Quest for FREE Parking at Guelph General Hospital

Okay, who doesn't hate paying loads of money for parking at the hospital.  It always seems to cost so much, and really when you are sick do you really want to park far far away?

So I looked around for free, or cheaper alternatives to parking in the hospital parking lot (by the way, I am not opposed to paying for parking at the hospital since it is one stream of income...it's just difficult to always have to fork out for hospital parking especially if you have to come back many times)

The cheap and / or free alternatives I found (as of Fall 2015) were:

1) FREE option - park down the street and walk.  If you turn onto Delhi Street from Speedvale, there is free parking along the street.  Then you will see the parking meters pop up.  I parked the closest you could possibly get to the hospital before having to pay for parking.  This resulted in an 8 minute walk to the hospital (pregnant woman waddle pace).  Now, this may not be a practical option if you can't walk that far or that long.
PRO: Free, get in some exercise
CON: walk is 8 minutes at the very least

2) Another FREE option - parking along Havelock Street.  The disadvantage is that you cannot park there Monday to Friday, 8AM - 6PM
PRO: Free, close to hospital emergency entrance
CON: only free at certain times / days (like free on weekends, and not allowed to park most of the weekdays during day)

3) Free option after 9PM - right across from emergency entrance on Delhi Street, subject to overnight parking bylaws
PRO: Free, close to entrance
CON: time is restricted to 9pm - 8am

Note that parking on the street means that you are subject to Guelph parking bylaws (time duration, etc)

PAY options:

1) right across the street from the emergency room entrance, there is metered street parking.  There is 2 hour maximum and the cost is $2 / hour, I believe.

2) Hospital parking: price ranges from $2.50 per half hour, to $12 for a full day ($14 for full day with multiple entry / exit).  More information is found on the Guelph General Hospital website (http://www.gghorg.ca/index.php/patient-visitor, parking section)

Guelph General Hospital's packing list!

And low and behold...after compiling my list, I have stumbled upon Guelph General Hospital's list of what to pack for labour and deliver.  The quantity of some items seems excessive (8-10 blankets? 4 hats?) ...but perhaps it's if you lose some or get them dirty?

http://www.gghorg.ca/images/GGH_PDFs/What%20to%20bring%20to%20the%20hospital%202012.pdf

What to bring when having your baby at Guelph General Hospital

For mom:
• Ontario Health Card and other insurance information
• Medications you take regularly in labeled pharmacy containers
• Large sanitary pads; enough for three days and nights
• Clothing for self (i.e. slippers, socks, nightgowns, pyjamas, underwear and bra)
• Nursing pads for breastfeeding mom (optional)
• Personal care items (i.e. toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, shampoo, conditioner, lip balm etc.)
• Pens to fill out forms
• If you bring food to place in the pantry located across the nursing station, please label with your name
• Anyone who has already delivered at the Guelph General Hospital will tell you about the wonderful pair of underwear we give to you after you have your baby; unfortunately we are able to only give you one pair

For baby:
• Newborn size diapers (approx. 25)
• Wipes
• Vaseline
• 8-12 receiving blankets
• Several pairs of sleepers
• 2-4 hats
• Safety approved infant car seat (please familiarize yourself with the car seat prior to discharge; your nurse is unable to help because every car seat is so different)

Other:
• Extra pillows (there is never enough!)
• Pyjamas, extra blanket and/or sleeping bag for partner
• Breastfeeding pillow (optional)
• Pen for keeping track of when baby feeds
• Kleenex
• Camera, personal mp3/iPod
• Snacks for partner
• Please DO NOT bring perfumes, latex and lilies as some people have severe sensitivities or allergies

So you're moving to Guelph, Ontario

We had a couple of months to move to Guelph.  It's a huge pain-in-the-you-know-what to look for a place to live in a city you barely know.  I only knew a few vague things about Guelph:

- There is a university there, The University of Guelph
- it's about an hour to an hour and a half west of Toronto
- it's about 30 minutes away from Kitchener-Waterloo
- people say it's a nice place to live

But big question marks in my head remained:

- What neighbourhood should we live in?
- Should we rent or buy a place?
- Will I find a job?
- Will I find child care?
- Is Guelph a good city to live in?

In the end, the neighbourhood we decided upon was based on the rentals available.  Since Guelph is a university town, many of the rentals were geared towards students.  We are a young family.  Sharing rooms with students was not in the cards for us.

My two main sources of rental property searches were:
1) MLS (realtor.ca)
2) Kijiji (kijiji.ca, a classified site)

I also tried Craigslist, but I found that not that many rentals were listed there...not that there were many to begin with!

BUT I WANT TO BUY A HOUSE IN GUELPH!

You want to buy a property right away?  Okay, that works too.  It didn't for us, just because of the short time line.  It was better not to rush into such a big purchase.

If you are looking to buy, it is probably best to get yourself lined up with a realtor.  I don't have any personal recommendations, but if you google "Guelph Realtor" you will find plenty of choices.  I would recommend contacting them by email and phone.  Get a feel for them, see if you click, and see how responsive they are to your requests and needs.

A realtor will help because they often see the listings first before they go onto MLS (realtor.ca).  You can always look at these listings too, but the realtors often have tools where they can enter filters based on your criteria.  These tailored filters result in daily emails to you with listings that may better fit your needs.

You can also try looking at propertyguys.com

That's it for this post for now.  Next post, I hope to get into some of the deciding factors for where exactly in Guelph you might want to choose to live.

First Post!

As a mom that is relatively new to the city of Guelph in the province of Ontario (in Canada), I found there were things I had to learn about the city that were probably straightforward or well known to 'the locals.'  I hope to share with you some of my findings that were relevant to me!

Were there things you wish you had known or could find out easily when you moved to Guelph?