Sorry for the silence, but it almost feels like the easy part was choosing a house (first offer accepted 12 hours after the agent picked us up!). The harder part has been finding the down payment and making sure it hits the bank account at the right time, getting the mortgage, appraisal, lawyer, insurance, etc. And closing the deal in 12 days before the new city land transfer tax. But it looks like it will be done. So here are the photos - none of the outside or the basement b/c we forgot. But we held our first party when 11 of us came out on a bitterly cold day to check out the house and got stuck on the front porch b/c there was no key to the locked screen door...
It's on the westside of the downtown core. It's on a one-block, one way (not very attractive) street with several other young kids. It's been a working class neighbourhood but yuppiedom is inching closer - though we might not stay around that long. Very close to 2 streetcar routes, it "should be" a 25-30 minute commute for M and a 12 minute walk to the French immersion school and 20+ to the French language school; we have asked to be considered for both but they may be full. It is about 8 blocks from a great summer park (treed, super playground, wading pool, healthfood snack cart!), weekly farmers' market, outdoor skating rink, and mall with basics. 3 blocks the other way, there is a terrific community centre/indoor skating rink/indoor pool/ park/playground and wading pool. High Park - the city's largest and wildest - is 30 minute walk or easy street car. Our friends Kelly & Sam live just 12 minutes walk away and the boys might be classmates, while the Oakville crowd made it by car in 33 minutes on a Saturday.
It's 100 years old and in decent shape. We have to get some wiring redone and we want to put a toilet/laundry room in next to the kitchen (hopefully, that won't take as long as France but no one has returned our calls...). Newly renovated (with bland "designer" paint colours), it has a fairly open ground floor, with one stained glass window. There's a smaller, enclosed room to the right as you enter (play space/guest room?), a large-enough living area (photo of everyone standing up) with a cut away wall into an eat-in kitchen. Upstairs is a big bedroom at the front, a smallish bedroom in the middle (which the kids will share) and a sizeable family room/3rd bedroom at the back, with a bright tiny office space (mine!!) attached and - only hitch - the only full bathroom. It feels downright roomy to us. The backspace isn't very big (smaller than Issigeac) but it will be good for eating out (under a lattice of vines), a paddling pool, a little digging and has a shed. There is a rentable suite apartment downstairs, and we already have someone interested!
We'll need some furniture and want to build in some storage under the stairs. Thanks to the Nairobi house, we have enough curtains. But we have to set aside some money for Seb's bribe - I mean present. The other great news is that we think that we can continue with our dual existence of a "vie en rose" - to be determined next year.
We will pass out the co-ordinates in a more private manner, but do consider yourselves welcome! We move Feb 25ish, so give us a couple of weeks to get settled.
1 comment:
Wow!
Movin' on up....
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