A Little Piece of Heaven

When you fall in love with a place, it's hard not to imagine living there and all the possibilities that go along with it. You become mesmerized with the beautiful scenery,  unique places and friendly people. For Joanne and her husband Paul, Bath, Ontario was that place. Living in Florida, Joanne would visit her parents in Bath, particularly for the Canada Day festivities. The couple loved the town so much they decided to relocate and start a new life here. "Bath is just such a wonderful place to live,” says Joanne. “Because of the lake there is a sense that you are on vacation every day. I have lived here for 20 years now and it still feels like a vacation every day. It's a little piece of heaven."

Joanne and her husband bought a  large house in Bath, but soon learned that their two children were not coming home. "We had a lot of space and started joking back and forth about businesses we would like to put together,” she says, “an antique shop and a B&B, we joked. We were both working full time jobs but the joke kept going and we even started visiting auctions as part of the joke. We began accumulating items we'd pick up at the auctions and decorated the garage to keep them in. We didn't plan on it, but eventually we just opened up the garage as an antique shop. It started out 'if we're home, we're open’. Now it's a complete store, Heritage point Antiques & Gifts. We also opened up the Bayshore Bed and Breakfast. Shortly after a store became available in downtown Bath. so we opened up a Sears Catalogue shop, dry cleaning business and Avon. We do a little bit of everything.”

A year after they bought the store, Joanne lost her job. “That gave me some time to get everything established,” she recalls.  "It was kind of a leap of faith for us as we were coming into the business stone cold. We were learning everything as we went along. That's actually part of the excitement of it."

"I love the location here in Bath because of the traffic we get to the stores," Joanne continues. "Revitalization is happening in Bath. People are actually coming here to see the things we have to offer. Business is coming from Belleville, Napanee, Kingston and we've even had visitors from as far away as Europe and parts of the States. It's really wonderful to see that a little place like Bath can attract people from all over the world." 

Joanne loves the life of an entrepreneur and sees it as an appealing life choice. "I love that I don't have any stress in my life,” she says. “I have always had very stressful jobs and this is just so different. It's fun in the fact that the people that come to visit us leave as our friends. We chat with them, have coffee with them and then we hug them goodbye. That is definitely the most rewarding part, having the opportunity to meet people and have a stress-free life. Everything about being an entrepreneur is more satisfying. I am very busy, don't get me wrong. I work seven days a week for months on end but it is still more stress-free, happy and satisfying than any other job I have ever had." 

For more information on Heritage Point Antiques & Gifts or Bayshore Bed and Breakfast  please visit here.

For more information on Heritage Point Antiques & Gifts or Bayshore Bed and Breakfast please visit here.

For more information regarding business opportunities and entrepreneurship in L&A please click here or contact:

Stephen Paul
Manager, Economic Development
Telephone: 613-354-4883 ext. 234
Email: spaul@lennox-addington.on.ca