Budget Breakdown: A $134K Laneway House in Toronto Puts a Couple’s DIY Skills to the Test

Nicole Spiteri and Blair Johnson didn’t expect to spent 2020 getting chummy with metal fabricators or learning the fine art of pouring foundation—but sometimes that’s what happens when a real estate opportunity sweeps you off your feet. 

The Toronto couple had been perfectly happy in their newly renovated downtown condo when Nicole stumbled across an opportunity on Instagram that was just too good to pass up: a retro, Victorian single-family home that was right around the corner. The titillating caption promised "laneway potential," meaning there was the option to build an accessory dwelling on the same lot.

Nicole immediately dialed the broker, pretending to be her realtor boyfriend to snag an advanced showing. When she and Blair walked in, they fell hard for the residence and its promise. As soon as the paperwork was signed, the couple got to work knocking down the detached garage to build a laneway unit that they could rent out. 

The main house is over 100 years old, so they decided on a dashing contrast for the laneway building. Toronto architecture firm Creative Union drafted up an ultra-modern, two-story, 850-square-foot structure to fit the bill, but the entrepreneurial couple had plans to tackle the construction themselves.

Nicole’s a graphic designer whose mother was an interior designer; Blair makes his living on property sales. But even their combined knowledge didn’t prepare them for the monumental challenge ahead. "It was a huge learning process," Nicole laughs. "We didn’t really grasp what we were getting into." 

Blair would soon find himself standing in a pit, digging a hole in the rain that was rapidly turning the soil into quicksand. A month later, he was on the roof, bleeding from metalwork cuts. Nicole, meanwhile, was spending hours upon hours scouring the Internet and hardware stores for great deals. It was an all-consuming undertaking.