‘A sense of community that I never felt in Toronto’
“I look out my living room window and I see trees and lots of green space and I have deer at the neighbours’ feeder.” LAURIE ALLAN
Toronto transplant
WHEN SHE FOUND HERSELF being consistently outbid by $50,000 and $60,000 in her quest to buy a Toronto house — with 500 square-feet of living space — Laurie Allan decided it was time to take a leap of faith.
So nearly 10 years ago, she bought a house in Dundas. It came with a trade-off.
Now, she spends three hours of most work-days commuting to and from her job with CBC Radio in downtown Toronto.
“The thing that makes it worthwhile is when I come home at night and there’s space,” said Allan. “The quality of life and the sense of community I have here outweighs the three-hour commute for me.
“I look out my living room window and I see trees and lots of green space and I have deer at the neighbours’ feeder.”
That’s not to say there isn’t a toll. Her day starts with a 25-minute to half-hour drive down Highway 6 and along the 403 to the Burlington GO station, a trip that seems to take longer each year. From there, she takes the train to Union Station.
“The traffic to get to the station is the most aggravating part, not the train trip itself,” she said.
“I spend a lot of time doing work on the train, which probably isn’t that healthy. I also waste a lot of time on social media,” she added with a laugh.
And sometimes the train provides its own entertainment. Like the time she listened to a guy seated not far away give a long and highly detailed account over the phone of his wife’s colonoscopy. Eventually the woman sitting across told him he’d shared too much information and stormed off in a huff to another seat.
Allan has decided to make her peace with the fact a large chunk of her work day is taken up with commuting. She’s closer now to her family in Grimsby and she works from home one day a week.
“My retirement date is 2035, so I have a long way to go,” Allan said.
“You do have to be the kind of person who just sucks it up and does it,” she said. “Once you get home, your life is good.”