When we first arrived here in Toronto when the ADI conference was on back in June, I got in touch with the local paraplegic association (CPA), and I was directed to a gentleman in the resource centre, Kevin Rogers. The main reason why I was getting in touch with CPA was to find some carers to help me during my stay. He put me onto some wonderful carers who are all working with me at the moment.
Kevin is another quadriplegic and he is the perfect person to be working in the resource centre at CPA. He is the most resourceful person here in Toronto. He knows everything about anything. After we had returned from Montréal and we had moved into the residence at Seneca College, Mel & I set about trying to find more permanent accommodation ie. apartment, condo or house. We tried every kind of real estate listing on the internet and made what seemed like thousands of phone calls, but we couldn't find anything that really suited our needs. I gave Kevin another call at CPA and before I even had a chance to finish my question about accommodation he said "I have just sent you an e-mail with the details of a lovely couple that are looking for renters for their property while they go away for the winter. Give them a call, the house will be perfect for you.
I rang Laurie and Pascal and they were very excited that we had found them as they had had no luck finding anyone to house sit for them. We made a time to meet at the house and discuss all the possibilities.
Before we even got to the house we knew that the location was perfect. All of my carers said that the area that these people live in is a beautiful area, very safe, great for public transport and fantastic for shops and entertainment. Location, tick!
Our visit to the house was great, and we found Laurie and Pascal to be a lovely couple. Pascal is a paraplegic who was injured in a car accident the same year I had my accident in 1999. Obviously from the name you can gather he is French, but Laurie is Canadian. We spent 15 to 20 minutes looking at the house and discussing some of the details about finances and conditions etc etc.
As you can tell from the pictures the house is very nice. And Mel & I could definitely see ourselves living in this house for an extended period. To be honest we were a little bit hesitant about the amount of rent and some of the extras that we were going to have to pay considering we are unemployed at the moment, as well as the fact that we had to sign a 10 month contract as they didn't want to have us leave halfway through their time away and have their house empty, which is fair enough. But we told them that we love the house but needed to discuss some things before we made a decision. So we said goodbye and decided to walk to the shops around the block to have lunch and discuss options.
Opposite the house is a beautiful park where lots of people were walking their dogs and children playing in the playground, but what caught our eye were these three cute kids set up on the sidewalk with a lemonade stand. Not only were they selling lemonade but they also had a table for comic books and another for games and gadgets they obviously no longer needed. As we approached them, in their cute Canadian accents they asked " would you like a drink of lemonade and maybe buy a book or game?" Even if it had not been a 30° day we still would have bought a drink of lemonade because they were just too cute. It was exactly as you see in the movies. How come the kids back home in Australia don't do this, and if they did why not any more? I remember trying to sell frogs and tadpoles to neighbours at Granma & Pops back in Terang with the girl next door, but that was about the extent of my youthful entrepreneurial ventures. Anyway I digress.
I suppose this encounter tipped the scales to the affirmative, as the positives about staying here at this house & at this location were now definitely outweighing the negatives. We had a lovely lunch at McDonald's (which dones a rather spectacular fire place), discussed all the pros and cons and we made a decision.
And here we are.
We arranged another time to visit Laurie & Pascal and they kindly offered to have us over for lunch. This was going to be an interesting experience because Pascal was the owner and chef of a restaurant. Yes that's right, a chef in a wheelchair! Pascal is very well-known here in Toronto because of his restaurant as well as the fact that he is a very talented chef who happens to be in a wheelchair. He has modified an electric wheelchair that stands him up right and is compact enough to move around the tiny confines of a restaurant kitchen. He is an extremely clever person, a man of passion and determination to achieve his dreams. Just the kind of person I love to be connected with.
Laurie and Pascal had set up the backyard with a wonderful outdoor setting, umbrella, chairs, BBQ, it was a sight. We were very excited about the possibility of spending time ourselves in this nice setting. Pascal had made a squash gnocchi (although squash here is pretty much pumpkin), but it was beautiful, complete with salad, beer and wine, and sun!
We spent three or four hours talking the afternoon away telling each other's stories. It was so nice to spend quality time with people who we were starting to consider friends, not landlords.
The house itself is perfect for us. It is fully accessible, even though there are a couple of ramps that are pretty steep for me to tackle in my manual chair, but once I get my power chair up and running watch out. But apart from that they have modified the house very well to accommodate the wheelchair. The bathroom is probably the piste resistance. An amazing shower and plenty of room to manoeuvre around in. The style of house is what they call a bungalow here. The main floor is at ground level where there is the kitchen, dining room, lounge room, main bedroom, ensuite, office and patio outside the bedroom French doors. Downstairs in what we call the basement is a spare bedroom (hint, hint), lounge room, laundry, store room and access to the garage. There is a lift to take me up or down stairs.
The backyard is small with not a lot of room for Roxy to run around in or even spread out her ablutions. She has a small patch of garden in the corner which she is coping with, and I suppose it's good for cleaning purposes. But the decking & courtyard are fantastic for entertaining & enjoying this beautiful summer weather.
One of the things that I may have mentioned to people was that Pascal has exactly the same car as me, a Chrysler Voyager, except the steering wheel is obviously on the other side and here they call it a Dodge Caravan. This was a spooky coincidence and one that we were very excited about as it meant that Mel wouldn't have to get used to driving a different car and we wouldn't have to worry about hiring or renting a new one. Unfortunately though the insurance companies work very differently over here and in the few weeks that we had before Laurie and Pascal left we were unable to find any insurance company that would allow Mel to be included in the policy. We even tried looking at buying the car and creating our own insurance policy, but here they have what's called a pink ticket policy where you can only sell a car at a minimum price which is 15% of the car's value. Basically it was all looking like too much of a hassle both financially and timewise. So the car has been put away in storage and we have an empty garage. But we can always hire a car if we need to, but the public transport system and taxi network is so good that at this stage we don't need one, it just seemed like it could have been a good deal.
All in all, this transaction has turned out perfectly for both of us. Laurie and Pascal feel very comfortable about leaving their house in the hands of two people who can not only use and the benefit from the accessibility but we feel very blessed to be able to look after it for them and have a place for us to hibernate over winter.
We have been in the house for just over a week now and already we have enjoyed barbecues out on the patio, dinners out on a bedroom balcony, Raccoon spotting, squirrel chasing, playtime over in the park with Roxy, nice strolls up the street to do the shopping or have a bite for lunch, but most importantly a place to lay our heads down at night and feel safe and secure in a place that feels more like home than a hotel.
Just last night, Mel was invited to join the WOW (Women of Walder) for a walk. Every month many of the women who live on our street get-together and go for a walk which actually happened to end up at an Italian Gelato shop a few blocks away, which I thought was a bit redundant, but it was more about the social activity. We certainly feel we have come to a warm and welcoming neighbourhood.
For those of you who would like a holiday and want to come and visit we definitely have a room for you ready. Our address is 27 Walder Avenue Toronto, Ontario. M4P 2R4. If you can't visit, send us some mail, there is nothing like receiving mail from home!
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