Renter Beware 2

We've now looked at several places: a lovely LITTLE condo on a golf course with the hole in the bedroom window to prove it. A lovely half a house with an incredible layout and cathedral ceilings but 2 lanais in the dark (no sun), and the pool a car ride away. A single mobile that I actually liked (it had 3 recliners and I'm really getting used to reclining) except the beds were too small. A double-wide mobile that I liked, so spacious, but hubby didn't like the park it was in. So we are now moving into the same condo park as 2 of our friends. But. (Here comes Mrs. Fussy again!) But, the living room furniture isn't fit for the Sally Ann. As luck would have it, we found a set of rattan living room furniture for a song in perfect condition so we bought it, rented a van and moved it in our new place. Now I have to convince the landlord to let us chuck his stuff (really, it's pretty awful) and buy our stuff. Wish me luck. Can you tell I like these little challenges? But hubby doesn't. Poor man, I drive him crazy but I gotta give him credit: off he goes with me, rents the van, hauls the furniture and so on. Only gets a little testy when he gets hungry.

The upshot of all this is, we have a far better idea of what is out there in our price range. Friends took us to a very large mobile park that was quite impressive; beautiful, spacious mobiles, and a large population of Canadians live there. It has large pools, hot tubs and a gi-normous rec centre with all the bells and whistles, even a computer room with several PCs (looks like a government training room). The park is enhanced by a little lake curved around by a neat little nine-hole golf course. Part of the park is segregated for pet owners. It has loads of activities and looks like day after day of fun.

The lady showing us around confided her own impression, whispering "Yes, it's very nice but they don't seem to allow black or other ethnic groups in. I don't know how they do that but they apparently don't. They just recently let in the first gay couple." Hmmm. If that is the case, it's ironic, and sad, especially on a day when the first black president is being sworn in that so many are still striving to truly be treated as equals, and apparently, many are still holding them back. "Well, they let Seamus O'Hare* in," I joked making reference to her friend who is Irish. No one laughed.

So while it appears to be a lovely Shangrila, I have to wonder if it really is? As a Canadian who accepts, likes and enjoys living in a multicultural country, you have to ask yourself do you want to live in a community like that? The easy answer is no, I don't. The harder answer is yes (who doesn't like fun?) but then to stick to our principles would require the stamina and intent to get involved on the board to affect and change the exclusive policy and such decisions as to who is allowed to live there, assuming, of course, that the board would let the likes of us in there in the first place. I'm hoping the lady who said this got it wrong because if it is true then it means some of my fellow Canadians living there support what appears to be a racist policy. I don't like that.

Which leads me to applications. Every community of 55+ wants you to fill out an application to know who you are. They want to know who they're living with. As in the case above, there's nothing to say what their criteria for acceptance is. We had to fill out a form AND pay a small fee to be eligible to rent our 2nd condo and receive a pool and community centre pass. Despite having paid the landlord 3 month's rent and moving in our bargain furniture, we still don't know if we passed muster. We also don't know that their "policies" are. My eyes are a little wider open now. Wish us luck yet again.