Downtown, Here We Come!

Great News!
In a crazy whirlwind of events, Joe and I bought this gem!

(Sorry about the bad quality photo... I borrowed it from the listing.)

Just a few days ago I was posting about how we were likely going to need to live in an apartment for a while during our search for a home. I wasn't really excited about this, but as I have said before, we were NOT willing to settle on just any home. It had to be perfect, or at least almost perfect (with potential to become perfect). So, I had spent some time searching for available 2 bedroom rentals near where we want to live.

Then, two days after the "Sold" sign was up on our house, we got an excited call from our realtor in the evening. A house was coming up right in our dream neighborhood, on one of our preferred streets. And, in a price range that showed us it was likely not a dump. We quickly drove by to take a look, and from the outside it looked perfect. I almost wanted to put the offer in then and there! But alas, we had to see it first. The next day we went to see it. It is a home with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms that was built in 1920. It is completely updated. It has a detached garage and a lovely yard. It even has a partially finished basement and a finished attic. Amazing.

When a house like that goes up downtown, we have learned, there are usually multiple offers. And they usually sell for over asking price. We knew we had to act fast! Our realtor wrote up an offer that same night and we signed it. Then the waiting game began. There was a 24 hour window where someone else could have put in an offer and started a bidding war. I don't think I slept.

The next afternoon, we got a call from our realtor. They had accepted our offer! And the closing date is even the same as the sale of our home! Too good to be true. But it IS true! I am still having a hard time believing we have had such luck.

We did the home inspection and, of course, there are a few things that need some work (I mean... it IS almost 100 years old!) We decided we are okay with that since we plan on spending many years here, and can fix as we go.

I will definitely follow up with more about the house soon.

Sold!!

I'm sure some of you have been wondering what is going on with our house. I mean... we listed it for sale about a month ago, and I have been pretty quiet about it since then.

The great news: Our house is sold!
The scary news: Our house is sold! And this is scary because the closing date is August 7th, and we still haven't found a new home.

Let me first tell you how things went down. We actually got the offer on this house shortly after listing. However, it was conditional on the buyers selling their house, which ended up taking a little while in this finicky market. We are happy because the buyers are really in love with the house and neighborhood, and we also got what we hoped to financially.

It is becoming a bigger and bigger possibility that Joe and I won't be able to find our downtown home before this house closes. We knew that this might happen when we decided to sell before buying. That being said, we hoped that the right house would come up. I know, there is still almost 2 months to find that home... but we are definitely not going to settle for any old house.

We decided going into this that we would wait for the *perfect* home - for us - and that settling for something else was not an option. We settled for the wrong house a year and a half ago when we bought our current home, and you know what happened there! Needless to say, we don't want to make that same mistake again.

The tricky thing is that in the month since we've listed... there have been NO houses of ANY interest in our desired location. And quite honestly, there have been very few of interest in the couple of years our eyes have been on that area.

We definitely need to make some decisions in the meantime about where we will be going if we ARE homeless on August 7th. We are fortunate enough to have had a few different offers of places to stay (with family). If we do have a place lined up and some overlap, we would consider this option.

However, being vagrant vegans with a young baby doesn't make us the easiest house guests, so we likely won't take this option without a definite timeline, or at least not for too long. That being said, we may be entering back into the renter's world for a little while. Although this is not ideal, we are definitely ok with that if need be! We have our eye on one apartment currently. It is strange to think about renting after owning for a few years. So it goes. Wish us luck!

Life Lately

Since we have put our house up for sale, blogging has kind of taken the back burner. Obviously, I'm not currently doing any house projects (beyond constantly cleaning and wiping bathrooms, kitchens and floors!) and life has just been busy with showings.

Selling our house is exciting, don't get me wrong. But it is already getting old needing to have a squeaky clean home at all times. We have had showings, usually more than one, every day since we put our house up except one. Yes, this is a good thing. Not so good? The fact that we still don't have an offer in our hands. While I originally wasn't going to talk about the selling process at all, I think I need to be real here: selling a house kind of sucks! That being said, there has been some interest in the home as of late... So I will keep you posted. And send your good vibes our way.... Because cleaning and leaving home with a 3 1/2 month old on a daily basis is less than fun and definitely throws off any kind of routine. (Parents... You know the importance of a routine!)

