News

Another Smallworks' Laneway House near completion & ready for rental!

August 30, 2010

Located in East Vancouver near Broadway and Nanaimo, this 500 square foot, one and a half level, one-bedroom laneway home has state-of-the-art mechanical systems and appliances, and lots of built-in storage for a small space, making it ideal for one or two people.

Call 604.255.5507 for more information and to arrange a viewing.

Smallworks Laneway Loft House Nominated!

July 23, 2010

As part of their Design Project Review for the week of July 23, 2010, John Brown and Matthew North of Slow Home selected 3 exceptional designs to vote on for best single family home in Vancouver.

Smallworks Laneway Loft House is one of the three designs selected! Go here to check out the designs and vote for your favourite!

Smallworks Summer Open House

July 16, 2010

This Smallworks Laneway House is a customized model of our Loft Home. Designed to fit with an existing classicly-styled home, it provides an open, bright, and functional interior.

Come celebrate its completion! Representatives from Smallworks will be present to welcome you and answer your questions about our unique approach to Laneway Housing.

Details for Smallworks Open House:

July 17, 2010
Time: 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Location: 217 West 21st Avenue, Vancouver

We hope to see you there!

Pre-approved by the City of Vancouver for a Sloped Lot!

July 8, 2010

In just 16 weeks this 700 sq. ft. customized loft-style lanehouse can grace your property.

Proprietary building envelope, sustainable high efficiency heating system, custom millwork, hardwood and polished concrete flooring, attractive European appliance package!

Get the details here.

Our Mini Lane House

June 10, 2010

100 sq. ft. of living space without the hassle of a renovation!

If you have ever dreamed of a home office, studio, music room, guest suite or reading nook ... we can bring your dream to life.

Get the details here.

Vancouver Loft Laneway House
Available for Rent!

May 26, 2010

This exclusive high end, unfurnished loft lane home, designed and built by Smallworks Studios and Laneway Housing Inc., is one of the first official laneway homes now available to rent in Vancouver. Centrally located within an easy commute to downtown, UBC, and Vancouver General, Children’s, and BC Women’s Hospitals, this home is located near Cambie and 21st.

This lane house is a 474 sq. ft. home built on 2 levels (including the balcony, the total square footage is 543 sq. ft.). The entrance is directly off the laneway and has a combined state of the art kitchen, dining/living/den space, and bathroom on the main floor. The high ceiling affords a spacious bedroom combined with a living room/den space with a glass view loft onto the lower level. Off the bedroom there is a large, truly breathtaking balcony overlooking the mountains.

This home is currently undergoing its final touches. View examples of the interior style here. (Actual differences are minor.)

Flooring on the ground level is radiant heat with a high gloss finish. The stairs and second level floors are hardwood. The latest in contemporary finishings and designer fir cabinetry throughout. The galley kitchen has high end stainless steel appliances: stacked washer/dryer in an enclosed cupboard, tall fridge/freezer, microwave, gas oven/stove, drawer style dishwasher. There is also a rollaway table with additional cupboard space below that can be moved over to the kitchen to give extra counter space (comes with 2 leather bar stools). The bathroom has a full size tub/shower and raised sink with a spacious vanity and two medicine cabinets.

There is a storage closet under the stairs. The lock secure utility room off the laneway has space for one bicycle, or sports equipment, or stacked tubs. In the backyard, under the owner’s house, there is also a very large roll away storage bin that is exclusively for renter use (3ft X 9ft X 3 ft deep). This bin is off the ground and comes with a lock.

The garage section of the building is NOT included in this rental. The backyard that is between this laneway home and the main house will be completely relandscaped and available for shared use.

Rent for this exclusive unit is $1650 a month; one year lease with month by month agreement after the first year. Utilities are not included but paid separately by the renter (hydro, gas, cable, internet). Non smokers only need apply. Open to the possibility of one small pet, upon approval.

To view contact Karen at 604-737-1908

Smallworks Open House

May 20, 2010

We’re holding an Open House this weekend at our latest Smallworks Laneway House to celebrate its completion! This particular model was customized to fit in context with the existing classicly-styled home and provide an open, bright, and functional interior for the client’s use.

