‘Angel lenders’ help Haldimand family stay in former-church dream home

After running out of money three years into a painstaking renovation of a shuttered Anglican church in the village of York, a Haldimand County family was poised to lose their dream home.

Salvation came in the form of two guardian angels from Grimsby who love historic buildings and read The Spectator.

Andresa Sisson and Tao Drayton’s story was featured on the front page of the newspaper not long after they listed their 133-year-old former church for sale in March.

The private lender financing the renovation had pulled out, and a traditional mortgage fell through because the bank was leery of the cemetery that comprises the bulk of the 3.6-acre property on the banks of the Grand River.

Now prospective buyers were traipsing through the stained glass-tinted home the couple had lovingly designed for their family of six.

“We were in the lowest of the low, having to sell and crawl back to Toronto. It was just gutting,” Sisson said.

“And then these amazing people came into our lives and just turned it around.”

The couple’s “angel lenders,” as Drayton calls them, are Linda and Barry Coutts, who saw the story and got in touch.

The Couttses spent more than 40 years restoring historic Nelles Manor in Grimsby, a 17th-century home the couple turned into a museum. They were intrigued to learn the York church is within the Nelles Tract — on Nelles Street, in fact — and several prominent tombstones in the adjoining cemetery, which dates to 1787, bear the Nelles family name.

Drayton said there was an “immediate connection” when the Couttses toured the property, regaling the Haldimand couple with Nelles family history.

Still, Sisson was “stunned” when these perfect strangers agreed to give her family a five-year mortgage at “a really reasonable rate.”

“They didn’t know us from anywhere. Just unbelievably generous that they would even consider that for us,” Sisson said.

Linda Coutts said she and Barry were taken by the family’s efforts to restore the historic property. Their visit to York sealed the deal.

“They are really such nice people, nice family. And isn’t that a lovely spot they live in?” Linda Coutts said.

“It was really a people-to-people thing we were trying to do, and make it meaningful for them and for us. And of course, the connection with the Nelles family. That all fit together really well.”

The Couttses were named citizens of the year by the Grimsby and District Chamber of Commerce in 2017 in recognition of their efforts to restore Nelles Manor. But Linda Coutts said the couple is not looking for accolades.

“We feel very privileged to be able to do it,” she said.

“We’ve had good health and good planning, and we’ve worked hard, so we’re lucky to be able to give that to somebody. It’s a pleasure to give.”

The mortgage closed on May 8, “and then I think I laid down for two days,” Sisson said.

“I’m still in shock.”

There was more relief than elation once all the paperwork was signed, Drayton added.

“It felt like getting off a rolling coaster,” he said. “We were both just so drained.”

Having new backers buys the couple time to sever the cemetery — which Sisson operates — from their house, which should smooth the way for a bank-approved mortgage.

“We have a path forward,” Drayton said. “There’s still so much to do, but we have a five-year window to put the things in order.”

In the meantime, the renovations continue, as chronicled on the couple’s Instagram account, @leap.of.faith.home.

“We have gotten so much more rooted here, with our children in school,” Sisson said. “They truly love living here, even in a construction zone.”

Securing the “life-changing” bridge financing meant pulling the house off the market, but the couple said their Hamilton-based realtor, Chuck Hogeterp, and his team at RE/MAX were most gracious.

“They were so lovely and gentle with us,” Sisson said. “They understood going in that we didn’t want to sell, and they still put their best work into it and were so professional.”

As dusk fell on the Victoria Day weekend, the family set off celebratory fireworks in their front yard to tell the neighbourhood they were sticking around.

“It’s still amazing,” Drayton said.

“We just keep saying to each other, ‘We can stay. We can stay.’”

, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hamilton Spectator