Bryan: Number one, things could not continue as they were going. Renting a condo downtown Toronto, basically throwing money away. I hated the idea of living in a condo, much too cold and impersonal.
Cat: I personally loved living in a condo....at first. I guess I kind of liked the whole all inclusive thing. I had everything there without having to go outside in the winter! The gym was there, my free step and aerobics classes, the restaurant which had room service, the common room and bar, the outdoor terrace overlooking the city and the lake....and the wonderful indoor outdoor pool with a hot tub! Also, I loved the idea that everything was minutes away from me....I was in the heart of downtown. And should I not want to walk, there was a free shuttle service that went all over downtown.
I thought I had found the ultimate place. My beautiful corner lot that I would SOMEHOW SOMEDAY own, right on the lake....it was literally under my balcony, and the city was in view. I remember when I first looked at the building with my parents, and said; One day I’ll be in THAT unit, and they told me to dream on!
Of course everything starts with a dream an a vision....and I had got what I wanted. But I was never truly happy. Then I met Bryan, and life just turned upside down....in the BEST WAY and it was just what I needed! I realized then that my city phase was just that....a phase. I longed for something more. I had always had the travel bug, but it hit me hard this time, and after the trip to Europe that we took, I knew what I needed to do. The rut I was in, I knew we could break it. But not only did I long for my REAL LIFE, but, the neighbours started getting on our nerves. I wish I could go back and thank this particular one, as he was part of the catalyst that sent us to where we are now!
Bryan: We knew none of our neighbours....at first. And in the end believe me we didn’t want to! And this condo… don’t get me started. Every week or two, someone from the condo had to enter the premises, check fire alarms, change filters, this or that. No privacy. Then we got really lucky, a new neighbour in the unit directly on top of us. He was a real winner… a shrink, looks like the lead singer from Nickelback, or a homeless Jesus impersonator, or a drowned greasy rat, depends who you ask. He began some funky renovations. Lots of noise from 8am-8pm the entire week. The building only permits work from 9-5 weekdays. Many complaints later, it only gets better. To make any changes to the building they are to be approved by some committee. Well buddy goes askew of the original floor plan, if he ever intended to follow one. The contractors he hired… don’t know where he found these discounters, but they ended up cutting our cable and phone line when knocking out walls. Then it gets real nasty. The cable repair men are in and out of our place for a week, at the end of this week, when they leave, the TV is left pulled out from the wall in the middle of the floor and they do not even reattach the cable cover, wires, plaster, and dust left all over the carpet. Guess what, our TV didn’t work anymore, the vertical shifted down, only getting half a picture. And of course it is just over two years old and the warranty is up. Time to play the blame game, of course no one is accountable. Not the cable company, it’s the building’s fault, nope, they pass the buck to the tenant. After some confrontation, shouting matches and lots of pounding on the ceiling, it gets worse.
A couple months go by and buddy decides to install a hot-tub in the middle of his floor. We find this out when they cut a tension wire in the process. Ut-oh…. the building informs us they have to do some repairs or the ceiling may come down. That means a couple days worth of jack-hammers. Then after the tub is installed, the last straw. The plumber didn’t seal something properly, or crossed pipes, but we were greeted to water spilling in to our bathrooms from the ceiling fans. Water leaked into our closet as well. This water smelled like crap. Everyone in the building insisted it was clean water but we put in a call to the health inspector. More people in and out. To appease us, they sent in a cleaner to take care of the mess and our dry cleaning was charged to the guy upstairs.
Cat: I should also mentioned this happened right on my birthday....I got up to go to the washroom, and stepped in a puddle of what we believed to be $&#@ water! GROSS!
Bryan: That building was such a pain in the neck. It had a no pet rule. So every time these people came in, we had to hide Mittens, or shuffle him away to Cat’s parent’s condo just below us. We could not get out of there soon enough, the lease was up June 30th, 2006.
We examined our options… Cat has very particular tastes. She only wanted to live on the harbourfront. Try buying a condo there for less than $200,000. We weren’t going to live in a closet.
Another key factor: Cat cannot stand the winter. She is thoroughly miserable and impossible to deal with when it’s cold outside. Blame it on seasonal affective disorder, known in short as S.A.D. She would stay indoors all the time, with the thermostat cranked up, huddled up to the computer. That was not healthy, can’t go on like that. I was going to have a complex if I had to deal with any more!
Cat: Ha-ha! It was an event that I learned to think was normal. I can’t understand it now....how I lived with it for so long. I could never handle the cold....the dark, everything dying in the fall was too much....that’s when it started. I always longed for Florida. I went there with family a lot. It felt like ‘home’ to me. Cocoa Beach in particular. I would go there in dreams constantly, and in the winter it was my daydream escape from the hell I was currently in....
Bryan: So, there’s Catherines longing for Florida. I’d never been. But we just couldn’t move to Florida being Canadian citizens. Could take a trip for a week, maybe two. Then she’d likely be worse after coming back to the snow and cold. It’s mild on the west coast, but it’s not Florida. Who wants a rainy winter season? We even pondered life on a house-boat. Travel being limited to waterways and the thought of stormy waters…. maybe not.
Watching TV, it was a cold night in February, we had a revelation. The advertisement was forwww.goRVing.ca and we thought that was neat. Cat began her fervent research into the subject, the seed was planted. We knew we wanted the mobility to choose our locations and our neighbours. At the onset of this idea, we hoped to keep an apartment for half the year in Toronto, then sublet it and travel the remainder. This wasn’t very realistic, too much hassle and money. Instead we began selling everything or piling it away in storage. The progression was rapid, we jumped in head first, no turning back. We began full-timing less than 6 months after the initial idea.
Cat: It was a total shock to my system. Bryan was more used to moving and change....as he had moved to Ontario from PEI. I was excited but scared at the same time. Of course with me being materialistic, selling everything I had acquired over the years was insane....but oddly liberating. I was totally being owned by my possessions, a la Fight Club! Ikea nesting instinct....that was me. Everything was Ikea....black and silver and funky colors. I watched most of it disappear from my life, faster than it came into it. And then it was done. FREEDOM!
My hyper-focusing thing helped us to get out faster than planned. We’re both still a bit surprised we were able to pull it off so fast. Are we scared about making a mistake? Not at all....we are young, we can bounce back and do whatever we want. But really....it’s the last thing on our minds now....
This was the best idea either of us have come up with. No regrets, in fact, we believe it saved us. We don’t easily conform to the ‘standard ways of life’. For us, there is no house with the white picket fence, no children, no job that pisses us off from 9-5. We find ways to make it work for us, we don’t work for IT.
Our online ventures keep us afloat. Are we worried about the lack of stability? Since when was ANYTHING in life perfectly stable? We adapt in our own way, and we conquer. And I believe that it’s in EVERYONE to do!
Everything in life starts with a vision, and a dream. Persistence is key. To accept nothing else but what you want is crucial. To seek change and freedom, is the best gift you could ever give yourself....!
Happy travels!
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