Crash Test Dummies - Recap Episode 4 of Million Dollar Neighborhood

Christella Morris is a blogger, social media expert and marketing executive who recently spent the summer filming a reality television show with her partner and two sons, along with 99 other families in her community. You can watch Million Dollar Neighbourhood, Season 2, airing on OWN Canada Sundays at 8pm EST. For more information about Christella, visit her blog at http://www.crawltheline.com

Disaster Week on Million Dollar Neighborhood (Source)

This week on Million Dollar Neighborhood our families were challenged to open our eyes to the unexpected. Anything can happen at any moment and there's nothing that can emotionally prepare you for that, but there is something you can do to prepare yourself for life's surprises, especially the bad ones. By taking the time, effort and money to invest in things like Wills, POA's and Term Life Insurance / Disability or Critical Illness insurance you are planning for the "just in case" scenarios most of us don't want to think about. In fact, so many of us don't want to think about it that we never do. And that's exactly what happened this week on MDN! 

My family, like many others on the show, hasn't put into place most of the things a young family should have in place. A will. A POA. "Disaster Proofing", as they called it on the show. Why? Those things are expensive and we're living just within our means at the moment. Does that make it okay? No. 

As we saw with Julie's heartfelt discussion with Sarah and John McEnaney, nothing can prepare you when tragedy strikes and sometimes you have no time to think, or do anything. You're at the mercy of life and that's nothing to laugh about. When Julie lost Scott their lives were just starting out, they had recently gotten married, they just had their first son together, Sam, and they were still living in that newlywed bubble. Julie had just gotten over a tragic cancer scare and they thought they were out of the woods. They had no idea what was waiting around the corner for their family and they barely had time to manage life at that moment, let alone prepare for a future without their main breadwinner. 

I still to this day can't imagine how Julie overcame that. I know it was the hardest thing she's ever had to deal with. I know that people all over Canada are feeling her loss with her this week. I know that she still needs help, as she wants to find a home for her and Sam to call their own. This week she took the necessary steps to ensure that Sam is taken care of by setting up an RESP in his name. 

Amber Harwyszko learned a lesson this week that so many of us dread, What it's like to be suddenly disabled. With the help of the amazing Tony Carlo, (who is legally blind) Amber took the challenge to spend the entire week wearing sunglasses that left her completely blind with the exception of her peripheral vision (the same condition that Tony has.) She really took the challenge to heart, trying to do her every day tasks that she took for granted when she was sighted. Things like ordering food (how do you see what's on the menu?) and pumping gas (why are you driving blind in the first place, Amber? haha) and trying to live your every day life. Getting dinner ready for two hungry girls can't be easy when you've lost your sight. I remember seeing Amber doing this challenge all week, and as funny as it was to watch her be goofy and stumble around, I think the reason she was nominated is because every person in our community saw that she really took the challenge to heart. She understood what it meant to walk a mile in someone elses shoes and in doing so she took the necessary precautions needed to prevent this type of disability from ruining her financial future.

I'm starting to sound like that darn show! Ugh! 

What Amber did was awesome, I think we all would've jumped at the chance to take on that challenge for a few days and see what it really meant to be blind!

Rhonda & her Business - Country Chic (Photo by: me!) 

We, however, drew the "Loss of Breadwinner" card. My mentor that week was Rhonda Melanson, owner of Shabby Chic Country Boutique in Bowmanville. She is a single mother to three lovely kids (mixed and gorgeous like mine! Hehe) and I think she sees a lot of herself in me. We talked about what life is like trying to raise kids without any help, trying to be the Mom & the Dad, providing for your family and being there emotionally too. It's certainly not easy, but in the process Rhonda has managed to carve herself a life that is so totally suited to her personality. She found herself as the sole breadwinner and needed to find a way to support her family, starting her own business she has really found her place in life and I'm so proud of her and admire her greatly! Hopefully we'll see more of Rhonda in coming episodes! 

After Preet took Amber dress shopping and she thought he wanted to marry her (ha!) we got to see Kelly Pigeau helping a bunch of MDNers out with their finances. Getting their papers in order. This was something I didn't really know was happening during the filming of the show, as we weren't directly involved. I think it is SO awesome that Kelly managed to get so many people organized, and being a big fan of organization myself it definitely hit home! She did a great job of sorting through Tina's pile of paperwork and helping others with their crazy paper messes too! Good job, Kelly!

Finally we were all asked to meet at Knox Pumpkin Farm and we were severely tongue lashed for not having any equity in our homes. Okay, I get it, many people are way over financed and lesson is that you shouldn't buy houses that you cannot afford. Got it!

My only beef with that is that Bowmanville is a brand new community in some respects. Although many MDNers have lived here for most or all of their lives, a lot (like us, for instance) are very new to the community and have little to no equity in our homes, or are unable to refinance because, well they're NEW! Our mortgages are new! Us, for instance, our mortgage was only 6 months old when we were filming the show. There's no way we'd be able to refinance, the fees alone wouldn't be worth it. Secondly, the market in our area is at a relatively low mortgage rate right now, so even those that could refinance (which weren't many as most have only owned their homes for a year, two or three at most) wouldn't be getting a much better rate. So, although I value the lesson in not mortgaging yourself to the hilt, it's also important to know that given our area, the market and the fact that there are 5 builder's currently developing has to stand for something. Many of us just weren't able to refinance due to the fact that our houses were new or newly purchased.

Now, putting 5 humungous TV's in your brand new home isn't a necessity on the other hand! I've gotta say, I love Tina & Gilles, they have great parties and are very awesome people! But a TV in your bathroom? Maybe not a necessity! Ha ha ha!

Tina & Gilles work VERY hard for what they have, and I am sure that they worked hard to change their disaster-proofing that week. Maybe they didn't sell any TV's but they did what it takes to make sure that if anything happened to Gilles they'd be able to live without selling one of their giant televisions... er.. I think. Hehe.

Thankfully the tongue-lashing didn't last long and we quickly moved onto a special surprise! An appearance by Canadian Country Singer Paul Brandt. I would've preferred Hanson (lol) but Paul was a great surprise! Ha ha! You could tell that he was really impressed with what we were doing as a community and what he said about us was truly sweet. We all got the opportunity to meet with him and he signed a CD for us, as soon as Christine Bates-Pama stopped jumping that is! haha!

I hope you all enjoyed Episode 4 of MDN, and stay tuned for Next Week's Episode!