Living right downtown Toronto also was out of the question. It was too crowded and busy for our liking. During the time we were in Kingston, we bought the daily Toronto papers and checked the real estate ads. Billy had lived in the country until the time that he left home to play for the Red Wings. I had enjoyed the few days that I had been in the country.
When we finally went back to Toronto, we just checked into the Town House Hotel downtown until we found some place suitable. There were many houses being built outside of the city - Markham, Woodbridge, Brampton, Oakville, Mississauga, Pickering, Oshawa, and even Barrie. However, our real estate agent gave us the listing of an older house in Stouffville which was up for sale because of an estate sale. The moment Billy saw the house, he wanted to know where to sign his name. It had 5 bedrooms, 2 baths and lots of room for growth.
Since Joe McMillan was handling our finances, we just let him handle the negociations. By the time May 1st came, we were the proud owners of a house. However, because it takes 2 or 3 months to finalize the sale, it was July 1 when we moved in.
During those two months, we did have access to the house and were able to finalize plans regarding decorating which we decided to do over the following winter.
The summer passed quickly. We did a lot of painting over the summer. We also spend a lot of time in Stouffville and Toronto buying furniture for the house.
