Comments on: Toronto's Smallest House for Sale - Again

Toronto's Smallest House for Sale - Again

juiceCake — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:09:16 -0800

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.

By: bonobothegreat

bonobothegreat — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:38:28 -0800

Let the bidding war begin...

By: maudlin

maudlin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:41:41 -0800

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.

By: lupus_yonderboy

lupus_yonderboy — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:45:49 -0800

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...)

By: Pseudonumb

Pseudonumb — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:46:45 -0800

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.

By: 1adam12

1adam12 — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:57:06 -0800

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?

By: sallybrown

sallybrown — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:57:25 -0800

But was Little House, like Tiny House, built too small?

By: Pseudonumb

Pseudonumb — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:58:46 -0800

Forgot to mention that we've now got 270 sq.ft. "micro lofts" here too. Almost Tokyo-esqe.

By: sexyrobot

sexyrobot — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:05:53 -0800

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.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:35:08 -0800

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.

By: QuarterlyProphet

QuarterlyProphet — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:35:43 -0800

I wouldn't mind living in a studio sized house, although I think mine is a tad bigger than that.

By: dobbs

dobbs — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:36:03 -0800

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.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:45:05 -0800

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.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 05:57:38 -0800

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.

By: Metroid Baby

Metroid Baby — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 06:10:10 -0800

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?

By: Flashman

Flashman — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 06:52:14 -0800

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.

By: Decimask

Decimask — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 07:16:53 -0800

The house at 36 Hanson Street, Toronto, ON, CA.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 07:42:09 -0800

That place is tiny! That, or Toronto grows some giant flowers.

By: maudlin

maudlin — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:18:11 -0800

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.

By: jamesonandwater

jamesonandwater — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:23:54 -0800

I live on Hanson Street. 36 ain't deeper than it looks.

By: crapmatic

crapmatic — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:30:44 -0800

300 square feet for $180K.... isn't that considered a "good deal" in Manhattan?

By: swift

swift — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 10:25:50 -0800

This is less than $10 per Mefi-ite I call the couch.

By: bonobothegreat

bonobothegreat — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:25:03 -0800

36 Hanson look to me like a workshop because it still has the garage doors on the side.

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 20:56:11 -0800

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.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:32:15 -0800

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 :)