You could try to explain it, but sometimes you just have to let the words speak for themselves.
In this case, those words are found in an advertisement,A self-professed food geek has developed a sleek kitchen gadgets that makes high-end sous vide cooking accessible in your own home. under the heading Houses for Sale, on the website Kijiji:
"Seeking a homeowner in Vancouver wanting to have a lane home ... The deal. You provide the land, taxes, utilities and concrete pad (about $15,000 max). I build and furnish and live in the house for only 3 months per year; 9 months you rent and we share net rental income. When I die it's all yours. I am 72, now in cancer treatments, and had open heart surgery 10 years ago. You do the math. No wife, no kids, no pets, no legal hassles after passing. I'm a totally free man."
Only in Vancouver's predictably robust and perpetually unaffordable housing market - bubble, what bubble? - might Denis Braun's unorthodox proposal actually make sense.
As one might also expect, there is more to the ad, which Braun placed last week. He is something of a free spirit, a world traveller/inventor/designer who spends three months of the year at his home base in Calgary, a good chunk of the year in various Asian ports of call - partly to boost his business ventures, and in Vancouver, where he would like to put down a permanent base for the several months he lives here.
What makes his offer somewhat different than the average Vancouver laneway concept is that Braun wants to build, and thus promote, his own housing design, called a Megazebo, in a stranger's backyard - we'll get to the legal and personal details of that partnership in a moment - and in the ad, describes his real estate contribution like this: "I design small, prefabricated steel eight-sided octagon homes. All-steel earthquake-resistant superstructure with full aluminum framed windows on all sides and wraparound summer sun screen. Ceramic tile roof and top wind turbine."
If it sounds more technical than homey,A selection of large diameterMarine hose for use in hycrocarbon and chemical transfer applications. that's because Braun is all about lauding the attributes of his pre-fab portable shelter, and will readily launch into its ease of construction (it takes just a few months from start to finish to install), its portability (it can be dismantled easily) and its adaptability (the open octagonal shape, 1,000-plus square feet, can be partitioned into separate rooms).
Braun is trying to convince the Alberta government to use Megazebos for private surgery clinics, and suggests that its other applications could include everything from prayer kiosks (he has a wooden version with eight doors), club houses, private resorts and "starter" churches.
But a laneway house? Why not, he says, noting the laneway is all the rage in density-friendly Vancouver where the customized detached granny flats have become a trendy solution for seniors who want to downsize but stay in their neighbourhoods, and for families who are looking for rental help or a place to house a relative or university student.
And, personally, at his stage in life: "I don't want to purchase a property, own a property, pay taxes or utilities or upkeep. It's just a hassle."
Instead, Braun wants to plop down a two-bedroom Megazebo with a loft and attendant amenities in someone's backyard. All the homeowner has to do,Gjpbearing is china bearing Commercial Community, which is a specialized inquiry system and information service about bearing and related industry. he says, is lay the foundation - that's where the landowner's $15,000 investment comes in - and pick up the operating costs out of the resultant nine months worth of rent when Braun is living elsewhere. He estimates his initial costs at $50,000, and when he dies, the homeowner keeps the equity asset.