Six months from today, sometime in the late afternoon, I will receive the keys to my new home. After months of deliberating and questioning myself (and anybody who dared ask what was going on with me), I committed to a house—a terrace home or condo, whichever you want to call it—and put a halt to my general unpleasantness when it comes to this topic.

I took some pictures of the area when I went to pick up my contract a few weeks back for fun, and not at all because I was excited about my foray into home ownership.

I currently live on a drive, and will be moving to a drive, and to be honest I never gave much thought to the differences between a street, avenue or a drive. Crescents were the only ones that I knew to be different, and I could explain the difference. But the rest? No clue. However, looking at the drive I live on and the one I am moving to, I can see lots of similarities, enough to make me think that city planners or whoever decide what to call these things actually have a definition that they’re working with.

Further up this drive, on the left, there is a plaza with a pharmacy, a gym, a grocery store, and a Starbucks to name a few places. It’s no more than a 10 minute walk from my house, which will be really handy as I won’t have a car for my first few months there. If I decide to take the regular bus, it will be about a 10-12 minute hike from my house (the express bus will be four doors down).

This is the block of houses I’ll be living in. There are 12 houses in this block (six upper units and six lower). I wonder what my neighbours will be like.

My unit is the one on the left. There were only two upper units available for the April closing date, and the main difference between the two was the orientation of the interior and the uppper window, yet I must have spent 10 minutes deciding which one I wanted. I originally didn’t want one that had the upper window sticking out, and thought I had selected the other unit, so I had a bit of a surprise when I went to sign the contract and asked exactly which unit I was purchasing. Upper units are labeled b, and lower units a, but something about that seems wrong to me and I’m mildly convinced that I accidentally bought a lower unit (and was charged for an upper unit) but this is likely nerves or something similar speaking.

I’m going to enjoy following the progress of the construction. It’s been nearly three weeks so there has to be something new to see. And when I return from my trip, there will be even more to see.

Right now, I’m excited, but that is heavily tempered by the craziness that is our economy. Also, the big move is six full months away. I’m trying not to second-guess myself, or succumb to buyer’s remorse, and instead enjoy the time I have now to thoughtfully consider all those upcoming expenses (furniture, television, decor-related stuff), and figure out how I’m going to pay for them. But like some friends have mentioned, the one thing I can do right now is celebrate finally making a decision. Hurray!

And I owe thanks to you for listening and offering me advice, personal anecdotes and sympathy. It was very much appreciated.

Filed under: Announcements, Operation Home for Jummy by jummy