Post-graduate medical education is truly the ultimate in delayed gratification. I had some great job opportunities before I decided to take a fellowship, all of which payed very well starting out. I now know I am a true glutton for punishment because I decided to take a job making the same thing I made last year in a foreign country that is a good deal more expensive than the U.S. For example, a gallon of gas costs almost $6, and a 6-pack of Coors light long-necks costs around $12. We knew Canada would be more expensive than the United States, especially in terms of child care, and as a result, we made several decisions to start saving money in preparation for our move. We didn't go on some exotic vacation to celebrate the end of residency, but perhaps the decision I regret the most now, hindsight being 20/20, is that we did not travel to Toronto at all prior to moving up here to do any house-hunting. We thought we would save the money we would have spent on flights, hotels, etc. However, we spent a great deal of time looking for places to live on the internet. Finally, one night after work I was looking on Craigs list and found what looked like a nice clean house in the part of Toronto called Greek Town. We talked to the property manager, did a fly-by on Google Maps, talked to people who had lived in Toronto; basically everything we could do short of seeing the house in person. We decided to pull the trigger and went for it.
The first time we pulled up to the house, needless to say, we were shocked. Bad idea not to see the house in person. The yard was a jungle with overgrown, dead brush, trash, debris and God-knows what else. It looked like someone had trimmed some tree branches in the not-too distant past and then thrown them on top of the "pile" to decompose. I remember seeing a digital thermostat on the wall and Katherine saying let me turn the AC on because after all, there has been a ridiculous heat wave in Toronto this summer. After about an hour, all the while working to throw out the junk the prior tenant had left in the house, I turned to Katherine and asked her if the AC was working because I certainly wasn't feeling any cooler. We looked around and noticed there was not a single air vent on the ceiling or in the floor, and suddenly the light bulb went off that we had no AC!
There are many other smaller issues like no dishwasher and disposal in the kitchen, for which I've already promised Katherine a La Cornue stove in our next house, a refrigerator that spontaneously went into defrost mode (we now have a new one as of last Thursday), a basement that likes to take on water after a rain storm, walls painted colors that could be better chosen by a blind person, and a bathroom so small, I have to pee facing sideways.
Needless to say, we have been through some adversity in life so after the shock value of what we were facing wore off, we got to work. Katherine scrubbed the house from top to bottom as only she can. I woke up early one Saturday morning, rented a U-haul trailer, and tackled the yard. The AC was probably the biggest issue with sweet 6 month old Mack liking it cold. I went to Home Depot, bought very nice LG window units, and drawing on my white-trash instincts, duct taped them into the windows in the kitchen, our bedroom, and the kids' bedroom. Oh, and we now have a side-gate that is actually quite sturdy to safely let the dogs out into the back yard. So with a little elbow grease and some ingenuity, our Greek house has become perfectly adequate. This experience has helped me to appreciate how fortunate we have been to live in the houses and cities that we have lived in thus far in life. Living in this house will just make the house we move in to next year that much sweeter. We are already planning house-hunting trips.
Before:
After:
Ahhh... AC!!
