ROCKPORT — Sharon Grandmaison, who runs a day care from the apartment she rents, stands to lose her home and business after her landlord decided to sell the Paradis Circle house.

Grandmaison has until Dec. 1 to find a new, business-friendly place to live; meanwhile, the parents whose children Grandmaison cares for say they're willing to wait as long as they can before making any decisions.

"At this point, it's a panic," said Grandmaison, who has lived and worked from Paradis Circle for more than a decade. "If I don't find a new place, I will have to close my business and five families will have to find alternative care."

To say Grandmaison's search for a new home has been challenging is an understatement. Grandmaison, who describes her career as a child care provider as "a calling," said she has asked everyone she knows and others she doesn't know for help. Grandmaison's exchanges with most local apartment landlords have been pleasant until the discussion turns to "Sharon's Serendipity," the family day care she has owned and operated since 1993.

"Without finding a new appropriate place, I lose everything I've worked 15 years to build," a tearful Grandmaison said. "It's hard asking for help."

Grandmaison, 41, said her search for a new home in Rockport has been hindered by the misconceptions many landlords hold pertaining to family day care facilities.

"They have this misconception that day care is loud and noisy and that the kids will be destructive," she said while caring for two young children in her noticeably quiet and meticulously organized Paradis Circle apartment Monday morning. "I carry my own liability insurance, but as soon as I say day care, they say no."

Landlords cannot tell people they can't rent because they have kids, but they can turn prospective renters away if they propose running a child care business out of the home. Some owners of older Rockport properties told Grandmaison that lead paint used inside the homes prevents them from allowing a child care facility to operate, but Grandmaison said she has discovered, more often than not, the paint poses no real danger and is just an excuse.

Kelley Anderson, a married mother of two who works at the Rockport Post Office, said she took Grandmaison's number down before she was even married after she observed how well Grandmaison interacted with one of her day care students during their trips to the post office. Anderson said it's a shame landlords hold such misconceptions about child care.

"A lot of people think that way, but the kids in her care don't destroy anything," Anderson said yesterday. "She's immaculate in everything she does; the kids are very well behaved in her day care."

Anderson said she would be willing to follow Grandmaison's business to Gloucester if she were to find a new home there, but added she would miss being able to see her daughter, Kelsea, walk past her window when Grandmaison takes the kids on a trip downtown or to the beach.

Another Rockport mother, whose children have gone to Sharon's Serendipity for several years, said she understands landlords' hesitations, but added if they knew Grandmaison and how she operates the business, they wouldn't have to think twice about allowing a day care.

"You can't be sure kids won't come in and destroy your rental space, but anybody who knows (Grandmaison) knows that wouldn't be the situation," Carole Roberts said yesterday. "I think people are just afraid of people running a business out of their house, they're worried about the liability."

Roberts — who works nights part time — said if Grandmaison was forced to close her business, she would keep her daughter, Faith, at home during the day "because I don't trust anyone else."

Grandmaison has been able to find a few apartments in Rockport, but neither of them are optimal for a child care business. One is centrally located on Broadway, but has no yard; the other is located on the second floor of a home and has a steep stairwell leading up to the door, she said.

Thanks to Community Preservation funding, approved annually by Rockport voters, Action Inc. of Gloucester does offer a tenant-based rental or mortgage assistance program to a handful of Rockporters who have lost their jobs or experienced other unexpected hardships. Though Grandmaison takes at least some comfort in those programs, she is still worried about the children and their families.

Grandmaison urges any local landlords willing to allow her to live and operate her business out of their property to e-mail her through her Web site, www.sharonserendipity.com.

Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.

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