Anyway, I thought I would share a few other things about life as of late. Just because.

1. This past weekend was the Victoria Day long weekend. Despite being busy with the house, Joe and I got out for a couple good hikes. We also bought (and used!) a new carrier for Henry called the Onya Baby. It is from MEC. So far, so good. It is much better for our backs than the Baby Bjorn... Which was great until Henry weighed, oh, 10 pounds, and then it was just lacking support. Our new carrier has a waist belt that takes most of his weight. It also makes sure that the baby's hips and legs are aligned  properly. Plus, it is good up to 45 pounds. (although I wouldnt be caught dead carrying a 45 pound child in there... Just sayin'!) Here are a few photos from our hike in Dundas this weekend.

Tired Henry

2. And on the topic of Henry...dare I say it out loud? He has started sleeping through the night! Amazing! Joe and I have also been sleeping much better, obviously. That was sooooo needed. I am very aware that this could change at any time. We are enjoying it while we can, and so far it has been a whole week. Before you get too jealous, let me tell you that along with it has come a bit of colic. Yep, with every battle won appears a new one. But it's easier to take on when you've had enough sleep :)

3. I have started doing Yoga! Joe and I bought a WagJag as a way for the two of us to get out without Henry. The great news is that there is also a postnatal yoga class at the studio, where I can actually bring Henry! Pretty awesome. Also... Yoga is hard. But I think I like it!

4. I've just started following this blog. It. Is. Hilarious.

5. We have been attempting to use the BBQ as vegans lately. Of course, grilled veggies and kebab's are a given. We even found this recipe, which makes the best veggie burgers (lentil bulgur burgers) that we've ever made. The best part is that they stick together reeeeally well, so they don't fall apart on the barbie. I didn't take a picture of them... but let me seduce you with some other vegan BBQ visual treats!

Joe's chickpea burgers

Tofu kebabs

Yum!

6. We are still on the fence about whether we want our next house to be completely or mostly finished (aka needing little work and move-in ready), or whether we want to tackle another fixer-upper. The new fixer-upper at Young House Love and all of their upcoming projects have me inspired. Perhaps we do have another one in us! I guess it really depends on what comes up in our desired location.

7. Lastly, let me leave you with a few photos of our backyard. Isn't it glorious this time of year? We have been loving the nice weather and eating outside. I will definitely miss this... if only we could take our house and yard and plunk it downtown.

Buying and Selling - Here we go!

It is official. Our house is for sale!

Now, we nervously enter into showing our house. We had two showings yesterday and at least two tonight. No news yet. The biggest challenge will be maintaining the cleanliness of our house. Especially with a newborn whose schedule is erratic, but we knew that going into this. My strategy so far has been to simply clean as I go. If I have a tea, I clean up everything involved immediately. If I take out a toy for Henry, I put it away when he is done. And of course, I buzz around during his naps to tidy anything else I've missed, and to straighten and re-straighten beds, picture frames and the like.

I've had a few people ask why we didn't try to sell privately this time. The truth is, it is too much hassle with a baby. And to add to that, we just wanted to keep the sale impersonal. It will also hopefully make the house sell quicker, too!

With our house for sale, we are also officially looking for a home!

Luckily for us, we have lots of connections in the downtown area where we want to move. That means a lot of people who are keeping their eyes and ears open for any upcoming homes for sale. We are also scouring MLS, although not much has been up this past week.

We have decided that we are going to be veeeery picky when it comes to which home we choose, since we are hoping that whatever home we buy will be a permanent one. Joe and I are still in the process of deciding what exactly we NEED in a home (vs. what we want!) Amazingly, this has changed since we bought this house a year and a half ago (that list can be found here).

Some of the "must-haves" on our list are:
- The perfect location (We have specifically decided where we want to live already. No exceptions!)
- A garage and/or large shed (at least room for our bikes!)
- At least 3 bedrooms
- At least 2 bathrooms (and preferably -almost certainly - a main floor bathroom)
- Adequate storage (more can be added in time!)
- A decently-sized backyard
- Good layout

Some of the things that are the "good-to-haves" would be:
- Finished attic and/or basement
- Fireplace
- Nice flooring (wood/tile preferred!)

