This thesis responds to a recent amendment to the City of Ottawa By-law that makes the construction of small houses within the lot lines of existing private yards legal. Prefabrication is a conventional form of production that can combine traditional materials with contemporary aesthetics in order to create innovative solutions and still be affordable. How is it relevant to today’s practices? Prefabrication offers economic benefits under controlled factory manufacturing, without disrupting a promised aesthetic expression. This thesis addresses the process of making architecture in controlled industrial setting and argues in favour of the off-the-shelf architectural artifact for affordable construction. It explores the possibility of building components of kit-built houses in a place where off-the-shelf materials abound: the Home Depot hardware store. Out of this research a proposal is made demonstrating how the kit-of-parts home as a prefabricated solution conforms to the zoning proposal of the coach housing requirements in Ontario.