Most are aware that 2030 is the target for Net Zero building codes in Ontario and other jurisdictions. What does that mean?
Read More
Client defined design near North Bay
In 2021 we supplied our weathertight material package to a couple wishing to build a small passive home near North Bay, Ontario.
Read More
Warranty and Your EkoBuilt Home
We’re often asked about Tarion warranty and the homes we build. As a builder of custom homes for individuals, our homes don’t qualify for Tarion. Read on to learn more about why this is so, and how we protect your new home.
Read More
EkoBuilt Project: Prince Edward County Coach House
Another EkoBuilt coach house project was completed earlier this year, this one in Prince Edward County, surrounded by farm fields and wineries and with breathtaking views of the St. Lawrence seaway.
The home will be used as a cottage / second home for a young family from the Toronto area.
EkoBuilt custom home in Sydenham
Located just outside of Sydenham, Ontario near Frontenac Provincial Park, this custom home is a great showcase for what EkoBuilt can do.
Read More
Waterfront lots available on Bob’s Lake
A new development on Bob’s Lake, just 20 minutes from Perth, Ontario presents a great opportunity for anyone wanting their own bit of waterfront in the region. Nordlaw Cottages has been redeveloped on a site that was home to the former Nordlaw Lodge.
Sitting on 6.5 acres, this new cottage community includes 1,350 feet of waterfront and includes 18 lots of varying sizes in the design plan.
Residents would share common elements including main driveway, boat launch, beaches, docks, parking, etc.
At this point, the offering is also being packaged with a range of simple cottage designs starting at $280k.
Interested to know more? See video, development map, site plan and contact info below.
Nordlaw Cottages
David Simpson
Tel. 613-282-5601
Secluded country lots available just a hop from Kanata
The Saddlebrooke Estates offer a special opportunity to live surrounded by protected park land in the Carp Hills just a short hop from the bustle of Kanata. Although more than 70% sold, around ten lots are still for sale ranging in size from 2.1 to 3.6 acres. This is a pretty unique opportunity and a bit of a hidden gem within Ottawa.
The Estates run along two very quiet roads that are already home to many large, established homes with natural gardens and well established trees. Because the lots were sold in two phases, choosing a lot here means that you won’t feel like you’re in the middle of a housing development.
Enjoy protected rural living on secluded, affordable 2 to 3.5 acre lots just minutes from Kanata
Click to enlarge
In addition, you’ll enjoy:
- the rolling hills and trees of 300 acres of protected park land that surround the Estates
- a guarantee of a lifetime of privacy with no further development
- being able to ski or hike right from your back door
- rural living with the convenience of nearby city amenities
Priced from $160,000 to $200,000, the lots represent excellent value and interested buyers can discuss details with Burnford Realty, a family-run company in Ottawa which originally assembled and owns the lots.
Saddlebrooke Estates Contact
Krista Aselford of Burnford Realty
613-726-8000
krista.aselford@burnfordrealty.com
http://saddlebrooke-estates.com
What it costs to build a coach house
Please note: as of March 2019 base pricing for coach house plans and basic shell installation have increased. The cost scenarios here will be affected in terms of total pricing as a result.
We have been receiving a tremendous amount of interest in our Coach House offering for the 2018 build season. We thought it would be appropriate to talk about future possibilities for everyone we haven’t heard from yet.
The new coach house regulations in Ottawa create a great opportunity for additional income in the form of a rental property and potentially even more income from an Airbnb format. It can also make for an economical in-law suite or starter home for a son or daughter.
Unlike most builders out in the marketplace, EkoBuilt is focused on building a style of home that is future-proof, something that will actually appreciate over time. Most builders design to today’s building code, and the real problem with this approach is that codes are starting to change dramatically.
This means that a home built to code standard today will be sub-standard come the next code change just four years from now.
Current building code is solid from a safety perspective, but the energy efficiency of most homes built to this code has not kept pace with drastically rising utility costs.
It doesn’t cost much extra to build ahead of code, so why not build to the future code standard? This is our approach and it just makes sense for anything truly designed to be a 21st century home.
To help in showing how possible it is to build to future code, we have prepared a cost analysis documentation for a couple of our designs.
Cost Analysis: Tiny Canuck
Tiny Canuck 499 sq.ft.
Size: 1 bedroom, 499 sq.ft.
Finished for $132,375:
- that’s a $694 mortgage payment
- rental $1250+ (including utilities), that’s a 56% ROI, beats the stock market.
Download the Tiny Canuck cost analysis
Cost Analysis: Nepean Point
Nepean Point 720 sq.ft.