Our list is actually much smaller this time around. However, most of the homes in the area we are looking at are older, and often don't have things like a main floor bathroom, or storage (period!). So, we may need to be flexible in some ways in order to get a good house in the location we want. For example, we might let something slide if it is something can be added fairly easily and within a reasonable budget.

Some days we feel like we are up for the challenge of re-doing another house... maybe even a complete overhaul! Other days we dream about buying a house that is perfectly finished. I guess it depends on what comes up.

Send good vibes our way and wish us luck!

Why we plan on moving. Again.

Wait... What?!
Yep, you read it right. We are planning on moving again.
We have been spending the past few weeks doing a few little things that needed doing in order to list our home. And Monday, we are having a realtor in to take a look. Considering we just moved in a year ago, and probably paid a high price... we are hoping the news is good. Especially after giving the entire house a facelift.

What caused this, you might ask?

Well, let's go back to the beginning.
Back when we decided to move last time, what we really wanted was a home that we could raise a family in. As in, not a home with killer steep stairs and a scary basement like our first house (which we loved for so many reasons...but those two were a bit less child-friendly). Since we knew we were eventually going to try for a baby, I feel like we rushed into purchasing our current home. This, of course, is all in hindsight, since we fell in LOVE with this house. We just had to have it!

To be honest, this house has everything a family would want. It is solidly built, has large bedrooms, lots of storage, a finished basement, is great for entertaining, is on a quiet crescent, has a garage and two sheds, has a huge, private, beautiful backyard (with a pool! And a hot tub!) and feeds into a great French Immersion school. And of course, it is in a good location. Well, according to MOST people.

Yes, location. What we didn't realize when we bought the house (but which we really did realize deep down) is that to us, location is everything. (If only I had listened to my own wise words, here.) Probably our favourite thing about our first house was it's location. Downtown. Walking distance to EVERYthing. Yes, I say everything. Except for some family members. However, our entire existence basically takes place downtown. It is where we work. It is where we go to the market. It is where we go out for food, it is where we like to walk, some of our family lives there. And to top it all off, Joe's parents are going to be Henry's care providers when I go back to work. We used to walk everywhere and loved it.


A few months ago, Joe and I had to have that honest conversation. We both admitted that we missed being downtown. It is like something was missing. (I felt a HUGE sigh of relief when I learned that Joe felt the same way!) Fingers crossed that everything works out in our favour!

Sold!

Some of you may have been wondering...why isn't our house up for sale? Or at least, why haven't I been mentioning it? I mean, isn't this time sensitive?!

Well...in an amazing twist of fate, We Sold Our House!!!

I know!! Isn't it crazy? And awesome?!
Let me go back and tell you how this happened.
About 10 days ago, I wrote this post, talking about how thrilled we were to have bought a new house! When I wrote this, I was excited, but also anxious at the idea that our house wasn't even up for sale.

Little did I know, but my lovely friend, Shannon, and her husband, Kyle, had been perusing through my blog and were feeling a little interested in our current house. They had been looking to buy their first home, and ours had everything they were looking for. They wanted a century home with a big backyard that didn't need a ton of updating (which is exactly what we had to offer!)

About an hour after posting about our new place, Joe and I were looking into options for selling our house when I received a message from Shannon asking if our house was for sale. A couple of days later, her and Kyle were walking through, and putting in an offer!

It all seemed a little too good to be true. But, tonight they came through with a home inspector, and they decided that they were, indeed, going through with it!

We are so excited! And we are also excited about WHO is moving in! It's their first home! So great! Plus, I know they are going to love it as much as we have (and we may even get to see what it looks like once they've done it in their style!)

When it was all said and done, we cracked the champagne to celebrate selling our first home, and for Shannon and Kyle buying their first! What an exciting day!

It's Official!

It's official. The house is ours!!
Yesterday we did our home inspection.
This was the only condition on our offer to buy our dream home, seen here.

It was a lot of fun walking through with the inspector. It meant we got to spend about 3 hours in our future home, which gave me lots of time to start dreaming! Of course, the inspector found a few minor problems in the house (which is expected.... I mean, what house is perfect?!) and so we felt comfortable waiving the condition. Tonight we went over and officialized our purchase!! We are thrilled.

