i’m going to start this on a positive note. Again, let me say that this area of the city is awesome. The city views from our windows are amazing and we are close to so many things. Last week we walked to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre to see a show. The round trip was over eight kilometres, but it was an easy, enjoyable walk. On the way back we stopped at our neighbourhood pub while we’re here, the Winking Judge. Driving around to other parts of the city is easy now, and we’ve been all over the city and surrounding areas. 

However, I think this experience has shown us that, as wonderful as the city is, we could not live here in an apartment like this one. Firstly, the apartment is too small. There’s no storage and no place to putter. Secondly, this is an older building. There are no screens on the windows or balcony doors, although if we owned here I guess we could take care of that. Finally, the separation between the apartments is, well, awful. Not that it’s noisy but all the smells come into our apartment. The combination of these three things has basically ruined our time here. Why? Well, the smoke detector is in front of the door, which is also basically in front of the kitchen and the bathroom. The windows can’t be opened fully because there are no screens and birds can fly in. Someone on our floor either deep fries or burns spices in oil or smokes dope, or deep fries while smoking dope, or burns spices in oil because they’re smoking dope, or whatever, and it sets off our smoke detector! Their smoke detector must be disabled, because if it comes through their closed door and through our closed door to set off our detector, how could it not set off theirs? And that’s scary, that there is an apartment on our floor with a disabled smoke detector, with people inside who do things that they need to disable their smoke detector to do.

Early Monday morning, around 2:00 a.m, our smoke detector went off. We jumped out of bed, disoriented. We quickly checked for fire in our flat. Nothing. There was no smoke, but there was a strong smell. Dale felt the door, it wasn’t warm. I looked outside; no fire trucks, no one was leaving the building. However, we got dressed and prepared to leave. We were also swinging a towel at the smoke detector and we opened the door to the balcony. After a couple of minutes, the detector stopped. We were still on alert, but nothing else happened. Nobody from our floor evacuated, the building stayed quiet. We waited a while and then we went back to bed. However, we didn’t sleep, and poor Dale had to go to work in the morning.

We were already paranoid about cooking and showering here as both of those events had triggered the smoke detector. At least we thought they did, perhaps it was our neighbour’s cooking and/or smoking habits that did it. Perhaps it was a combination of things, who knows? The point is, we are petrified of the smoke detector and we take every precaution to avoid setting it off. We now use the bathroom with the door firmly shut and the fan on high. We have warmish showers, trying not to create much steam, and we squeeze out the door, shutting it quickly behind us, in case what little steam there is escapes. We are not cooking. If we boil water in the kettle or make toast in the toaster, those appliances sit on the stove under the fan, which is on high. Breakfast is cereal.  My lunches now consist of crackers and cheese and sometimes cold cuts. We have been eating dinner out.

So that takes care of what happens in here but what about the hallway smells and triggers? On Monday morning I was sleep deprived and very anxious. I was expecting the smoke detector to go off at any moment. The smell that we noticed in the early morning hours had dissipated but around noon, it was back. It was very strong at the door. I noticed I could see light under the door. I grabbed a towel and used it to cover up the space. I nervously paced, waiting for the smoke detector to go off. It didn’t. And the smell went away, at least it did inside our apartment. I don’t know what it smelled like out in the hall. I was on pins and needles all day but the towel continued to work. I moved it when Dale came home but replaced it as soon as he got in the door.  We were too tired to go out for dinner and it was pouring rain outside, so we had a simple dinner of tuna sandwiches and tea. Well, Dale ate, my stomach was still too upset for me to eat. We were both very tired and by 10:00 we were ready for bed. We were anxious, but we fell asleep quickly and we slept all night. The smoke detector did not go off.  I got up when Dale went to work and replaced the towel. (Don’t tell him but I went back to bed and slept until 9:30 and it’s almost I:00 and I’m still not dressed although I have had my tepid shower.)

So, if we could afford to buy, or rent, in a newer building with better fitting doors and if the apartment was larger with the smoke detector in a less inconvenient location, we would live downtown again in a heartbeat. But that’s not happening any time soon and we are counting down the days until we leave. Our townhouse in PoCo may share two walls with our neighbours, but the front door opens to the great outdoors, not a hallway. The windows have screens, and as it is almost four times the size of this apartment, the smoke detectors are more conveniently placed. The size will also allow us to putter; Dale in the garage and me in the craft room. I am going to cook wonderful meals for dinner every night, searing the meat if the recipe calls for it. And I am going to bake cakes and cookies and scones and cinnamon buns, mostly for Dale to take to work. I will still have a measure of a walking lifestyle as our townhouse is just a block away from downtown Port Coquitlam. We will also be able to ride our bikes on the amazing trails in the area and picnic down by the river in the summer. Yes, that location has its charms too.

I’m glad we spent some time here. We’ve learned our way around the city and have become comfortable here. We know where to go, and where to park, when we come back to visit. We also know, that at this time, we aren’t ready to downsize into an apartment, and if we are ready later on, we know what specific things to look for. Now that the towel is under the door and our other precautions are in place, the smoke detector anxiety is gone, well not gone, but it is decreased. If my tummy settles down, I think we’ll go to the nearby Chinese food restaurant tonight; perhaps we’ll have Indian food tomorrow night. And after that, well, we’ll see. Thank goodness we have many, many options here in the West End. And if we want to, we can walk to Yaletown or Granville Island or English Bay. You can bet the Winking Judge will see us again before we leave. Now, I really should go and get dressed.