Our First Home Together

We finally got the keys to our new condo and went over to check out the place! We were delayed for a bit since first the appointment to sign the documents was messed up, and then they had also cleaned and repaired the wrong condo, which meant we had to wait an extra day. They took care of that yesterday so we were finally able to start bringing stuff over.

The good

There is a lot to like about the new place:

• One of the reasons we chose this particular unit was the high ceiling (9 ft. versus 8 ft. for all the other floors). The extra space really brings out a feeling of airiness.
• Windows on two sides of the unit. We’re on a corner so we have a wide sweeping view that makes the place feel bigger than it really is.
• Lots of storage space! The kitchen has a ton of cabinets, and there is a walk-in closet. The place is only 820 sq. ft., but I think it will be enough for us.
• A large bathroom. Finally enough room for both of us!
• Modern appliances. I think we could have done even better by going for a stove integrated into the counter top, but what we have is still vastly nicer than what we’ve been using at the apartment (which still works but is a real pain to clean!).

Drawbacks

We did make some compromises in choosing the unit:

• We don’t have a view of the city, but we do have a nice view of some distant mountains.
• We face north and east and we’re under the building’s overhang that it has on each side. This means morning sun but no afternoon sun.
• An architectural error means that our corner has a regular window instead of a bay window which would have added 30 more square feet and a bit more of a view.

These drawbacks really aren’t the end of the world which is why we went for the place anyways. There was also the drawback of borrowing money from the bank. Compared to most other places we saw that were available and that we would go for, the view is quite nice, and I really like that when you walk in the place, you have windows all around.

Nothing is perfect, especially with a large project such as this, so I will close with some things that are just stupid mistakes that I don’t understand:

• My indoor parking space has a concrete block that steals about 4 to 5 feet of length from the parking.. Supposedly it’s there to prevent drunk drivers from crashing into the building, or something like that. I can’t see it from inside the car, so now I have to be really careful when parking if I don’t want to crack my bumper, and my car’s butt sticks out into the aisle. My old indoor parking spot at my current apartment (which was built for 1970s cars) feels downright luxurious by comparison!
• They botched the front door — the bottom was cut crookedly and there’s a gap large enough for me to slide a couple of fingers through.
• There are some scratches on the floor that need to be repaired.
• The building was built the wrong way, to be honest. 99% of people are walking out through the car garage door because it’s closer to the subway than the pedestrian entrance, which faces the highway feeder road. They should have reversed the building 180 degrees to avoid that problem.
• The maintenance room has a nice glass wall on the roof of the building. WTF! They should have put a terrace up there instead of wasting the money or space!

I guess when you spend a lot of money on a place and become a home owner, you expect perfection and every flaw feels like something to nitpick, so I’ll stop here! We have a guarantee that should take care of some of these items so we don’t have to live with them forever. It’s our first home together, and I do enjoy the place. We gotta make the best of it!

So, reader, what do you enjoy most about your own place, and what little things, if any, annoy you as well? I would love to hear about it!