To be quite honest, we have LOVED the process of buying our home (and hopefully selling? More to come on that at a later date) privately. It meant that we got to meet the actual home-owners, and hear their stories about the house. They also gave us advice about the house, the pool etc. We even got the scoop on the neighbours! When a sale is done through agents, although maybe more efficient and practical, the personal part is left out.

And on a further note, we actually really like the people we bought the house from! They have been so welcoming and fun, and even brought out wine for us after we put in our offer...and again after the home inspection! It has made the whole process so much better (The sellers...not the wine! Although the wine was great, too!) We've really enjoyed talking with them, and even sitting to chat during each visit.

So, back to the house itself...it needs very minimal changes. But that doesn't mean that I'm not dreaming about paint colours and new furniture! I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest these days. For those of you who have yet to join, it's a fun site that helps you to organize your interests and ideas. Right now, I've been using it for decorating tips and ideas, but you can use it for many things. If you want to follow me on Pinterest, add me here! If you can't figure out how to join and want to, just leave a comment on this post.

It has been a pretty exciting (and crazy, and hectic!) week for me, as all of this has happened in the midst of report card season. As of next weekend things should hopefully be a little more settled.

Until next time!

Our New Place

I have had quite a few people asking for the details on our new place.

Yes, we did buy it yesterday, and depending on the home inspection we hope to do this weekend, it will be ours in July! 

I thought that looking back on our "Must-Haves" and "Bonus" lists on what we were looking for in a home (seen here) would be a great way to introduce our house 

Here was the list I came up with in December. This time, I shall highlight the things that it has and cross out the does-not-haves. 

The "Must-Haves":

- Good Location Although the location is not where we wanted to buy originally, it is great! It is still walking distance to most amenities, and we will still make full effort to be car-free commuters. 

- Lots of storage Yep, closets in every room makes my heart happy!

- 4 Bedrooms (Or room to add a 4th) It is technically a 3-bedroom, with a 4th in the basement. And, if we need more space one day, there is plenty of room for an addition. 

- At least 2 bathrooms It has 2 full bathrooms and a 2-piece attached to the master bedroom. Woohoo!

- A large kitchen The kitchen is nice. It is not yet our dream kitchen, but what fun would the house be if it didn't need any changes? Oh, but it does have beautiful granite countertops! 

- Good schools It feeds into a great school where there is, indeed, French Immersion!

- A garage It has a garage-and-a-half. This will be awesome.

- A usable finished or finish-able basement It is fully finished, including a sitting area, bedroom and full bathroom.

- A mud-room or at least an entryway closet There is a tiled entry hallway with a large closet. Nice.

- A nice backyard I've rarely seen nicer: 1/3 of an acre, private with trees and perennials, and did I mention the pool and hot tub?

- Good bones We think so.

- A fireplace Yes! My wish came true! There is a beautiful fireplace with a white, wooden mantle! Gorgeous! It is natural gas... no wood burning for me! 

And the "Bonus" list, or things that would be nice to have: 

- Wood floors It is a carpet free home, all hardwood or ceramic tile!

- A sunroom Not yet...maybe one day.

- A pool and/or hot-tub BOTH!!!

- Private setting Very. 

- Open concept Kind of. It has great flow, at least. 

- A double garage Nope. 

- A garden shed It has 2 sheds, although one is considered a pool house. There is a really neat one in the back that looks like a cabin...we plan on one day making it a bunkie where our future kiddos can have sleepovers. We are going to have the coolest kid hangout! 

Amazingly, somehow, we have almost all of the things on our wish list in this home! It still seems a bit unreal. We're pretty excited that it isn't an overly huge house, and that all of the space seems usable. It's definitely our style!

Now, send us good vibes as we venture out to sell our current home!

Our Second House

Wait a second...didn't I just blog, uh, yesterday? About our first house?
Ok, I did.

And, after 7 months and offers on 3 different houses, we finally found our second house!
It is beautiful! We are in love. I don't want to write too much now... we need to process. Here it is, in all of it's glory. Oh, and did I mention that it has a pool? I have a feeling you'll want to visit us this summer :) We're going to have a family here! This may be the house that we live in until retirement and beyond. There is so much running through our minds right now. Pretty exciting.

