Buy a Chainsaw and a Chainsaw-mill. Build log cabin. Heat it with wood. Build an outhouse.
With whatever money you have, you want to spend it on: the best most efficient wood-stove money can buy, a quality propane fridge/freezer & stove & propane lights, and quality very well-insulated metal roof.
Everything else comes after, slowly with time. You can jury rig a simple water system. You can jury-rig a simple septic system. You can eventually hook up to the electric grid if you choose.
You need at least 2-acres, preferably on a body of water. You can build a 750sq-ft cabin for less than 10 grand if you do it all yourself. I'd send you a picture of my recreational cabin if it wouldn't immediately doxx me.
Very good points. Trouble is that lifestyle might be illegal. I know one who Almost all you said he did. It is only extending the suffering. Property taxes together with utility bills are kicking average Canadian out of their houses. Yes, small cabin is a term solution but not for long
Most definitely not illegal. Like I said, mine is recreational. My father & I built it together about 45-years ago. It was intended as a weekend retreat and modeled after a traditional trappers cabin. It started with nothing but a Coleman stove and two Coleman lanterns. It now has pretty much every amenity of a modern house with the exception a freeze-proof water system in the winter. To completely winterize it I would need to spend about $10,000 to drill a well instead of pulling water from the lake. I live in it for several months at a time in the summer. I visit it in the winter and can survive for about a week at -30 or worse. But the getting up at 4am to reload the woodstove gets a bit old. If I really wanted to live out there full time I would build a really small 100sqft type bunkhouse to sleep in and only heat that on the 3-weeks a year of -40C or whatever.
It was initially a 'recreational' classed lot, but was re-classed as 'residential' when they ran electric lines in 25-odd years ago. It is completely building inspected and approved according to code, including the electrical, to this day. The biggest problem my father had at the time was getting the foundation approved (floating surface foundation), you probably would not be allowed to do that today. The biggest problem most people would face today is getting a septic field approved and they might have to consider a tank and suck it out with a vac-truck on occasion.
The good news is, there is lots of land in Canada that is completely unclassified, and subject to no building code or inspections even today. I personally don't think it is all that unreasonable to have to put in an engineered foundation and septic field, but if you choose, there is property where you don't have to.
I am not trying to disagree, recreational is not residential. Once they get a whiff of people permanently residing on recreational it's a different spin. I am dealing with it now.
And off grid might be illegal in Atlantic provinces as the utility companies are getting their loot
There are houses all throughout Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria that still have knob & tube wiring. Asbestos insulation. etc etc Not just houses. Skyscrapers. Hotels.
I don't know much about east Canada, but I have a hard time believing your story. If he is 50km away from the nearest Hamlet, he is not in a 'municipality'.
Seems awfully odd to me. Sounds to me like the cabin is actually located in a formal community.
In BC we have municipalities (pick a word out of the dictionary - township, town, village, hamlet, city, etc) that are defined by specific boundaries and then we have vast regions we call Regional Districts that are on the order of 10's of thousands to 100's of thousands of square kilometers.
Generally speaking in a Regional District you get no services - fire, water, sewer, ambulance, but you are exempt from anything but the most common sense of rules for rural and/or agricultural living.
Buy a Chainsaw and a Chainsaw-mill. Build log cabin. Heat it with wood. Build an outhouse.
With whatever money you have, you want to spend it on: the best most efficient wood-stove money can buy, a quality propane fridge/freezer & stove & propane lights, and quality very well-insulated metal roof.
Everything else comes after, slowly with time. You can jury rig a simple water system. You can jury-rig a simple septic system. You can eventually hook up to the electric grid if you choose.
You need at least 2-acres, preferably on a body of water. You can build a 750sq-ft cabin for less than 10 grand if you do it all yourself. I'd send you a picture of my recreational cabin if it wouldn't immediately doxx me.
@Wabasquaw
Very good points. Trouble is that lifestyle might be illegal. I know one who Almost all you said he did. It is only extending the suffering. Property taxes together with utility bills are kicking average Canadian out of their houses. Yes, small cabin is a term solution but not for long
Most definitely not illegal. Like I said, mine is recreational. My father & I built it together about 45-years ago. It was intended as a weekend retreat and modeled after a traditional trappers cabin. It started with nothing but a Coleman stove and two Coleman lanterns. It now has pretty much every amenity of a modern house with the exception a freeze-proof water system in the winter. To completely winterize it I would need to spend about $10,000 to drill a well instead of pulling water from the lake. I live in it for several months at a time in the summer. I visit it in the winter and can survive for about a week at -30 or worse. But the getting up at 4am to reload the woodstove gets a bit old. If I really wanted to live out there full time I would build a really small 100sqft type bunkhouse to sleep in and only heat that on the 3-weeks a year of -40C or whatever.
It was initially a 'recreational' classed lot, but was re-classed as 'residential' when they ran electric lines in 25-odd years ago. It is completely building inspected and approved according to code, including the electrical, to this day. The biggest problem my father had at the time was getting the foundation approved (floating surface foundation), you probably would not be allowed to do that today. The biggest problem most people would face today is getting a septic field approved and they might have to consider a tank and suck it out with a vac-truck on occasion.
The good news is, there is lots of land in Canada that is completely unclassified, and subject to no building code or inspections even today. I personally don't think it is all that unreasonable to have to put in an engineered foundation and septic field, but if you choose, there is property where you don't have to.
I am not trying to disagree, recreational is not residential. Once they get a whiff of people permanently residing on recreational it's a different spin. I am dealing with it now. And off grid might be illegal in Atlantic provinces as the utility companies are getting their loot
Just look up the land classification and the regional district rules.
Quit watching movies. You can't live in a fucking bus at -40.
Seems like he should be grandfathered in, no?
There are houses all throughout Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria that still have knob & tube wiring. Asbestos insulation. etc etc Not just houses. Skyscrapers. Hotels.
I don't know much about east Canada, but I have a hard time believing your story. If he is 50km away from the nearest Hamlet, he is not in a 'municipality'.
Seems awfully odd to me. Sounds to me like the cabin is actually located in a formal community.
In BC we have municipalities (pick a word out of the dictionary - township, town, village, hamlet, city, etc) that are defined by specific boundaries and then we have vast regions we call Regional Districts that are on the order of 10's of thousands to 100's of thousands of square kilometers.
Generally speaking in a Regional District you get no services - fire, water, sewer, ambulance, but you are exempt from anything but the most common sense of rules for rural and/or agricultural living.