I like to start my weekend mornings with a cup of coffee in bed, catching up on reading or a few blog posts, before I face the day. When I have the choice, I’m a slow morning girl. I suppose that’s a bit funny since I’m also the girl who wakes up before dawn for a spin class, but that’s usually a workweek thing – Even a 9 am class on the weekend feels too early for me sometimes.
This morning, I caught up with the fresh exchange and their house hunting story. This post couldn’t have come at a better time for me. N & I have started the daunting, albeit exciting, process of becoming homeowners. We’ve been saving for a few years & living in an inner-city condo that we have a love-hate relationship with. We love the location. We hate a lot of little details about the condo itself (such as the incredibly frustrating laundry situation). It’s time to find a place of our own.
When we first looked at buying a home a few years ago, we saw ourselves in a condo. There are many things I love about the condo lifestyle & it fit our budget for the neighbourhoods we’re interested in. As time has gone on though, we’ve fallen out of love with certain aspects of condo living & since we decided to rent for a couple years, it no longer feels like the type of place we’ll still want to be in five years. If we’re going to put this much money into something, I’d like to feel comfortable with it for at least five years.
So now we’re looking at houses – houses in inner-city neighbourhoods in this crazy oil & gas town. I know it’s going to be a huge challenge to find the right house. For one, many of the houses in the areas we like have been renovated or are infills, bumping them far out of our budget. There are also many that require the kind of structural overhaul that we cannot afford. We’re looking for that perfect blend of character home that everyone our age would like, a needle in a haystack if you will. I’m hoping that the fact that we’re willing to put some work into any home we buy will help us. While many people want a renovated kitchen, I’m actually hoping for something older. Of course, it needs to be functional since we won’t be updating it right away, but I’d prefer it didn’t have the granite countertops & new appliances yet. I’d like to be able to update a kitchen to be my kitchen.
We know this is a tall order & are expecting it will take some time. We’ll undoubtedly want to give up. (I’m sure I will throw my hands up at some point & say, alright let’s just move out to the suburbs like everyone else our age. Urban sprawl it is!). I hope when I do, I can remember both this post & Megan’s.
That’s my main reason for writing this: to remind myself that we’ll find it. We’re in that rare situation where we can take our time & find the right place & I want to remember that fact.
Happy Saturday!
