{"id":4414,"date":"2010-08-13T10:31:01","date_gmt":"2010-08-13T15:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=4414"},"modified":"2016-08-14T13:48:16","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T18:48:16","slug":"on-househunting-part-one-of-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2010\/08\/13\/on-househunting-part-one-of-many\/","title":{"rendered":"On househunting (part one of many)"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>hose of you who follow me on twitter have already been privy to the angst, but I think I’ve exceeded the satisfaction that 140 characters worth of hand-wringing can afford me.<\/p>\n

So, we’ve officially started looking for a new home. Okay, I’ve<\/em> officially started looking for a new home. Beloved watches the endeavour in the same manner one might watch an inevitable but slow-moving disaster — peeking through splayed fingers, knowing that chaos lies ahead and helpless to avert it yet helpless to look away.<\/p>\n

And, obsessive personality that I am, househunting is no longer just a hobby but a vocation that must be lived and breathed every waking (and many sleeping) moment. Once upon a time, just a few short weeks ago, I was content to occasionally peruse the latest listings on Grapevine<\/a>, to noncommittally browse MLS <\/a>a few times a month. I even managed to attend an open house or two, without igniting the white-hot nuclear fire of my obsession.<\/p>\n

Until last week.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, it’s all I can think about. Houses, houses, houses! School zones, property taxes, ensuite baths and finished basements — bring it! Talk to me about it, show me more more more properties, I can’t get enough about HOUSES FOR SALE!<\/p>\n

(Don’t you feel bad for poor Beloved? While he is vaguely on board with the idea of us at some point in our lives moving to a different house, I’m quite sure that he does not want to discuss it every hour of the day. Is this a man\/woman thing, or just us?)<\/p>\n

Truth be told, I’m not even sure why I’m so fixated on buying a house all of a sudden. I love our house, I truly do. I love the location, with a park across the street and the boys’ school within view of my bedroom window. I love the morning sunlight that floods into the four windows in my bedroom like a tsunami each morning. I love the large yard (when I’m not cursing the overgrown garden, that is!) and the new hardwood floors, and just about everything else about it.<\/p>\n

Except the kitchen. I loathe the tiny little galley kitchen with its abject lack of counter space and the fact that we can barely fit a table for six in there with no room for company. And I would really like a fourth bedroom, so the boys don’t have to share. If I could somehow think of a reno that would plunk an expanded kitchen and another bedroom onto our existing lovely townhouse, I’d do it — but it’s just not possible.<\/p>\n

You know what I really don’t want, though? A monster house. Why are all the newer homes, built since 2000 or so, so friggin’ HUGE? Really, we don’t need a living room AND a family room AND an office AND an eat-in kitchen AND a dining room all on the same floor. I’d be fine with a kitchen big enough for a really big table and no dining room — in fact, we use our current dining room as a play\/computer room.<\/p>\n

We went to see one this week that I really loved. It was in Old Barrhaven, a neighbourhood I never really considered before but have become quite interested in lately. It was built in 1978, but was all newly decorated and very fresh looking. It had a living room and dining room and a kitchen with space to move but none wasted, and a lovely little sunken family room. It had four bedrooms, and a partially finished basement. It had me at floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room and dining room, but kept me enchanted with character and a simple modesty. And when I saw the affordable price, the circle of covetousness was complete.<\/p>\n

In the end, though, the thing that so endeared me to it ultimately crossed it off my list — it was so modest that it only had one full bathroom. Try as I might, I simply could not imagine us functioning with five people and only one shower\/bath combination — so not going to happen. Sigh.<\/p>\n

In the past week, I’ve viewed the MLS listings for four-bedroom homes in Barrhaven so many times that I’ve practically memorized them. This one will take too much work, that one is on a busy road, this one has a truly wretched floor plan (what were <\/em>they thinking) and that one just doesn’t speak to me. I need more new listings, why aren’t there any new listings, I’ve clicked on the site five times today and there are still no new listings!! <\/p>\n

Of course, if I ever actually find a house worthy of buying, we’re farked. Even though I’ve been told that three-bedroom, three-bathroom town houses in Barrhaven are a red-hot commodity right now, I am weak with fear at the thought of the effort required to sell our house. Oh my sweet lord, the fixing and the painting and the de-cluttering and the (whimper) keeping it clean for viewings? Shoot me now. To say nothing of actually packing and moving. Me, who is neurotic with fear over change. Oy.<\/p>\n

So if you know of anyone who is selling my dream home in my price range and who wants to buy my current home sight-unseen with my assurances that it’s a really lovely place? Let me know, please.<\/p>\n

Until then, got a househunting story to share? I’m looking for something to occupy my attention in between clicking refresh on the real estate websites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those of you who follow me on twitter have already been privy to the angst, but I think I’ve exceeded the satisfaction that 140 characters worth of hand-wringing can afford me. So, we’ve officially started looking for a new home. Okay, I’ve officially started looking for a new home. Beloved watches the endeavour in the … Continue reading “On househunting (part one of many)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,18,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happy-home","category-life-in-ottawa","category-life-the-universe-and-everything"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4414"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12005,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414\/revisions\/12005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}