Size: 2 bedroom, 720. sq.ft.
Finished for $175,802:
- that’s a $922 mortgage payment
- rental $1750+ (including utilities), that’s a 53% ROI
Download the Nepean Point cost analysis
Including utilities would make these units really attractive to anyone in the market. Since the homes are ‘future proof’, they can be heated and cooled inexpensively with electricity (no gas/propane) which will be the fuel of the future.
Alternatively, if a coach house is built to current code standards, your mortgage rates may be slightly less (5%) but with substantially higher utilities, overall cost of living would be more expensive.
Coach House Plans: CodePlus & Passive House
Make sure you visit our Coach House Plans page and review the kit pricing for our coach house plans based on CodePlus and on the Passive House standard. Questions? We’d be happy to answer them!
Please get in touch with us to explore Coach House opportunities for your property!
Calling All Citizens! Calling All Citizens!
If you’re not already in a community you will WANT to consider this and if you are in a suburban community you will REALLY WANT to consider this. If you are not in a community at all, you will APPRECIATE this…
As humans, we are naturally social creatures hard wired to engage with people in one form or another. With modern technology, this engagement is increasingly less than in the past. But we stand to gain so much when we come together.
Our vision of an EkoCommunity is a vibrant community that has the flexibility build in for as much, or as little, privacy as its members want, and where there is shared satisfaction in living in a supremely comfortable and healthy home.
There is an amazing side benefit to living in a shared community: it’s actually a much more economical way to live! With rising land costs, our cost-of-living (or the cost of our dreams of living on more land) has shot through the roof! With a shared community property, these costs are brought back down to ‘normal’. The cost of a commonly shared building is usually included.
Communities of the 21st-century should be communities that share a piece of land and are either net zero or self sustainable:
Net zero – a home that produces the same amount of energy as it uses (usually with solar panels);
Self sustainable – off grid with community owned energy production systems that are, of course, sources of renewable energy.
Living in a shared community, free of energy dependence (off-the-grid) and affordably, is surely a great way to go forward. The best part is, most cities and townships accept these types of communities with open arms, as long as the property is zoned residential, of course!
What is your vision of a designed community?
It does take a particular group of people to come together and decide on a property and a general style of home/buildings, but when people agree, great things happen!
We’re here to help if you can see the way to finding you group and making it happen. Add your name to our EkoCommunities list, and we can help connect you with like minded folks! We’ve also got the home technology and plans to help you see your vision through.
Canada needs a unified strategy on taxing energy
The CBC recently carried a story, P.E.I. man wants to know why he pays HST on electricity he generates himself, which left us scratching our heads. Honestly, this poor guy lives in a province where oil consumption for heating houses is exempt from HST, yet electricity is not, and legislation requires that he be taxed for generating it. Worse still? This man, whose solar panels are producing more electricity than he needs for his home, allowing him to sell the remainder through net metering to the grid, notes that the province’s customers then pay HST on what they use.
An article like this one illustrates approaches to carbon pricing in Alberta and Ontario, where oil is very much subject to taxing: http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/what-carbon-prices-in-alberta-and-ontario-will-cost-… Although taxed federally, as of late 2016 electricity consumption in Ontario no longer has the provincial portion (8%) of HST applied to consumers’ bills, whereas electricity pricing in Alberta remains steady following recent carbon pricing shifts.
Part of the problem with rationalizing energy pricing and taxation, of course, is the huge variation in energy generation infrastructure across the provinces and territories. Unlike Ontario, whose electricity is “90% emissions-free, thanks in part to Ontario’s early action to close coal-fired power generation” (source: https://www.ontario.ca/page/cap-and-trade-ontario), P.E.I. is in a much less fortunate position, with no active hydro-electric station, and a reliance on both out-of-province sources of electricity, as well as two in-province sources that are fired by diesel and oil.
None of the above really helps to explain how P.E.I. can tax someone who is generating clean electricity to contribute to a grid that is sorely lacking in local, clean sources of electricity, nor how it can fail to tax oil usage. The CBC story further explains that P.E.I.’s government and Maritime Electric claim that “federal tax law requires HST be charged to homeowners involved in net metering…[and that] homeowners could claim back the HST by registering as a business.” Are there any more hoops that homeowners should jump through in the name of nonsense?
While it may be understandably challenging for Canada to develop a unified and logical strategy on carbon taxing, there is an undeniable need for green solutions like solar electricity generation to be supported, not hindered! The future needs to be carbon-free, and solar panels are helping us to get there, along with individuals like the P.E.I. man who decided to build the most energy efficient home he could afford, unaware that the government would penalize him for doing so.