Come by, have a look, and chat with Jake Fry and Kate Allen from Smallworks who will be happy to show the house and answer any questions you may have on laneway housing.
Details for Smallworks Open House:

May 22, 2010
Time: 2:00 - 5:00 PM
Location: 373 E Woodstock Avenue

Thanks from all of us- we hope to see you there!

Coach House Guidelines

May 7, 2010

We’re pleased to announce that the City of North Vancouver released its Coach House Guidelines last week to allow for development opportunities within the City’s single-residential lots. The Coach House Community Working Group engaged the City council as well as its residents to develop guidelines for the buildings that reflect the needs and values of the City of North Vancouver. Some of the details surrounding the guidelines include:

- a two-tier approach with 800 square feet, single-storey homes available through a faster process, and a longer more involved approval process with up to 1000 square feet with a one-and-a-half storey unit
- parking provided for both units on the lot
- minimum requirements for a lot; at least 3960 square feet and lot width of 10m

Smallworks is happy to offer our services for incorporating a Coach house on a lot with an existing home. With a standard model for the single storey option, we can further streamline the planning process, while individualizing the finishes and fixtures to suit personal needs and aesthetics. Take a look at our Project Gallery for project inspiration, and contact us for more information on our services or Coach Housing today!

An Update on SMALLWORKS

March 25, 2010

We have entered into another round of building permits issued from City Hall and are also happy to report our first group of homes is coming to completion. We are in full operational mode now and meeting the expectations we have set for ourselves as a company.

The WestHouse, our joint project with Simon Fraser University, has moved from the Olympic site and will be installed at its Legacy Vancouver location at 2009 Stainsbury Avenue prior to the end of the month. All stakeholders are very pleased with the project and our showing at the Olympic venue.

Our working relationship with the architecture firm Birmingham and Wood has been very successful and they have delivered excellent support to our clients and our company to date. We also have a new design to add to our portfolio that we are very excited about and will be available in the near future.

With this expanded support from B&W, we have made a decision to slightly reorganize our company. To this end, Aaron Rosensweet, who had led our design team, will be leaving the company to pursue other interests. We want to thank Aaron for all of his efforts over the last 3 years and wish him well in his future endeavors.

NEW YEAR

December 31, 2009

Best wishes for the forthcoming year, and it is my sincere hope that 2010 is a great year for all of us. Several of the families working with us, including some of our own in the Smallworks team, will see their families expand with children on the way. Congratulations!

Others families are in the midst of getting a LWH so parents can move onto their properties, or young adults can move into Vancouver and have their own home in the city.

To all of you working with us, Thank You. We are looking forward to getting your new little homes built and looking beautiful.

OUR FIRST LANE WAY HOME

Brad and Lara our first LWH. Fantastic – December Ground Breaking - literally

OUR FACTORY

More information and photos to come but our wonderful Panel Workshop is up and running. We are going to have an open house in March for all to see our fantastic facility! I will send you the invitations soon.

Permits Issued

November 23, 2009

We are very excited to announce that we have just picked up our first three building permits from the City of Vancouver for our Laneway House projects.

Thanks to everyone on our team, PLUS James Burton and Mike Lemon of Birmingham and Wood for great looking first set of pre-approved Laneway Homes. Also thanks to everyone at city hall in the planning and engineering departments for facilitating what we think will become a great part of living in our city.

When we first came up with the idea for a company that would design and build Laneway Houses, we naively thought it would be a simple task to get this idea going. Our dream in promoting Laneway Houses was to create fantastic small homes for families in a residential neighbourhood setting.  

Although it took longer to get the idea off the ground than we had thought, everyone's support and encouragement for our idea has kept us going. Four and a half years later, we are finally at the place we have dreamed of.

Construction on our first building is set to start next week with the next two projects following shortly. We have ten other permits in various stages of approval.

We are also putting the finishing touches on our 'factory' a new 10,000 sqft panel pre-fabrication production facility located next to our custom millwork shop and offices in the historic Celtic Shipyards.

