Thies and Charlie Schacht wanted to prove that creating smaller, more affordable rental housing in rural Lanark County doesn’t necessarily require a major developer.
So they built it themselves.
With help from Thies’s wife, Penny, the father-and-son team completed a five-unit rental building on Narrows Lock Road in Tay Valley Township, doing most of the construction themselves and financing the project privately.
Each unit is 400 square feet. The entire building is 2,200 square feet and took roughly 10 months to build.
For Thies, the project was about demonstrating what could be done.
“It is possible,” he said.
The Schachts didn’t originally set out to build a five-plex.
“A couple of years ago, we wanted to build a tiny-home village,” Thies said during a tour of the property Aug. 10.
Their original vision was about 10 individual tiny homes in a rural setting, with a central building for gatherings and activities.
“Not everybody wants to live in town or cities,” Thies said. “A lot of people would like to move into the country.”
But the family discovered that individually servicing the tiny homes with septic, electricity and other infrastructure would make the concept too expensive to achieve what they wanted.
They went back to Tay Valley Township and changed course.
The result was a five-unit multiplex.
The rezoning application was submitted Dec. 17, 2024 and deemed complete Feb. 4, 2025. Council approved the rezoning in April 2025. A building permit was submitted in June, deemed complete in early August and issued Aug. 21, 2025.
The development also required a septic permit and site plan control agreement.
Tay Valley planner Noelle Reeve said it was the first affordable housing project of its kind approved by the township.
“As a small township with a council who supports affordable housing, we can move these projects along more quickly than in larger cities,” Reeve said in an emailed response to questions from Hometown News.
Thies credits Reeve with helping the family navigate the process.
“She was a big advocate,” he said.
The rezoning did generate questions at a public meeting, including concerns about density and who might eventually live there.
Reeve said council approved the rezoning despite some strong disagreement from residents at the meeting, including concerns about “the type of people” who might occupy the development.
Thies believes some of the reaction reflected a misunderstanding of what affordable housing meant.
“It’s affordable living,” he said.
He characterized the disagreement as relatively minor.
“It was not a big fight,” he said.
Building it themselves
Once construction began, the project became a family affair.
Thies and Charlie completed most of the work themselves. Penny, who operates Miss Penny’s Closet in Perth, closed the store at times to help with painting and finishing work.
Their work included the insulated concrete form foundation, septic system, cabinetry, trim, flooring, insulation, painting and tiling. Framing, electrical work and some specialized work were contracted out.
Thies brought professional experience to the job. A former commercial contractor, he said his background working with engineers and building inspectors helped him understand the construction and inspection process.
He also praised Tay Valley’s building department.
“There were zero problems,” he said.
For Charlie, the 10-month build became an education.
“It’s a major learning experience,” he said.
He said workers on conventional job sites can spend long periods assigned to one task. Working with his father meant tackling something different almost every day.
“You learn faster, you learn more,” Charlie said.
The Schachts say supplying so much of their own labour was critical to controlling costs.
Thies declined to disclose the total cost of the development. He said the family financed the project itself and contributed most of the labour.
The project, he said, was intended partly as a test: determine the true costs, find out what worked and show that small-scale rental housing could be created without a large development company behind it.
Servicing was one of the lessons.
The cost of providing individual services helped end the Schachts’ tiny-home village plan. Reeve identified septic requirements as a broader obstacle for rural housing development, saying Ontario Building Code requirements can result in oversized systems and additional costs for developers.
The issue is particularly important in municipalities such as Tay Valley, where development relies largely on wells and septic systems rather than municipal water and sewer infrastructure.
Affordable, but not rent-geared-to-income
The Schacht development is not rent-geared-to-income housing.
Thies said the units rent for approximately $1,350 per month, plus $100 for utilities, including heat and hydro.
The project has received support through Lanark County’s affordable housing programming, but Thies declined to disclose the financial details.
Lanark County Housing Services Manager Kaitlyn Murray said the Affordable Housing Capital Grant program is intended to help create rental housing that remains affordable to households with lower and moderate incomes.
Units receiving support through the program must generally remain at or below the applicable average market rent for at least 15 years, including a five-year phase-out.
For 2025, the County’s average market rent for bachelor and one-bedroom units is $1,350 per month, with a maximum of $1,450 when utilities are included. The County is updating those figures for 2026.
Households must meet income and asset requirements when they move into a funded unit. Unlike rent-geared-to-income housing, however, household income is not reassessed annually.
Current maximum gross household income ranges from $46,000 for a one-person household to $65,000 for households of four or more.
Landlords select their own tenants for units created through the program rather than drawing tenants from the County’s chronological RGI waiting list. There are currently 547 households on that waiting list.
Murray said the program provides another affordable housing option for households that may not require RGI assistance but still face challenges finding housing they can afford in the private market.
She said small private developments have an important role to play as housing demand grows across Lanark County.
“Every new housing opportunity helps increase supply and provide more options for residents,” Murray said.
The County has allocated $100,000 annually to the Affordable Housing Capital Grant program since 2024, with unused funds carried forward. Murray said the program has supported the creation of 14 affordable housing units between 2024 and 2026.
She said construction, development, financing and operating costs can all make it difficult for small private developers and property owners to provide rental units at affordable rates.
The project also benefited from a provincial development-charge exemption for qualifying affordable housing that came into effect in June 2024. Tay Valley Township said the exemption saved approximately $10,000 per unit, or $50,000 across the five-unit development. Under Ontario’s Development Charges Act, units qualifying for the exemption must remain affordable for at least 25 years.
Lanark County and the Town of Smiths Falls are developing a new 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan, expected to go before County council this fall. Murray said the plan will examine local housing needs, challenges and opportunities and help guide future housing initiatives.
‘It’s in the country’
All five units are now occupied.
Greg Turney was the first tenant, moving in July 1.
Turney said he had owned a home for about 30 years. After his wife died, he sold it and spent about eight months living with his daughter, son-in-law and grandson in Kingston.
He discovered city living wasn’t what he wanted.
“I like it,” Turney said of his new home. “It’s in the country, and that’s what I wanted.”
The location keeps him within reach of family in Perth, Smiths Falls, Ottawa and Kingston while allowing him to maintain the rural lifestyle he prefers.
“It’s been awesome,” he said.
The finished units are compact but feel spacious.
Each has a private exterior entrance, nine-foot ceilings and large windows. The building incorporates radiant in-floor heating and heat pumps for heating and cooling, along with upgraded insulation and additional soundproofing between units.
The units also include stainless steel appliances.
One of the five units was designed for wheelchair accessibility, including accessible switches and fixtures and a roll-in shower.
There is shared coin-operated laundry and parking. The Schachts plan additional landscaping, potentially including a gazebo, picnic tables, storage and garden space.
Thies calls the concept “micro living.”
The project may already be encouraging others to consider the model.
Reeve said she met a resident at the development’s open house who expressed interest in pursuing something similar.
Thies said he would like to see affordable housing funding from all levels of government become more accessible to small private projects like his.
Greater support at the municipal, provincial and federal levels, he said, could help more individuals and families undertake smaller developments and add affordable rental units to the housing supply.
Charlie hopes this isn’t the last project he builds with his father.
“That’s the idea, to continue,” he said.
Thies wants to build another five-unit development, but first he needs to find a lender.
He doesn’t expect the next project to be easier, but said the family now knows the process, the construction requirements and what it takes to move five small rental homes from an idea on paper to tenants at the door.
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