Suburbanite!

Finally the entry about the hoose!

So this past January, J, wee J and I were sitting in our lovely downtown condo, remarking about what a great space it was for a double income family, sans famille.

Jack’s toys were strewn over what used to be our living room and his bouncy truck, swing, high chair, mats etc were a part of the scenery and a challenge to getting to the sofa…

We all looked at the space, or lack thereof, back at each other, back at the space and started the discussion about how nice it would be to be somewhere slightly bigger…

As the depths of winter subsided and allowed us all to venture outdoors, we realised that there was no discernable green space for Jack to enjoy around our inner city ghetto, neighbourhood.

So we began to have a look at The Gazette’s “Home Front” on a Saturday, and trawling through the mls.ca website.

We talked about a two year plan to get us there…

Hell – we even went to some open houses in neighbourhoods we thought we’d like.

In hindsight that was the beginning of the end.

I say it like it’s a bad thing which of course is not true - more confirmation that life as we knew it was destined to come to an end.

We met an estate agent from the Pointe-Claire/Beaconsfield area that we liked, and, sure enough, she contacted us to see what she could do. We also discovered that we could, in fact, afford to do this now rather than later, and with interest rates being what they are, it seemed madness not to go for it…

As is the way, the first house we saw was the house we ended up buying – even though we had seen a number of houses thereafter. I almost had to push Jen through the door as she was put off by the exterior (it’s currently sided by brown/orange 50’s sandstone, and when framed by 8ft snowbanks looked boxy and stark). More on that in a bit.

I’d deliberately taken the scenic route through the neighbourhood to get a feel for it and was immediately enamoured with the open spaces, parks and village feel…

The ground floor consists of an open living room, formal dining room and kitchen/dinette. Upstairs are three bedrooms, a big old closet and a full bathroom. Downstairs is a partially finished basement, workshop and additional powder room.

Surrounding the house is almost 10,000 sq ft of yard and garden, with mature, established trees and an gorgeous brick deck to the rear.

We were there for a good hour for the first vist, combing through each of the rooms, envisioning it filled with our things and looking at the ‘potential’. Jen was becoming a little more switched on to the possibilities, but guarded as she knew that this was the first house we’d formally looked at,and there were others to follow.

In truth, none of the others came close in terms of lay out, location, access to schools and lifestyle. (ahem – or price)… so after another lengthy visit we were sold.

In all, we committed to a hefty six figure debt after two and a half hours of viewing. It doesn’t seem like much… I was there for the house inspection, which, of course made me somewhat cautious, as these things are designed to explain to you about all of the things which need to be done… after a night’s sleep it was all doable and we were formally on the hook…

That was February.

This is May.

On Monday 26th we will draw a sickeningly large bank draft and sign it all away at the notary.

I start 4 weeks of well deserved paternity time to spend with my family and to recreate our new space.

Immediate projects (painting and cosmetics aside) are:

- Upgrade power and panel to 200Amps
- Replace aged oil furnace with brand new electric one
- Caulk and seal windows
- Open soffits
- Extend eavetroughs
- Mow lawn (!)
- Enjoy life (more if possible)

Longer term projects:

- Remove brick siding
- Re-insulate side walls
- Re-side with fibre cement or Canexel
- Extend kitchen out back by 15ft or so and add additional master suite above ($ – ouch)

This is our house:

 
For those south of the Mason-Dixon Line, the white stuff is called snow. heh!