03/12/2024
Selling my homesteading property, only 1 hour north east of Toronto! Check it out! Has many unusual features and is incredibly beautiful!
Here is a long description of it all!
12380 Concession Road 2, Zephyr, Ontario
$1.45 ML April 2024
Located in Zephyr (a small hamlet of Uxbridge), this property is 20 minutes north-east of Newmarket, 20 minutes south of Lake Simcoe and can be a 1-hour drive to Toronto (outside of rush hour traffic). It also is 20 minutes north to swimming and boating in Lake Simcoe, or 30 minutes south to skiing at Lakeridge or Dagmar. The Uxbridge area is full of forest walking trails, and many bike riders come from the big cities to ride in the low traffic, rolling country roads around here. The north end of Concession Road 2, where the house is sited, is maintained well by the city, is always snow ploughed in the winter and traffic is extremely minimal. It’s almost like a dead end road.
The best feature of this property is how the land of 16.38 acres, (purchased in 2014 by the current owner), has been developed over 9 years to be set up as a self-sufficient homestead (Owner has taught how to homestead and is available for advice if needed). The property is very unique with a good balance of forest, fields and a house compound that is nestled into the mid-point of a hill, allowing the north-west winds to blow over it, into the fields, creating a warmer micro-climate area around the house. This is an ideal location, for basic permaculture principles, that includes the rest of the property very slightly sloping down from the rear hill on the west side, to the front road end of the property on the east side.
A gas pump & irrigation system was installed in 2015 beginning at the larger, ~1-acre pond, near the road entrance, that travels underground 300 m west, beside the driveway, that is always able to supply water anywhere with openings to the fields, fruit orchard & bushes, lavender walk and to the upper vegetable garden at the house compound, near the barn. It also supplies water to the large 17' x 60' greenhouse that was built in 2015 as well, which has 2 layers of plastic that can be inflated for colder season modifying. The strongest metal frame system was selected at the time (2015), to withstand high winds (it survived the rare tornado event in 2022 very well, despite it felling several trees in the forest).
There is a beautiful, second, ~1/2 acre x ~10‘ deep, sacred swimming pond, fed by a natural spring, in the ~7 acre forest area of the property. This pond has over 100 pink water lily plants, that always looks so gorgeous, especially in the early morning sunrise mists! If the 1 acre pond were to run out of water to pump to the rest of the property, there is an irrigation tube at the smaller pond, ready to relocate the pump to draw from this if needed.
Also in the front, forest area, there was an old, 'found' 250 SF school bus on the property (left by the previous owner), that was renovated in 2017 into a charming sleeping area for up to 3 people. From 2017 to 2019 a beautiful 10' x 10' x 10' high, 100 SF fully insulated bunkie was built that has a small loft area, with a large horizontal window view out, that can sleep 3 - 4 people. It was made with found 10’ x 10’ wood shipping container panels that were also left on the property. Both spaces also have potential for AirBnb glamping income.
The orchard to the east of the house, has had over 2 dozen dwarf fruit trees and bushes installed from 2015 – 2023. There are several apple trees, asian pear, paw-paw, mulberry, cherry, chum gooseberry, elderberry, apricot, sea buckthorn, with blueberry, raspberry, red & white current bushes (peach and almond trees did not survive). There are 2 heartnut, 2 walnut trees, and 3 hazelnut bushes installed in 2015 growing well behind the south end of the house gardens. (see attached original purchase list and tree-type location sketch)
The property has ~6 acres of fields that have not had any pesticides in the soil for over 75 years! There is a ‘hobbit-like’, cold cellar, behind the house (just needs vertical wood shingles to finish it over the doorway), backing into a hill. It is made with concrete blocks and has a curved poured concrete with rebar roof, that allows any condensation to drip on the side walls only and also doubles as a secure storm shelter for extreme weather tornado winds.
There is a good functioning small barn, welded together (by the previous owner who was a pipeline metal worker) and is also very hurricane-proof, with a separate large workshop, garage space for 1 car, as well as space for sheep and a horse or two, with a large double chicken coop, and a large, well protected, fenced in chicken yard. It also has a second level, with an outdoor metal, 5-step-stair access behind the barn, as well as a ladder inside the centre of the barn. This area is great for outdoor furniture storage or canoe’s/kayaks, or wood, etc. And there is a small woodshed area behind the garage part of the barn, plus a small metal carport for a 2nd car or storage.
There is a separate coach house building, at the south end of the house, that the current owner uses as a therapy healing studio on the 300 SF second floor, with a compost toilet, 3 piece washroom, that can be a rec room, guest room or art studio. This is truly a beautiful, inspiring space. The bottom is partially insulated and is used as a storage area, but it can be renovated into a separate 1 bedroom granny flat, or an addition can easily be added on the south side, to make it into a 2 or 3 bedroom second house on the property! (There is a new provision in the Township of Uxbridge zoning, allowing up to 2 additional residences on the property).
The house is an original 1880’s typical, 1700 SF, Ontario brick century home. The basement is under this and has a sump pump for the very occasional run-off from the hill (which is typical in general in the Uxbridge area). Around the 1970’s, a 1 story addition was built for the kitchen and dining area (with no basement). And at some point, exterior rigid insulation was added on the outside, with red board-and-batten, wood siding installed over the brick. The house is very warm and tightly sealed. 200 amp breakers were updated in 1997. The metal roof was installed in 2004, and the central heating system is propane, updated in 2006 with a high efficiency hot water heating system that was installed by the previous owner as pipes along the baseboards, or wall edges of most rooms. A new hot water tank was installed in 2020, and a reverse osmosis with remineralization was installed in 2019 that goes to a small tap in the kitchen. There are extra filters available for that and the general well water system for 1 – 2 years. A Nuovo water conditioner system was installed in 2015, that uses lemon to soften the water. The UV light is replaced yearly that purifies all the water.
There are 3-bedrooms, a charming pine-cupboard kitchen (that can make do until you are ready to update it), and a high 9' high ceiling in the living room. Upstairs has a large den or office area. There are two new bathrooms installed; the upstairs bathroom in 2015 is small but has a deep soaker tub that is great! In 2016, the Master Bedroom was created, with a new wall and a sliding door into the bathroom, and a new high horizontal window at the lovely walk-in shower. The owner hand built the curved h**p straw partition wall for the shower area, with a burnt orange natural pigment lime plaster finish. The shower tiles are a Moroccan print, in the octagonal shape that has a kind of exotic country quilt look to it.
A unique wood stove imported from Vermont was installed in 2015, with soapstone top and sides to radiate the heat out longer, and it has a small oven in the bottom. If the power goes out, you can take the top stone off, continue cooking your meal on the top, or bake in the oven underneath.
The front screened-in porch along the entire east length of the house, has a gorgeous wide view of the fields and forest, and is heavenly to spend time in, with enough space for outdoor living room furniture and a dining table. The house is surrounded by many perennial flowers that are also consistently stunning throughout the warmer months!
This property is a very peaceful, serene oasis, with a high-frequency quality to it that is looking for a new Land Steward who is ready to listen to the whispers of wisdom and wonder, with this sacred land.
12380 CONCESSION RD 2 RD, Uxbridge, Ontario L0E1T0