Out of respect for the current owners, I'm going to wait until we take ownership (in...July, I know, it will be a long time to wait!) to post pictures of the inside. You'll just have to wait and see :)

The 3 L's of Real Estate

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, Joe and I have been actively looking at buying a new house for about 7 months now. In this time, the 3 L's of Real Estate have been ringing in our ears. Location, Location, Location!

Lately, however, I've been questioning how important the dream location really is. I mean, when you buy a house with a dream location, you are automatically paying much more for less house. Our dream location happens to be downtown Kitchener. We want to be where all the action is! The market, the parks, the restaurants, the library, my school, the events... the list goes on! Unfortunately, whenever something in our price range comes up, it is either a) seriously lacking our "must-haves" or b) gobbled up in no time. 

As I started peeking further away from downtown, I realized that you can get SO much more for your money if you're a little more on the outskirts. I'm talking double garage, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, dream kitchen fully updated home vs. 4 bed, 2 bath, no garage, limited storage, old kitchen and panelling on a smallish lot. So, the question remains, is Location really the most important thing? 

I got thinking some more, and Joe and I have been talking about our "House Wish List" for quite some time. We have come up with this:

The "Must-Haves":

- Good location (Downtown...I think? Somewhere that we can be non-car-dependent)

- Lots of storage

- 4 bedrooms (or space to add a 4th)

- At least 2 bathrooms

- A large kitchen

- Good schools (For us, it is important our future kiddos go to a school where there is French Immersion)

- A garage

- A usable finished or finish-able basement

- A mud-room or at least an entryway closet (Or again... space to put one in)

- A nice backyard

- Good bones

- A fireplace 

And the "Bonus" list, or things that would be nice to have:

- Wood floors

- A sunroom

- A pool and/or hot-tub

- Private setting 

- Open concept 

- A double garage

- A garden shed

It has definitely been challenging finding these characteristics in the downtown area. Which is what brought up the debate: Is living downtown really so important?

Just the other day I was looking at a house about 7km away from downtown, in suburbia. It...was...amazing, to say the least. But the thought of needing to ride my bike through the winter or walk over an hour to work to be car-free stressed me out. And then I started thinking about needing to buy another car, and that stressed me out. Quite frankly, the thought of living further away from downtown stresses me out! 

And then I starting thinking, again, about how handy it is living where we do. We currently DO live downtown, a 10-minute walk from the downtown core, and only 20-minute walk to Uptown Waterloo. We rarely use the car. We walk to the market, to get groceries, to work, to skating rinks, to Joe's parents' house etc. It is wonderful! And being in a walkable neighbourhood also helps us to stay fit and save money. It is pretty worth it. And I do have little daydreams of pushing strollers to the market and having our future family get to be a part of the downtown life, and it makes me happy. Eventually the right house will come up, as long as we're patient. So, I guess location is still an important factor. The search continues.

The Disaster

I'm realizing that I never followed up on the story about the house we put an offer on. Let me explain.

After a few bids and counter-bids, Joe and I were feeling pretty confident that the house was OURS! We went so far as to clean and organize our entire house, taking excess furniture to store at my Dad's and even selling things on Kijiji to de-clutter. We re-grouted tiles, re-painted floors and even vacuumed out the basement rafters. Our house was ready to be sold.

After our final bid, we found out that the (older) couple in the house had decided they were too attached and would not be selling. Needless to say, we were extremely disheartened. So...the search continues for our dream home!

Busy Weekend!

Well, we had a very busy weekend!

I need to go back a bit for this to make sense....

For starters, we have been looking for about 6 months for a fixer-upper of a home. Lots of you may think this is a crazy idea....why buy a fixer-upper when you can buy something updated in a similar price range? Well, the answer is this: I don't usually like the looks up updated homes...or I like parts of them, but not all of them. First off, it seems that most newly installed kitchens come in dark brown to black wood colours. Don't get me wrong, they can be beautiful! However, I am personally a white-kitchen fanatic and would have a serious moral dilemma ripping out a brand new dark-wood kitchen, or even repainting it, to have my white kitchen. Or, there are things that are too "modern", and that will need replacing in the next 5-10 years simply because they will become dated. I'm more a fan of classic style in the home... style that only needs new throw pillows and maybe a fresh coat of paint to stay trendy. The stuff that you can find in a home magazine from the early 90's and still love. (Like white kitchens, for example!)

