5 posts tagged “house hunting”
*A week without much work--an actual paid vacation. But trying to avoid spending money on anything but house stuff for the time being,so staying close to home. It's almost 11 and I am still in bed, considering what I should do today: take a long walk, go buy a new book or two, see a movie. Not sure.
We bought a place. Our very own place.
The last two weeks have been the most stressful of my life! Seriously. Dealing with bankers, brokers, agents, owners, inspectors, appraisers, etc. etc. It's just been one headache after another. At one point, I was just about ready to give up (getting a mortgage when you're self-employed in this economy took patience and skill!).
But now it's done and we are very happy.
The place: built in 1919, it's a three-story triplex and we bought the second floor. It's two blocks away from where we live now which is what we've been holding out for since we love this neighborhood and didn't want to live anywhere else. It's very big for the Plateau and we got a great deal because it needs a bit of work (painting, floors redone, eventually more). But a great investment and, more importantly, our mortgage payment is low(ish) and we LOVE the place.
Ugh, we are going to be housepoor for sometime, but that's fine. Our savings are gone. Debt is now a friend and will be for some time. We have to buy appliances (we have nothing) and a lot more since we are moving from a small one bedroom apartment to a big 1200 square foot place with a lot of rooms! But we probably won't move until September 1st since I leave this weekend for three weeks to Shanghai.
A fun project that will take years to finalize, I expect. And we are very happy.
My first house! My goal was to buy a place before I turned 40 and I've still got two years to go!
I'll post more pics later but in the meantime. Our place is the open door on the left at the top of the stairs. The balcony leads to the living room.
Had a dinner at a French restaurant, Antoine, in Verdun of all places Friday night with Cat, Ian, Sylvain and Masa's Japanese friend Yukiko. For those not familiar with Montreal, Verdun is like the "Bronx" equivalent of our fair city, although more and more middle class people are moving in the gentrifying it since they're being priced out of the Plateau. Masa had the Lobster Risotto and I had beef with foie gras sauce. Yum! Great wine, conversation: perfect Friday night that we capped off with a drink at this funky little place we discovered called Gotha Lounge on Amherst. They have a live jazz set on Friday nights that we might just have to check out.
I must be getting old because I much prefer an evening like that than just hanging out in a club with music thump thumping, though we do have some friends who still want to do that every weekend. Ugh.
Saturday I had the worst hangover. Which sucked because I worked all day long.
Yesterday we looked at three apartments: one was ideal with a little sitting room and windows on three sides, great kitchen, two small bedrooms, a huge backyard and a small front yard. We want this one. But I feel we're jumping the gun and since I've never bought a house before, I have no idea of financing, etc. So put a call into the bank and we'll see what happens. I imagine they'll give me the OK, but not sure at all. Anyway, we're in a good position. I'm in no hurry, though I do like that place from yesterday. Our apartment now is small but fine for us and cheap which means we can easily put some money away and be selective about what we want (pretty much a ten block radius, too, which is about the only area of the city we want to live in). One of the others was OK, too (same price as first) but more of a typical Plateau flat (long and narrow, sitting room in front, kitchen in back, no windows in between). Last one was a six-plex which they asked $1,000,000 for, more than slightly out of our price range! Three guys in suits were coming out as we were going in (we just thought it was one apartment, not the entire building) and when the realtor looked at us in our jeans, he said "Oh! You know this is an entire six-plex that is in the $1,000,000 range." I shrugged. Masa smiled. We left (not without him taking our telephone #, promising to call us back since he "loves working with young new home buyers!" Young! :) )
Blah blah blah.
Trouble sleeping. Dunno why. Worries about home buying? Or being swamped with work? Whatever the reason, it sucks: I'm up at 4, wide awake and can't go back to sleep until around 7.
Despite all the encouraging words to buy, I seriously have my doubts, though it could be just my insecurities nagging at me. What happens if we want to move? What happens if I lost my job? What happens if we sink all our money into this and are just trapped in Montreal for years and years? Other people manage to do it, I realize. But that's little comfort to me since no one I know is as big a freak as I am. Poor Masa!
So we're just gonna wait and see what the bank says and be very slow and methodical about looking. We're in no hurry and whether we buy next week or in four years, I guess we'll do it sooner or later.
1) Gas prices. I am so so glad that this doesn't directly affect me. Every news program seems to have at least one story about how high prices have become (and they are much higher in Canada than the US, now and always), but since we walk or take metro everywhere, gas prices just don't figure into my daily life. Yeah, yeah, I know they're reflected in the cost of things generally, but yesterday I started thinking that the fact that I don't have a car, that I don't need to worry about auto insurance, gas prices, maintenance, parking means that I can spend that money traveling. Or on something I'd rather have.
I totally get the fact that in much of rural North America having a car is a must: I grew up in an area where every single person needed their own car: both parents and all teenagers in our house (at one point, we had five cars parked outside our house). But in a city, come on! Cars are ugly. Parking lots are really ugly (and actually decrease property values since no one wants to live next door to one). Cars kill people (some guy died the other day four blocks away, hit on his bike while riding down Mont-Royal). Why do people love them so much? Maybe it's just something I've never really understood: the love of the car, since while I do enjoy a road trip now and again, I never miss that day to day driving (to work, to the store).
2) House hunting. We found the coolest place a few blocks away. Price is OK. Amazing old building with wrought iron & wood staircase, on the second floor, two bedrooms and two balconies (one in front, one in back). Typical Montreal walk-up: long, skinny apartment with a front room, living room in the middle, bedrooms on either side, and kitchen in the back. It's cute, though. Best thing is location: literally two blocks from the metro station but on a quiet intersection lined with towering maple trees: a block from Avenue Mont-Royal, two blocks from Laurier and two big parks. But. But but but. It makes me nervous. We could afford it, but it'd mean seriously tightening for 6 months or a year. Maybe longer. It'd mean scraping the bottom of the barrel (and slightly scrambling) for the downpayment. I know it'd be worth it and there is no way from an investment point of view that this place wouldn't pay off. But. Why did I wake up and 3am this morning, my heart racing, thinking of all that debt hanging over me (just the IDEA of all that debt, to be precise)? Why did I put my tshirt and shoes and walk over there at 5.30, standing on the corner just looking at the place? Mmmmm. Not sure if we're ready for this...one more year would be ideal. But...does it really work that way? Don't people just "grab" a place when they see one they really really like, even if the timing's not 100% perfect?
So these friends of ours, Catherine & Ian, just bought their own place, a HOUSE. With a yard and everything. Now, anyone who is familiar with Montreal will know how rare detached houses are on the island (well, it's not actually detached, I guess), unless you want to live way out in Beaconsfield or some other suburban nowhere. We were all insanely jealous: the house is in an "up and coming" area just five minutes from downtown and they got the place for a song: it's HUGE, built in the 1880s, but renovated nicely, on a quiet street with a nice backyard that has flowers and a patio and two huge trees...
They had a small party last night to celebrate and show off their new home. Since Masa and I are kind of starting to look to buy our own place, we were thrilled that such things were possible: not that we need an entire house. We are pretty much stuck on the idea of the Plateau, though; there are definitely other parts of Montreal that are fine, but this feels like the right neighborhood for us. Too bad a decent two bedroom condo in this area can easily cost $500,000. And a HOUSE on the Plateau? Easily $800,000 to a million bucks. Grrrrr. Too much for us!
So we might look in Point-St-Charles, where Ian and Catherine got their place. Or settle for a one bedroom. So a one bedroom in a neighborhood we love or a possible house in a neighborhood that has still to find its footing a bit south of downtown. Mmmmm.
Some people have all the luck!
