is even stronger.
posted by Chuckles at 10:35 PM on March 26, 2010

I wouldn't mind living in a studio sized house, although I think mine is a tad bigger than that.
posted by QuarterlyProphet at 10:35 PM on March 26, 2010

I like the house fine but it's not even close to the smallest house in Toronto. The house at 36 Hanson Street is much smaller and the smallest house I know of in the city.
posted by dobbs at 10:36 PM on March 26, 2010

Feasible? I do not think it means what they think it means:

The proposed second storey is feasible [...] subject to augmenting the foundation and [...] subject to City approval.

posted by Chuckles at 10:45 PM on March 26, 2010

Wow, as a rust-belt city dweller, prices like that just blow my mind. That's 9 times more expensive than my house priced by square foot. I like Toronto but not enough to have to live in a house smaller than my current bedroom.
posted by octothorpe at 5:57 AM on March 27, 2010

I used to live in a place with a Murphy bed, and they seem really useless to me - you fold them back into their closet and you've got this empty space that you can't really put furniture or anything in, because you'll be bringing the bed back out that evening. Not to mention you could be putting other stuff in that closet instead, and Murphys eliminate the possibility of under-bed storage. It'd be good if you work out at home, but other than that, what? Maybe a very small dance party?
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:10 AM on March 27, 2010

I can see how 'augmenting the foundation' might be tricky as, short of lifting the entire house up, there doesn't seem to be any access to the foundation. I think I'd just hang the new floor off the neighbouring houses, and cross fingers they don't notice the drilling in the walls.
Still, turning it into a box is going to steal a lot of its considerable charm.
posted by Flashman at 6:52 AM on March 27, 2010

The house at 36 Hanson Street, Toronto, ON, CA.
posted by Decimask at 7:16 AM on March 27, 2010 [2 favorites]

That place is tiny! That, or Toronto grows some giant flowers.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:42 AM on March 27, 2010

According to Some Guy on the Internet ("DBoi"), 36 Hanson is a workshop, not a place someone lives in full-time. (Warning: link goes to a page with a large number of Google streetviews and may be slow to load.)

This is kind of turning into a reverse of the world's tallest edifice/building/freestanding structure/antenna/whatever problem. Unless 36 Hanson is a lot deeper than it appears in that Google link, it probably is the smallest self-contained building with plumbing and electricity in Toronto. It is almost certainly the smallest workshop, and, depending on your definition of house, it could be the smallest house in Toronto, too, especially if someone now takes up the challenge of living there full time.

I'd love to see inside it, actually, because its boxy open shape seems more liveable than the ambitious tunnel on Day Ave. If you treat 36 Hanson as an independent studio apartment, with an open kitchen and a tiny walled off bathroom, it may even be rather luxurious compared to flats like these.
posted by maudlin at 8:18 AM on March 27, 2010

I live on Hanson Street. 36 ain't deeper than it looks.
posted by jamesonandwater at 9:23 AM on March 27, 2010

300 square feet for $180K.... isn't that considered a "good deal" in Manhattan?
posted by crapmatic at 9:30 AM on March 27, 2010

This is less than $10 per Mefi-ite

I call the couch.
posted by swift at 10:25 AM on March 27, 2010

36 Hanson look to me like a workshop because it still has the garage doors on the side.
posted by bonobothegreat at 11:25 AM on March 27, 2010

That house is right next door to the home of one of my good friends -- I was just there today, dropping her off. While we were out, she told the story of waking up this morning, turning on Breakfast Television, and seeing live pictures of the front of her house, which she was just waking up in. She said it was kind of a surreal feeling.

Personally, I think she should have aimed her television out the window to see if she could set up some kind of universe destroying recursion.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:56 PM on March 27, 2010

Personally, I think she should have aimed her television out the window to see if she could set up some kind of universe destroying recursion.

I used to do that with video cameras at the Bay, it creates a really cool effect :)
posted by Chuckles at 2:32 PM on March 28, 2010