Six months ago, we did find this home, with a gorgeous lot and a pool, and way above our price range. We put in the offer, crossed our fingers...and lost to someone with a higher bid. We were devastated. However, everyone we talked to reassured us that they, too, had been through a similar experience, only to find an even better home down the road. So, the (not-so-serious) search continued.

Anyway, on weekends Joe and I have taken up the new past-time of going to open houses around town in areas we would like to live. Last weekend, we went to an open house at a story and a half home with a large yard. Let me tell you...the inside was horrendous! Thick wool carpets, wall paper in almost every room, panelling, floral curtains...the list goes on! There is almost no space that I would be able to live with unchanged. So obviously, we fell in love! We couldn't ignore the fact that the bones of the house seem almost flawless, with a double garage, endless storage, 3 bathrooms and a finished basement, on top of having 3 fireplaces! We actually went back to the same house an hour later to walk through again.

To make it clear, we have (had) no current plans of moving/selling our place. But...we were in complete agreement that this house could be "the one". We could picture ourselves turning this house into our dream home and raising a family there. We couldn't fight the urge, and decided to pursue this house.

Currently, we have gone back and forth and are waiting on what we hope will be the final offer. We shall see...we're very excited/nervous. If we get this house, there will be MANY more stories about renos/redos/decorating. My fave!

So, back to where this post was meant to go...this weekend.

This weekend we have done a complete clean up/de-clutter/organization/fix-up of our house, in case we need to put it up for sale this week. We've packed a bunch of our extra furniture over to my dad's for storage, organized our entire (messy disastrous) basement, dusted every nook and cranny, re-grouted the kitchen tiles, and painted the floors in our parlour.

The floors of our parlour were great when we moved in, but on moving day my sister slid a couch across the floor and with it went the paint. This was just the beginning, and there wasn't a square inch of un-scratched surface by this fall. It looked like this:

So, we went out to Home Hardware and bought a can of a richer brown floor paint to cover this problem. It looked really nice when it was still shiny and wet!


We put on the fans and with the dryness from our furnace, it was dry by 24 hours later! We may regret having put the furniture down so quickly, but there was cleaning to be done! And here is the finished product. Beau (the cat) likes it, too!
I will keep you posted on the progress of our dream fixer-upper :)

My recent addictions

Lately I've been really fixated on 2 things. Let me explain.

The first thing is fitness. Joe and I joined a gym at the end of August with all plans of going 4-5 days a week. We started off strong, but with the start of the school year, things fizzled and suddenly we were lucky to be making it twice a week! I racked my brains for a) why we weren't going (which was obvious: because of extreme fatigue after a day spent with 20 wonderful/high-energy kids might do it!) and b) A solution! At the beginning of November, we had the daylight savings time change. We decided to take this opportunity to start getting up early (yes...about 5:30 early!) to go in the morning. So far so good! I've been making it 4 times during the week, plus weekends. A great feeling. This week, I've been under the weather and I'm hoping my days off won't ruin my regime!

The second obsession lately has been MLS (real estate listings) and my House & Home Magazine. Why? Well...Joe and I have been considering wanting to move for a while now. We're happy in our current place, but with the prospect of babies in the near-but-not-too-near future, we are concerned about a couple of things about our current home. First, the stairs are extremely steep. In fact, just last week Joe tripped over Beau (cat #2) on his way down and fell down the last 8 steps or so. Imagine walking/maneuvering down our steep narrow steps with a lack of sleep and a baby in your arms! Second, our house has a serious lack-of-storage problem. When I bought the place, I overlooked this point, since I was drawn in by the high-ceilings, the large kitchen, huge yard and great neutral colours. After living here for the past 16 months or so, I am really beginning to understand the challenges around a lack of storage. First of all, there are constantly piles of shoes and coats forming around our closet-less entrance. Second, our big bedroom seems not-so-big with the addition of an oversized wardrobe (on top of the tiny closet!) to store Joe's things. There just seems to be constant clutter, and we are constantly searching for a space for things. An abundancy of storage will be a MUST in our next place. And of course...a house built in the 1800's will have it's leaks and cracks and rodents (which we leave up to the cats!) We're just ready for a fresh start.

So, we'll see where this goes. Will keep you posted!