Our First House

We bought this house in May 2009. Its previous occupants, an elderly couple, had decided the stairs were no longer manageable for them.

For 2 years we lived in a downtown 2 bedroom apartment. Like many apartments ours had both positives and negatives, and it was when those negatives began to become unbearable that the decision to buy a house was made. Cigarette smoke coming up through the floor boards, a tiny kitchen, a laneway that was only 4 inches wider than the car, shared parking that often required a 20 point turn, loud upstairs neighbors, no hot water and no heat were some of the more pressing issues that began to grate on us. So we sadly said goodbye to the great location where you could walk to amenities and told ourselves that life in the suburbs would be great.

This house hit most of our must haves; easy access to transit, under 30 minute commute to downtown, outdoor space and 2 bedrooms. Naively we looked at the rather dated interior and thought only of adding value to the property over the years as we updated the little house. We planned to take on a few projects a year, gradually improving the place while enjoying time with our friends and traveling. We thought that buying a house 3 months before our wedding would be easy, I mean none of the repairs had to be done right away? So what could possibly cause us additional stress over the summer?

We were so wrong.

So we are learning and working hard. Some days we love our house and some days, when yet another project takes ten times longer than planned, we wish for the carefree life of apartment living.

At least now we have an awesome collection of tools to play with!