MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Summer 2018

SUMMER 2018 ML BLUE 109 MOUNTAIN HOME words & photos :: Colin Field Imagine being mortgage-free at 20 years old. That’s where Meaford-raised Zoe Young’s at. She owns her home. She built it over the past three years with her dad, Collin Young. But it isn’t very big. It’s 140 square feet. And if you can call the popularity of tiny homes a movement, then Zoe is a part of it. “I forget where we first saw a tiny home, it was when I was 15,” remembers Zoe. “Then I had a year off high school, I didn’t know what I was going to do, so I started when I was 17. And I almost have a mortgage-free house. Eventually I’ll just buy a piece of land and stick it on there.” Built on a double-axle landscaping trailer, this is more than just a tree fort on wheels; it has a shower, on-demand hot water, a composting toilet, propane fireplace, a kitchen and everything else you need to survive. It’s insulated and ready to be lived in year-round. With a loft space providing a bit more than that 140 square feet, Zoe’s bed has a skylight above it affording her great views of the night sky. Built over the past three years on her parent’s property in Meaford, it has been an incredible father-daughter project. “It definitely brought us closer together,” says Zoe. “I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it without him cheering me on and putting in the TINY AMBITION A DAUGHTER AND FATHER BUILD A TINY HOME TO GO Zoe Young and her tiny creation.