One Canadian businessman was not content to tackle one emerging housing trend. He's got three on the go.

Lance Jervis-Read, known along Ontario's Rideau Canal System as Captain Lance of the tour boat "Chuckles," has become a developer/builder and is constructing two houses as unique rental properties. He is representative of the trend toward individuals without real estate backgrounds entering the world of development when they are supposed to be "retired."

Through his two current business ventures, a Bed and Breakfast that he operates with his wife and Rideau Boat Tours , Jervis-Read also embodies a strong second trend -- the movement to an active, income-generating third life after 65.

Captain Lance

The third trend (actually a slowly re-emerging trend) concerns the style of building Jervis-Read is constructing.

Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, interest in convertible housing began to increase, but awareness of Made-to-Convert homes , houses that could easily be converted into two self-contained units, did not reach critical mass. Convertible housing slipped back into the shadows in spite of promotion by our national housing agency, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and other housing groups like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities .

Jervis-Read had not heard about this concept and was not familiar with the term "convertible housing." His observations of a specific local housing need led him to create his own housing solution: two single family homes, each divided into two self-contained suites to house two generations of one family.

"I built these houses as I feel there is a market out there for people to support their seniors," said Jervis-Read, whose observations began with passengers on his Rideau Canal tour boat. "I meet an incredible number of people in their senior years, including a son paying C$3500 per month so his mother can live in two rooms with two meals a day -- a cash cow -- and it infuriated me."

Jervis-Read found there were only a few places in the area where adult children and their parents could pool their resources and rent a house together, but live independently in completely separate suites. This discovery put a hammer in the hand of this resourceful boat-builder and, last fall, he set out to construct two very special houses on adjacent properties in Smith Falls, a small community outside Ottawa. Reportedly, the municipality classified them as "residential with granny suite," a term that may be considered ageist, even though approval was appreciated.

Each house is zoned as a single-family dwelling and looks like a typical residence from the street. The air-conditioned interiors are divided into two units designed to protect the independence and privacy of each generation:

• an upper self-contained 3-bedroom suite with 2 bathrooms, laundry facilities and a downstairs rec room, which could also be shared by the lower unit, and

• a second private main-floor unit with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a laundry room

The biggest problem? Jervis-Read wants this project to provide him with rental income equivalent to a pension. The buildings have generated a lot of local interest, but many want to take advantage of low interest rates and buy one of the houses. At this point, Jervis-Read does not want to diverge from his plan to generate long-term cash-flow, but he is considering rent-to-own possibilities. The projected monthly rent per house is C$2200 plus utilities.

"They are not quite finished, but they should be in about a month if I can get back to it," explained Jervis-Read who is busy as Captain Lance during summer months. "The houses are on hold as we do the B & B and boat tours. The Ottawa Citizen article gave us a great boost. We're flying a million miles an hour -- the B & B and the boat tours. We'll hit 1000 [passengers] in a few weeks, which is triple what we did last year. A tremendous life. We are well on the way to success this year to make up for the bad tourism years [Canada's] gone through."

About the rental houses, Jervis-Read reports: "We have people inquiring all the time. We are working steadily through a list of positive and negatives, but the rental business is very tricky. We expect to have our first tenant in a month to six weeks."

Until then Jervis-Read is busy with "Chuckles," his lovingly-restored 1940 lobster boat. He captains up to 8 passengers a trip on two daily cruises between Chaffeys Lock and Jones Fall along an historically-preserved stretch of the 175-year-old Rideau Canal , which was originally built as a defense against a possible American attack of Canada's national capital, Ottawa.