Our House Saga

Preston and I moved back home to Winnipeg in late August 2006. We had been living in California for 5 years and moved back home when Preston was called to serve at St. Mary Magdalene Anglican Church. So, on our return we began looking for a house in Winnipeg.

Because Preston was beginning full time work, and I just had to work on my PhD dissertation (and was easily distracted), I took on the responsibility of looking at the houses we thought looked promising.

The difficult part of our search was the fact that there were very specific things we needed in a house. We needed a house that was wheelchair accessible which meant that it had to have: big bathrooms, a big master bedroom, a big enough kitchen and hallways, a place for an elevator or really good possibilities for renovating all of the above!

It was both a fun and exhausting processes. We were lucky to return to Winnipeg at the same time as old friends and so we combined our searching and saw a lot of houses! For awhile, we thought we might be able to share a big house with our friends, but our needs were just so specific and Winnipeg does not have much wheelchair accessible housing, good one-story duplexes, or housing designs that can be modified easily. Our friends soon found a house, and we continued looking.

Finally in mid-October we found the house of our dreams. It was on a big lot, had a big master bedroom and there were lots of renovation possibilities. It had the character that we wanted and was in the perfect neighbourhood in St. Boniface (and it was only 3 blocks away from our friends!).

Here is the house: (Notice the stained glass windows in dining room!)




Because Preston was injured while at work at a camp in Northern Ontario, the renovations were going to be funded by Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario. So in November 2006 we began meeting with a WSIB representative and a Winnipeg contractor. Then the renovation plans began. In June 2007, after six months of meetings, and house plan after house plan after house plan, we were ready to move into construction. But first the quotes for the renovations were submitted to WSIB. The price was high, but WSIB was willing to proceed. But before they did, they asked us if we would prefer to take the money (that they were now committed to giving us) and use it to build a new house.

We were shocked . . . we had loved the house we bought, but after looking after it for 8 months, we knew its faults. It was old and needed a lot of care and upgrading. There were always going to be areas that didn't work for Preston and we still weren't sure how to solve many landscaping issues around a tremendously long ramp. Preston was also going to have to spend lots of time in an elevator (it was a two-story house). We could build a bungalow . . .

So, we changed directions and spent July getting the house ready for the market. In late August 2007 we SOLD the house we had owned for only 9-10 months. By this point we had been back in Winnipeg for a year and were still living in temporary housing with family.

Once the house was sold, we began the search for some land on which to build a new house.