Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 08/02) - It's a trailer, but it feels like a house: a normal mobile home with a sizeable addition bulging off one side.

Perhaps it should be called a "trouse."

Whatever you call it, it's a growing trend among trailer owners looking to add some space and architectural distinctiveness to their home.

Yellowknife architect Wayne Guy has designed over 40 of these trailer additions over the past decade.

Additions are also popular among the trailers in Iqaluit, said Chris Groves, a manager at Baffin Building Systems.

"Some of them have doubled or tripled the size of the trailer," he said. "But most of the people have done the work on their own."

Depending on the size, Groves estimated trailer additions in the Nunavut capital cost between $15,000-$50,000.

A building permit for an addition costs a minimum of $350 in Iqaluit. In Yellowknife the price is based on the value of the addition, although most permits for this type of work would cost $50.

Guy said the case for adding to a trailer is pinned to the need for space in different directions.

"Usually trailers are in fairly narrow lots and they tend to be long and skinny. So the experience of the trailer is limited to the 16-foot width," said Guy. To change the format of the trailer, an owner can add a 400-600 square foot addition, complete with cathedral ceiling, gabled roof and large living room or extra bedrooms. In Yellowknife, that size of addition would cost around $50,000.

And it makes sense, said Yellowknife Coldwell Banker realtor Ken Pearman.

"It's a pretty cost-effective way to increase the square footage of a home," he said. "With the tight housing market, it will become more popular to increase the square footage rather than move."

Owners can customize the addition to add a separate entertainment area for teenaged children, open up a skylight, or create a longer wall for large prints or wall hangings.

"We give it a distinction that makes people proud of their home," said Guy. "It sets it aside from the din of factory-built houses."

Guy sets the addition on pilings and marries the new structure to the trailer, to avoid separation when the ground shifts. He recommends "rooting" the trailer, or making a connection between the ground and the bottom of the mobile home.

"You can't have peace of mind about your home if it looks like it's going to roll at any minute," he said.