A tree fell on my house and spurred a redesign
Structural damage from small distaster became opportunity to renovate son’s bedroom
I had just sat down at the kitchen table with a fresh cup of coffee, still in a sleepy-summer-at-the-cottage haze, when my cellphone rang.
It was my brother, Jim. A massive old oak tree had fallen on my house back in Toronto, crashing through the roof into my son’s bedroom.
I was in P.E.I. with my husband, our two kids and my dad for our annual holiday, so we were fine. But the thought of debris raining down on the spot where my son Julian, 12, normally lays his head was unsettling.
My first thought was to return home immediately. But we are fortunate to have generous family and neighbours, who insisted we stay put and enjoy our vacation.
So we spent the next two weeks taking the kids to the beach, eating lobster and sending the occasional panicked text to Jim or neighbour Ana to check on things after news of another crazy, heat-induced rainstorm in Toronto.
Managing the aftermath of a small disaster from 1,700 kilometres away was unnerving.
We hoped that upon our return the damage would be fixed quickly and life would return to normal.
But a combination of structural damage, bureaucracy and dealing with tradespeople saw the drama continue for nearly eight months.
For five of them, Julian slept on an inflatable mattress next to ours. His room — all 70 square feet of it — had to be gutted.
In the grand scheme of home disasters ours was tame.
No one got hurt and we had insurance.
And while it wasn’t how I imagined spending my summer, the disaster provided the opportunity to transform a little boy’s bedroom into a space more in keeping of a teenager.