Wednesday, May 31, 2006

DIE DIE DIE!!!!!

In case you may not have noticed, I'm a little angry today. I went to see Condo rep woman on the weekend to bring her my list of questions. One question was regarding the balcony. It will have a hump to get out, about 1 foot high. I asked if they could make it level so I could have access to my balcony. She said she would fax my questions to the builder. She called me today to tell me she heard back from him and that the balcony access would be an issue. They could not make the balcony door level due to potential water damage leaking in the apartment. I called an Independent Living Centre to ask if anything could be done. She said "basically, no". So then I said, "so, that means that people in wheelchairs can never have apartments or condos with balconies?" She said "basically, yes". So finally, I asked "what if I decide to renovate it myself?" She said "you can't change the structure of a building or they could sue you". Nice. I then called the Canadian Paraplegic Association. The woman I needed to speak with wasn't there so I left a message. She returned my call and left me a message giving me the name of someone who, she said, "knows everything". I will give him a call tomorrow. I just can't believe this. This is a new place that they haven't even begun to build yet! I'm also going to call the building code people. There has to be something that can be done. I am incensed!!!!

5 comments:

imfunnytoo said...

You're expected to buy the darn thing with the perk of a balcony you can't use???

Oh hell no...

Ranter said...

Actually, my take is I'm not supposed to buy it at all. I'm never supposed to buy a condo/apartment with a balcony. People in wheelchairs aren't allowed balconies, I guess.

Oh, but I am looking into all the resources I can to fight it. So, it's not over yet!

I met up with this woman who used to be in one of my evening activities. She's now a real estate agent. I had really only wanted a small piece of information, but she said she'd help me look for a place. I dont' know if she knows what she's getting into, as y'all know it's not just fun and games trying to find an affordable, accessible (doesn't have to be "officially" accessible, just suits my needs), condo in a convenient location.

Anonymous said...

s foot high barrier between floor and balcony? a FOOT? i
never heard of that...

Disability Blogger said...

re:"s foot high barrier between floor and balcony? a FOOT? i
never heard of that..."

Actually, I got hung up on that too. Could you offer a better description of that?

Ranter said...

Basically, the balcony door is about 1 foot above the floor. Under the door, there is a foot-high door step that you have to step over.

Here is an example of what it would look like, but this looks to be only about 4 inches or so. It's a bit harder to see coz it's not a close-up:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2005/11/23/paustralia23.xml&sSheet=/global/2005/12/06/expatres.html