Living the acreage home dream
Not everybody wants t he energ y, noise and light pollution that comes from city living. I know that I don’t. As soon as I could, I got out of the city and into a rural neighbourhood outside of Toronto.
For a lot of homeowners, having a rural or acreage home is the dream. Think about it: depending on your budget, you can have all the privacy you want, with the freedom to design a custom home that completely suits your needs. With the space I have, I made sure that I carved a space out to build my dream garage — and that space has become my retreat. Some people like yoga; I like my garage.
But building an acreage home outside of your main city hub can come with its own set of unique concerns and problems.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Let’s say you’re going ahead with your acreage home. When you’re shopping for your home (whether it’s already built or you’re looking for a private piece of land), you’ve got a lot of factors to consider before you buy.
Think about the location of the lot relevant to the rest of your life. If you’re lucky enough to work from home, location may be less of a concern. But if you have a daily commute to the office ( plus kids to take to school, errands to run and other considerations), and you’re spending more time in your car than your home, an acreage lot way out in the country might not be the right choice.
If you’re building from scratch, what kind of soil conditions are on your lot? The soil around your home needs to properly support the foundation — and different soil or rock types will dictate what kind of foundation you’ll want to pour.
Weather can be unpredictable — and you never know when a flood could occur. Where does your lot sit on the flood plain? Each provi nce has i ts own regulations related to the flood plain, and if your lot isn’t far enough above the guidelines, you may have difficulty securing a mortgage and insurance.
What if your lot is too low? Well, you could be looking at trucking in a lot of extra soil to make up the needed elevation.
Before breaking ground on your project, plan for the future. Think about your dream home. Does it include a garage, swimming pool or some other structure? Even if they won’t be added for a few more years, plan your home as if they’ll be there from the beginning. That way, when you go to make the addition, you’ve already designated the space for it.
HOW WILL YOUR SYSTEMS WORK?
Once you know you’ve got a property that meets your needs, it’s time to think about how your finished structure will work for you. Your home needs to supply water, electricity, sewage systems, gas, and telephone and internet — and it may not be as simple as connecting to your city grid.
You may be able to connect to your municipality’s water supply. If not, you’ll need another solution like a well or a cistern. If you go with well water, you’ll have to dig a well and keep it properly maintained. Keep the land graded properly around the well so that groundwater runs away from the well. Check the state of your well cap often and have it professionally serviced about once a year ( and don’t forget to test it for radon). Your well won’t last forever, and when it starts to dry up, you’ll need to abandon it and build a new one.
For acreage homes far enough out of the city limits, you’ll likely be restricted to using a septic system in lieu of hooking up to the local sewers. A septic system needs to be regularly pumped out to flush out any solids that can’t be broken down over time, which will help increase its lifespan. The best time of year to clean it out is during the spring or summer. And install waterefficient fixtures to keep the system from working harder than it needs to.
If you can afford it, I’d love to see more acreage homes built that rely on solar technology as much as possible. It can help alleviate your reliance on the municipal power grid.
THINK ABOUT HOW YOUR FINISHED STRUCTURE WILL WORK FOR YOU. YOUR HOME NEEDS TO SUPPLY WATER, ELECTRICITY, SEWAGE SYSTEMS, GAS, AND TELEPHONE AND INTERNET — AND IT MAY NOT BE AS SIMPLE AS CONNECTING TO YOUR CITY GRID. — MIKE HOLMES