Not Just About Money

Renting vs Owning

by Farrell MacDonald

In his latest book titled At Home, Bill Bryson says “Houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.” I love this quote for many reasons – not the least of which is the way it touches on the key to my biggest passion: real estate.

My continued fascination with how people use their personal space lies at the heart of why I love my job. I can show the same property to a dozen different clients and they will all have slightly different plans for how they would adapt it to make it their home.

Although I am an owner at heart, I do not believe one requires legal title to their space in order to call it their home. This follows a strong belief that everyone ends up living where they do because of a history of events – good or bad – that leads to decisions about where they need to be at a given point in time. Hence my assertion that renters often have just as much invested in their personal living space as do owners and the decision to rent versus buy is sometimes loaded with considerations that have nothing to do with affordability.

Change in philosophy

This is reflected in a recent episode of my audio podcast series where my producer and I are joined by a retiree who made the philosophical switch from owner to renter in order to match his current stage in life. He freely admits that when he was first married and starting a family, he could not imagine anything other than owning a home. In his view, this represented security, practicality and the status that comes with owning property. In other words, he felt all grown up. The stereotypical owner is someone who is established, settled and trustworthy.

The renter, by contrast is usually considered flighty, unreliable and in need of some stability. In other words, owning property demonstrates maturity. Like all stereotypes, there is much more to it than meets the eye.

Later in life – that is, once the kids had flown the coop – our retiree and his wife decided it was time to re-think their living space and how they wanted to live out their golden years. The result has been a significant shift in philosophy.

Footloose and fancy free

The yard he so proudly tended all those years had become burdensome and the uncertain costs of maintaining an aging structure suddenly overshadowed the pride of ownership he had harboured his entire adult life. Their decision to rent a condo apartment has given them the freedom to travel without fretting about returning to a flooded basement or piles of snow to shovel. They have access to a pool and expansive garden space tended to by others (the management company). Although he claims he is also way ahead financially (which I dispute), the shift in lifestyle has left him and his spouse feeling rather footloose and fancy free.

They are no doubt dream tenants, something I suspect reflects all those years as proud owners. But, make no mistake, they’re proud of this home too. It just happens to be someone else’s responsibility.

Backyard Arbor

Turn your backyard into an entertaining haven

by Chris Caldwell

A large backyard in an old Toronto home is a great bonus to have. Loved it though we did when we bought the place two years ago, it was lacking in scale, elevation and imagination. We found that we didn’t want to spend any time there.

Creating outdoor ‘rooms’ transforms a blah yard into outdoor space that you – and all your guests – will want to spend time in. Besides, being able to enjoy a fabulous outdoor living area means you will want to stay home and entertain or enjoy in solitude the peace and quiet that well-defined outdoor rooms create for you. That saves some serious cash.

This was not a costly project. We needed four 6×6 posts set 3ft deep in concrete, 2x6s for the end railings, 2x4s for the arbor cross-pieces, post caps (not installed yet), screening and some poured concrete pavers. I’m still creating the pond and waterfall – and we’re using an old shower base as the foot-deep base where the pump will be, and some large rocks and flagstones found around the property for the waterfall, so we only needed to buy a sheet of pond liner and a pump. We’ll have the hard materials part of the project completed for about $500.

An arbor needs plantings around it to soften the edges, and the right size plantings both highlight the arbor and contain it for more of an outdoor room feeling. The perennial garden was poorly planned and, well, flat and boring. We went to Reeves garden centre on Danforth Avenue (near Donlands) to seek out some evergreen trees and shrubs with scale and texture that would provide year-long greenery.

Reeves’ staff are really knowledgeable, and the site is really well stocked with healthy large trees and shrubs, great for the serious gardener. With Reeves help, we chose maturing trees such as a 6ft  cypress, two 4ft dwarf Alberta spruces, a whipcord red cedar and two golden junipers for low to the ground texture around the pond, and two 3ft holly bush pairs for the glossy green and the colourful berries visible year-round from the kitchen window. As you can see in the pictures, the impact is dramatic.

There are still some finishing touches to complete, but the yard is now usable. Much more than usable, in fact. We realized that by the end of May we had already spent as much time enjoying our backyard as we had spent during the entire summer of 2009.  Now we can’t wait for the water feature to be done. Nirvana!