Her home was upstairs. A little over a year ago, a fire ripped through the building and took both.

Tracey started Fresh Paint because she wanted a space where people in the community could come in and explore their own creativity. Adults showed up for paint and sip nights. Kids had their own events, and the studio hosted parties and activations on top of that. The fire stopped all of it, and Tracey is still working to get the business back on its feet.

On the day of the fire, she'd been visiting her mom and didn't get home until after 2 p.m. A small change in routine put her in the right place.

"Usually I go around the back to go to our residence upstairs," Tracey tells us. "But for some reason, I had to retrieve a package in the front area of the studio so I went through the front door of the studio and then up into our residence. An arsonist had exploded a butane canister around the back of the studio. Everything goes ablaze from the bottom up, and it takes everything – everything catches fire and the fire goes from the bottom area and the back of the studio all the way up to our residence. I was on the phone and I looked outside and I just see a wall of fire. And it was really surreal."

She called 911. Then she grabbed what she could carry, including the family cat, and closed doors behind her as she moved through the building to slow the spread of the flames.

The building is now uninhabitable. Tracey still owns it, along with the property, but what's left has fire, smoke and water damage. A heavy rainfall later soaked the exposed structure, and the ceiling collapsed.

{https://www.instagram.com/p/DeSsUp9FSSh/}

The timing made everything harder. The fire hit in September, right as the fourth quarter was kicking off, and Fresh Paint was already booked for holiday parties and year-end celebrations. Tracey refused to let those clients down. She lined up partner venues and took events straight to clients offsite. When the team needed somewhere to package items and keep operations running, the partner of a staff member offered up a space.

What they still didn't have was a place for customers to walk in. That changed last November, when Tracey signed a lease on Kingston Road. Fresh Paint is still there today, and the new spot brought back the café and gave the business a client-facing hub again.

Keeping the doors open has been a different fight. Tracey says the whole experience has felt impossible to navigate, and insurance has been a big part of the reason.

"In the most standard of times it's hard," Tracey shares. "It's hard for small businesses to make a profit, to generate revenue especially in Toronto where it's really competitive. But when you get into your insurance… you're not really forced to look at insurance until you have a claim. We all need insurance, but then when you start to go through what your insurance actually covers and what you're entitled to, it's not very much at the end of the day. It wasn't a lot. It was nowhere near what was needed to cover business interruption."

Left: Paint Night participants Right: Roxane Tracey

The paperwork was so heavy that some of the money she needed only arrived recently, more than a year after the fire. Looking back, she also wishes she'd carried more contents insurance. Claimants have to pay for someone to pack up, clean, assess and itemize their belongings, and that cost comes out of their own pocket. Tracey leaned on her family to cover the gap until the insurance payout came through.

The bills haven't let up. She's still paying the mortgage on the Dufferin building while also paying rent on Kingston Road.

"[We're] hanging on by a thread financially," Tracey admits. "We're restarting a business even though the brand's been around for 10 years. We're restarting in a new community, rebuilding relationships, trying to bring people into the door at a new location."

Plenty of people showed up for her. Others didn't, and Tracey is honest about how that felt.

"When we posted on social media [about the fire] there was a lot of outreach from people saying, 'If you need a space, we can offer you this. We can offer these art supplies. What do you need? Let us know.' On the other side, I understand that it's difficult for everybody on some scale in Toronto, wherever you live, and there's always a need. But we set up a GoFundMe which didn't raise much. It raised a few hundred dollars and I'll be honest, that's unfortunate. It's disappointing."

She's quick to say she knows a lot of people are struggling right now, and she's grateful for every bit of support that came her way. She also hosted a fundraiser through her partner's basketball league.

Right now, Fresh Paint is running at a deficit each month at the new location, and Tracey knows that can't go on forever. The holiday season has always been the studio's busiest stretch, and she's asking the community to show up.

"We're running a negative from month to month, and it's only a matter of time before that's just not sustainable anymore. If there was a time you were ever gonna support us, the time is now. This season is historically our busiest season. Book your holiday party, grab some kits from us, use the services or find the creative outlets that you think would be meaningful for you. We're offering creative wellness and this is the time where there typically is a need."