My name is Jason Theodor. My family has a place up in Prince Edward County, Ontario. The old farm house is older than Canada(!) built in 1820. When my daughter graduates from high school, this house will be 200 years old.


The kids love running around outside—climbing trees, tending to the garden (sort of), helping with the bees (we have a small hive), and spotting animals in the rushes (coyotes, ducks, geese, frogs). It's so much healthier than being on their 'devices' 24/7.


Both my wife and I have had some close calls in the last few years (stroke, cancer) so we consider this house our backup plan, our retirement home, our life-line in case of the zombie apocalypse.


But our beautiful country home has recently come under attack by masked agents of evil—racoons! They have moved rocks around the foundation and squeezed into the crawlspace under the house. From there they accessed the unfinished basement where they proceeded to start a cascade of failures that can only be described as catastrophic.

They began by crawling around on all of the equipment, knocking the cover off of the water softener, turning off the UV filtration system, and tearing up the insulation.


Somehow they turned off the oil supply switch to the pumps which send hot water to the radiators in every room. This happened just a few days before we returned to a freezing cold house. As we looked around we realized all the radiators had been cracked by frozen water.

This caused the boiler to overheat and die. This caused the temperature of the water to plummet during one serious deep freeze (one of the few this mild winter). This caused water to freeze in the pipes, expand, and burst every radiator. It cracked and heaved the floor in the addition. It caused water to leak through the ceiling of the living room. This meant we had to 'bleed' the house of water. No heat, and no water until repairs are finished.


Our first real repair estimate came in at twenty-thousand dollars! This is because of so many repair factors: replacing a boiler is expensive. Replacing old radiators (seven of them) is expensive. Fixing floor pipes, wall pipes, ceiling pipes, damaged electrical, damaged water heater, damaged pumps, damaged filters, damaged everything costs and costs and costs.

So what about insurance, you ask? Great question! I'm not exactly sure what insurance is for, except to make insurance companies rich. After taking two weeks (all the while we had no heat or water) they offered to pay for a patch of water damage to the ceiling drywall that was about six inches wide and two feet long—AFTER we paid the $2K deductible. 

Apparently failed equipment isn't covered, just damage caused by the water. And since we caught the water damage early and bled the pipes, we saved our drywall but negated any chance of insurance payment. Go figure.

I don't know about you, but I don't have twenty thousand dollars lying around. I checked.

Right now we are trying to come up with creative ways to fix the place, working with local tradespeople to find more affordable solutions. But no matter which why you slice it, it's expensive. 

If you hate debt and insurance companies and ESPECIALLY racoons, please help us out if you can spare a few bucks.

If you love the country air, kids playing outside, and a zombie apocalypse rendezvous point, please help us out if you can spare a few dollars.


It means everything to our family to get this old homestead back up and running again. We are not used to asking anyone for financial help (other than our parents, of course!) Anything you can spare will mean the world to us and our family, and allow this historical home to live on.