Our New Ottawa Home is Perfect Except…

I love our new house in Ottawa. Almost everything about it is perfect.

The neighbourhood has everything that matters—the beautiful canal and bike paths are around the corner in one direction; interesting retail and restaurants in the other. Grand embassy homes and spectacularly renovated ones mixed in with dilapidated row housing and apartment buildings. It’s the kind of eclectic neighbourhood that best defines urban living.

Our neighbours are beyond sweet as well. I get regular foodie-type gifts like fragrant sage and basil from their rooftop garden. I made a burnt butter sage gnocchi just the other day. I plan to start a rooftop garden myself. But that will have to wait until next year. I’ve literally moved mountains already from packing up our Toronto home to setting up our new Ottawa one. My inner Domestic Goddess needs a break.

I said our home is “almost” perfect. And, that is because the small bathroom beside my ground floor study has a grab bar. I think this was installed to help the elderly mother of the former owner. It screams “old,” “hospital,” and “please remove me.” I would, except I would then have to patch and paint the wall. Like the rooftop garden, it won’t happen anytime soon. I already told you: my inner Domestic Goddess is exhausted.

As I discovered in doing research on aging-in-place bathrooms for YouAreUnltd magazine, there are innovative new products and designs that don’t scream “grandma.”

VANITY PROJECT: NOT YOUR GRANDMA’S BATHROOM

Style-savvy Boomers aren’t waiting for happenstance – hip replacement surgery, arthritic knees, a wipe-out in their shower – to redesign their bathrooms. They’re acting now, embracing simple solutions from designer grab bars to higher-tech products (think walk-in tubs with aromatherapy). The result? Beautiful spa-like designs…

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