When I was growing up, I never thought too much about the chores I did for my grandparents.
I would chop firewood, mow the lawn, clean the gutters and help with different jobs around their property. At the time, it was mostly a way for me to earn a little extra money. I certainly wasn’t thinking about aging in place or how much those small jobs might matter to someone as they got older.
Looking back now, I see it differently.
There are so many things involved in maintaining a home and managing everyday life that are easy to take for granted when you’re able to do them yourself. Cutting the grass. Moving something heavy. Cleaning up outside. Picking something up from a store. Figuring out why the television isn’t working. Getting a few things organized before company comes over.
None of these things necessarily require traditional home care. But when they start becoming difficult, they can have a real impact on someone’s ability to comfortably stay in the home they love.
That realization is a big part of why Erin and I started Victoria Home Support.
Finding the Gap Between Doing Everything Yourself and Needing Home Care
Over the years, both Erin and I kept noticing the same problem from different perspectives.
There are a lot of seniors in Victoria who are perfectly capable of living independently but could use an extra set of hands.
Their needs don’t necessarily fit neatly into one category. They might need some help around the house one week, a few errands the next, someone to organize a closet, help with their phone, do some work in the yard, or simply stop by regularly and make sure everything around the home is running smoothly.
There are companies that specialize in cleaning, landscaping, home care, handyman work and dozens of other individual services. All of those businesses have their place.
What seemed harder to find was one dependable person or team you could actually get to know and call for the collection of small, practical things that come up in everyday life.
Reliability was another part of it. If someone is inviting you into their home, especially an older person living alone, showing up when you say you will and treating them and their property with respect matters enormously.
We felt there was room to do this differently.
My Own Path to Victoria Home Support
My work history probably doesn’t look like the obvious path toward starting a home support business.
I started working in restaurant kitchens when I was 14 and continued until I was about 20. Cooking is still something I love today. There is something satisfying about working with your hands, staying busy and being able to see the result of what you’ve done.
After leaving restaurants, I spent a couple of years working in landscaping and excavation. I eventually decided to go back to school for civil engineering and worked in engineering for several years afterward.
Engineering taught me a lot, particularly about problem solving, planning and doing things properly. But over time, I realized I didn’t want to spend the rest of my working life sitting behind a computer.
I wanted to own my own business. More importantly, I wanted to do something where I could work directly with people and feel that the work I did that day had actually made someone’s life a little easier.
Victoria Home Support brings together more of my past than I initially realized. The practical side of construction and landscaping is useful. The problem-solving side of engineering is useful. Even the years I spent cooking taught me about service, hard work and paying attention to what another person needs.
And apparently all those weekends chopping firewood for my grandparents weren’t bad preparation either.
What Erin Was Seeing Through Real Estate
Erin came to the idea from a different direction.
Through her work in real estate, she regularly meets older homeowners and families navigating major changes in their lives.
Sometimes that means leaving a house they have lived in for decades and moving into a condo or retirement community. Sometimes it means getting a property ready to sell. And sometimes it simply means trying to keep up with a home that has become more work than it used to be.
She has also seen how difficult it can be for older homeowners to know who they can trust.
Something as basic as pressure washing, yard cleanup, junk removal or preparing a house for a move can become surprisingly complicated. People may receive vastly different quotes for the same job, struggle to get someone to show up, or simply have no idea whether the price they are being charged is reasonable.
Unfortunately, seniors can also be particularly vulnerable to being taken advantage of.
We kept coming back to the same thought: wouldn’t it be useful to have someone you already trusted who you could call first?
Even when we can’t do a particular job ourselves, having a familiar person who can look at the situation, help make sense of what needs to be done and assist with coordinating an appropriate service provider can make the whole process less overwhelming.
Our Families Made It Personal
There are also more personal reasons behind the business.
My grandfather developed dementia and has spent time in several different care homes. Watching that experience unfold has shown our family just how complicated it can be to find the right kind of help as someone gets older.
Victoria Home Support is not a dementia care service, and we do not provide medical or personal care. There are trained professionals and organizations that are much better suited to those needs.
But my grandfather’s experience made me think much more about the years leading up to that level of care, and about how much support older adults and their families can need that has nothing to do with medicine.
Sometimes what someone needs is simply help keeping their home manageable.
For Erin, there is another example that hits even closer to home.
Her mom lives alone across the country in Ontario.
There are times when Erin wishes there were someone nearby whom she knew personally and trusted. Someone she could call to stop in once a week, have a conversation with her mom, help with a few things around the house, notice if something needed attention and simply let Erin know that everything was okay.
That feeling has shaped a lot of how we think about Victoria Home Support.
Because there are plenty of people here in Victoria whose sons, daughters and other family members live in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto or somewhere even farther away.
They want their parent to remain independent. Their parent wants the same thing. But the family can’t always be there when something comes up.
We want to be the local people those families can trust.
Helping Seniors Stay Independent at Home
One thing that is important to us is that getting some help should not feel like giving up independence.
In many cases, we think it is the opposite.
Having someone take care of the jobs that are becoming annoying, tiring or difficult can make it easier to continue enjoying your home and spending your time on the things you actually want to be doing.
That might mean some help with household tasks, errands, technology, organization, yard work or seasonal jobs. It might mean getting ready for a move or downsizing after many years in the same house. For some clients, it might simply mean having a familiar person visit regularly, help with that week’s priorities and provide a little company along the way.
We also know that no two people are going to need exactly the same thing.
That’s why we want Victoria Home Support to remain personal. We would rather start by sitting down and asking, “What would make your life easier?” than trying to fit everyone into the same service.
Building the Kind of Business We Would Want for Our Own Families
Ultimately, that is probably the simplest explanation for why we’re doing this.
We’re trying to build the kind of service we would want available for our own parents and grandparents.
Someone reliable.
Someone you know by name.
Someone who answers the phone, shows up when they say they will, respects your home and doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable asking for help with something that might seem small.
For family members who live farther away, we want them to know there is someone local they can turn to as well.
Victoria Home Support is a new business, but the ideas behind it have been part of our lives for a long time. They come from our grandparents, our parents, Erin’s work in real estate, my own experiences working with my hands, and countless conversations about the kind of business we wanted to build together.
We’re excited to start meeting more people in Victoria and the surrounding communities and to learn what kind of support would make the biggest difference in their lives.
Sometimes it really is the little things that make staying at home easier.
And we’d be happy to help with them.
Erin & Soren
Victoria Home Support