Over the holidays, Nature Boy suggested we buy kayaks. We both got really excited planning next summer’s vacation paddling around the Broken Islands … for about seven minutes.
Somebody had to burst the bubble before things got out of hand. Why is it always me?
“This isn’t another brilliant idea that goes the way of the rowing machine and other fitness and hobby equipment in the garage, is it?” I said. “Because, in case you haven’t noticed why you’ve had to scrape frost off your windshield this past month, the garage is full.”
Don’t get me wrong — I have nothing against kayaks, either owning or using them.
But we’re out of storage space.
I hate renovating, so adding more isn’t an option.
And what’s the point in renting space to store stuff we rarely use and will likely forget we own once it’s off-site and out of sight?
Our house is an unremarkable 1970s dwelling. A lack of storage space has meant successive owners have had to be careful about how much “stuff” they accumulated. But in terms of living space, the house fits squarely in the middle of the pack for Canadian homes built at that time. Most houses built in Canada in the mid-’70s had 1,050 square feet of living space.
However, the typical Canadian home has since expanded. By 2010, for example, the average size of new homes built had almost doubled to 1,950 square feet. According to a survey of almost 30,000 people living in nine countries, the average home size for Canadians in 2010 was 1,792, second only to the U.S. and Australia. In B.C., the average home size was 2,077 square feet, and 23 per cent of B.C. respondents said they lived in homes larger than 2,500 square feet.
Those are 2010 numbers. At a recent presentation in downtown Victoria, a speaker from the B.C. Building and Safety Standards Branch defined a “medium-sized” single-family dwelling in B.C. today as being 2,500 square feet.
“Medium sized” is a relative term. It implies bigger and smaller sizes also exist. For example, Nature Boy considers himself to be medium sized — just as he did 20 years and several pant sizes ago.
Fewer people are living in their bigger homes, too.
In the 2010 survey, Canadian respondents enjoyed 618 square feet of living space per person per household on average — second only to the amount of per-person per-household space in the U.S. (656 sq. ft.).
Some industry experts say increasing costs are driving house sizes. Land costs more. Connecting building sites to municipal water, sewage and hydro services costs more. Building supplies and labour cost more.
To make their money back and turn a profit, developers build more houses on less land and more house on less land — that is, bigger houses on smaller lots. Spiffing new homes up with granite countertops and spa-like ensuite bathrooms also raises sale prices for minimal added cost.
It’s difficult to find a new small, single-family house. Even “tiny homes” cost a heap. For that matter, even one-bedroom condos cost a heap.
But we’re also asking for more space when we upgrade from apartment or condo living. We want a yard — or at least a patch of lawn — for the kids to play on. We want a bedroom for each of our 1.2 kids per family — who wants to be constantly refereeing fights? We want a bigger kitchen and an office that needn’t double up as a guest room. And who wants to share a bathroom these days?
We also need a walk-out basement for our at-home gym, and that double- or triple-wide garage will serve nicely as a workshop for our woodworking or pottery hobby, as well as a place to keep those kayaks and camping gear. We might even be able to fit in the larger vehicle we bought to carry the kayaks.
Oh — and we’ll need a basement suite that we can rent out to so we can afford all this extra space.
