***This is a post that I wrote on Monday, March 21st about two hours before Emma and I got into a head-on car crash that broke my ankle in 2 spots, requiring surgery and 3 months of staying off it entirely. Besides that Emma had a minor fracture on her nose, a cut above her eye, pulled some ligaments in her knee, and generally we're just incredibly sore, bruised, banged up, and VERY LUCKY! Any changes to my original post have this beside them: ***
Finally! Today w heard back from our real estate agent and lawyer that the condo that we had been waiting for since late January is ours! *weight lifts from shoulders
Cambridge Lofts here we come! Look at it! Isn't it pretty!?
Now this might not seem like a long time to wait for a new home/condo. I'm sure may people have 60 day waiting periods for houses, but we were not sure that we were ever going to get it as the seller had a mortgage shortfall AND was unable to clear the property title because of a loan that still listed the property as collateral. He said he had it paid off but since it was a "personal loan" the seller had to track down the person he borrowed money from and get them to clear the title on the property. If this were an episode of Property Virgins, it would have been a good one! Because the seller didn't give any indication that anything was going to go arwy for the original possession date in mid-Februrary, so we gave notice at our apartment for the end of February - thinking that this would give us tons of time to move all of our stuff from one building to the next. When the deal fell through we were pretty devasted (being first time buyers we had no idea what to expect) but we extended the closing date to the end of March (right around my birthday) and moved out of our apartment to my Grandfather's house just outside of Gibbons. That's right, Gibbons - the town of my youth. Not that I say that proudly. Gibbons is an okay place, it's just not where I want to be for an extended period of time. Plus, my Grandfather just passed away in December so being in his house without him is still a bit raw. There are so many memories in that house that it's hard to not feel sad when I'm there and he's not.
Also, I'm a city person. I like being in the heart of the city. In fact, when we lived in Oliver we felt that it was just a bit too far from the downtown for us. (yes, I know this seems ridiculous. I've told people this before and they usually just shake their heads and probably think I'm crazy). Plus, Emma doesn't drive and this is the only residential building in the city that has the LRT literally in its' basement. The pedway is also a huge perk - it basically allows us to avoid winter in Edmonton! Isn't that every Edmontonians dream? Minus, when it's a nice winter day and you'd like to go sledding. Yes, we do have to take our dogs out on walks but they are tiny dogs who HATE the cold and we have a massive patio that we can let them do their business on (and then clean it up, of course!). We'll just chase them around the condo for exercise. We've even solved the parking issue at Cambridge. My employer provides a parking pass for the parkade on Rice Howard Way. Done and done! (***My car is a total write-off. Having no car solves our parking issue, I suppose).
So goodbye Gibbons! Goodbye 12-13 hour workdays (I start work early and Emma finishes work late)! Goodbye 2 hours of commuting/day (***a commute that literally could have killed us)! Goodbye 6am wake-ups! Goodbye NOT spending our weekends hanging out with friends!
And hello...5 minute indoor walking commute to work! Hello spending lunches with our dogs since our condo is so close to our jobs! Hello massive patio! Hello hanging out with our dear friends on weekends! Hello finally making a space exactly how we want and envision it! Hello the hustle and bustle of the city! Hello underground pedway that connects to movie theatres, restaurants, our banks, the YMCA and all that other great downtowny stuff!
This will be one of the best birthdays ever! If this deal falls through again in a couple days...well, there will be a post probably along the lines of: I hate birthdays or maybe just a sad face: :`(
I know what you mean about Oliver feeling like it's a bit too far from downtown. I live on the north side of Oliver (Queen Mary Park) and often feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteStrangely, my girlfriend's place feels closer to downtown, even though it's in the north east, just because she's super close to the LRT line. Funny how transit can make such a difference (particularly the LRT, the only good part of ETS).
Yeah, I find the LRT makes a big difference for me. In fact, I'm one of those lazy sods that will take the LRT for one stop, and now that I'm car-less (which I'm semi-happy about - I hated that vehicle. Thinking of joining the car co-op program once I'm back on my feet, though) the LRT is going to be even more crucial. I'd just rather wait at an LRT stop than a bus stop, as you can usually find a warm spot to huddle until it arrives. Not so with the bus.
ReplyDeleteI keep thinking about joining the car co-op, too. Apparently, one of the cars is in Oliver, so it would super convenient for me to walk over to wherever it's parked when I have it booked for something. I just wonder if it's worth it.
ReplyDeleteI'm also car-less (I ride a Vespa in the summer, but that's not exactly helpful when I'm buying 4 bags of groceries or something), but for the amount I need to call a cab I wonder if the car share program would even be worthwhile for me. Most of the time when I call a cab, it's because I shouldn't be driving anyway, so I'm not sure if it would actually help me out that much.
I think I'll probably give the car co-op a whirl once I'm back on my feet. Once I do, I'll post a review online.
ReplyDeleteBasically, I like that it's always there if you need it but you don't have to pay for it if you're not using it. In the end it's cheaper than a taxi there and back to somewhere, and you get back the cost of your shares if you decide to quit. The cost of the one time fee and shares equal about 1/4 of what my insurance costs were per year. Hopefully, the program is extremely successful and adds more cars soon. I've also heard that many car share programs are teaming up with similar programs in different cities and if you have a membership in one city and you travel to another, you might be able to use their cars when visiting.
I saw you're post on being car-less, and I got to say I've been wanting to get rid of my car for some time, and feel more car-free than car-less, too! I would only use my car maybe one or twice every two weeks, but those trips could have easily been done without a car. Just pure laziness on my part. It just requires a bit more planning and thinking ahead - which are never bad things!