As new permits are issued over the next few weeks we will begin to manufacture our custom laneway homes in this heritage factory. This will enable us to produce extremely high quality custom buildings in a controlled environment allowing us to manage costs and building timelines. The first buildings to come out of the factory will be ready for installation in the early spring.

Check back as we will be posting stories and images from the builds, and everyone is invited to our open house once the first Smallworks Laneway House is complete.

New Permits and HPO Warranty

November 9, 2009

Well we are underway! After some great work with the Vancouver’s planning department, Smallworks is nearing the last stages of securing building permits. Although the progress was a little slower than we anticipated, we have our first standard plans now pre-approved. We are excited with the prospect of breaking ground and getting ready for our workshop builds over the winter.

We have registered our first four Laneway House projects with the Homeowner Protection Office (HPO). This week’s Real Estate Weekly has a front page entry, which discusses the need for all Laneway Houses (LWH) to have a HPO warranty and to built by a licensed builder. The article discusses the other requirements such as LWH being compliant with “green building code” and having sprinklers.

Some might consider HPO warranty burdensome. We, however, support these requirements and the protection HPO offers homeowners.

Some homeowners may want to make their LWH a DIY project, which is great if they have the ability. However, if a contractor offers you a deal by suggesting an end-run around the HPO, with you registering yourself as the owner/ builder be very careful . This scenario exposes you to liability and more importantly you are going into business with someone who is not willing to stand by their work.

It is our belief a LWH should be built to the highest standards. These homes should meet or exceed all new Green Home Guidelines and LWH features should include Heat Recovery Ventilators, radiant heat and other power conserving devices.

Laneway homes are likely housing someone in your family so shop wisely. And if you're thinking of a Laneway home for rental only, keep in mind a LWH will be your closest neighbor and the best asset you can add to your property.

Vancouver Home + Interior Design Show

October 14, 2009

Smallworks is excited to be part of the 2009 Vancouver Interior Design which runs from October 15-18 at BC Place Stadium. We pleased to be sharing a booth with Vancity who will be presenting financial products tailored for Laneway Housing. We have build a full size bathroom and kitchen and will be presenting some of our custom designed millwork. Please come visit us at the show and find out more information about Smallworks, Laneway Housing and financing options. Hope to see you there.

BC Hydro

October 14, 2009

Smallworks is in ongoing discussions with the City of Vancouver and BC Hydro to get more information after published reports suggested laneway-housing owners could be required to pay up to $20,000 for a hydro connection.

BC Hydro said in the report that overhead power lines are at capacity, and that lighting up laneway homes – small homes built on the property of existing single-family dwellings – would require new underground electrical cables to be installed if there was full adoption of this housing model through out the city.

But full adoption of this housing model is unlikely, said Smallworks founder Jake Fry. “We do not want prospective laneway housing owners to assume this reported hookup cost is an indicator of their cost. This is obviously a worst case scenario. Each home will be assessed individually and we are working hard to ensure that the cost is actually much less than earlier reported. We are currently in discussions with all parties to ensure all facts are on the table to come up with solutions to meet all needs of all stakeholders. An example is the projections on number of households in Vancouver who will build a laneway home. Some are working off a model that indicates it could be as high as 90%. This is not the case.

He added: “We feel it is important to note in our discussions with the City of Vancouver and with BC Hydro that laneway homes are being constructed at a very gentle pace. Our company’s market assessment indicates there will be no more than a 10 to 15-per-cent adoption of the laneway-housing model among Vancouver single-family dwellings within the next decade.”

“Unfortunately, such discussions affect those considering these eco-friendly, humane and aesthetic homes, which can serve as accommodation for elderly family members, caretakers, students and those needing mortgage helpers. They are one valid solution to the problem of Vancouver’s prohibitively high housing costs.” We recognize there are always these types of issues that get raised in new initiatives but remain confident we can facilitate solutions based on the desire of all key stakeholders to see this program go forward.

Smallworks is working hard to minimize the costs for clients of its laneway homes and studios in order to alleviate the costs.