Thursday
Sep062012
We Got the Keys to Our First Home!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
I tried to edit this photo of the Palinode looking very important in our new condo's bathtub to express joy about our first ever piece of real estate, but I decided that I had to be honest and edited it for maximum anxiety and disorder:
Don't get me wrong. I am excited about the Palinode and I buying our first home and moving out of this mould-ridden dump of an apartment. I really am.
Seriously, though, this place is a dump. If you don't look too closely, it's spacious at over 1200 square feet with tons of light, hardwood floors, 3 bedrooms, and a fireplace. Live here for a week, though, and you start to notice that the bathroom wall is literally caved in behind the cheap tub surround, there's mould blistering through the paint in three rooms that occasionally comes up through the floorboards, the floors are so uneven in two rooms that it's hard to keep your rolly chair at a desk, there is no heat all day sometimes when it's -40° out, the floor at one end of the hall is shifting up and down more and more when you walk on it, the radiators are veritable running taps, the basement right under us floods repeatedly, which creates a stink in our apartment, the bathroom in the apartment upstairs leaks water that bubbles behind the paint near our ceiling, and the banging of pipes is loud enough to send the cats running for cover.
But I'm not bitter.
And this is about our new condo!
So, a friend of the Palinode's father was selling her condo, and we went to see it at the beginning of August, even though we weren't looking for a place to buy. We liked it, she said she wanted to close in three weeks, and here we find ourselves quite unexpectedly as first time homeowners.
Visiting it as our own place for the first time yesterday left me weak-kneed, achy, and more than a little nauseous.
I don't know if you know this, but I am not great with handling change. It freaks out my whole system. So, while I would love to just be excited and start packing up this mess of an apartment to start our new lives in a gorgeous heritage building away from all this grossness, I am working through giant anxiety attacks.
Yay! We just bought a heritage condo in a building I love! Let me break out in hives and hyperventilate and lose sleep and grind my teeth and cry and self-medicate with grease and carbohydrates for a few days.
I am spending some time today investigating paint colours to distract myself from my dry mouth and muscle tension, because I am going to find my excitement, dammit.
Can any of you help me find the perfect robin's egg blue?
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PS. My 40th birthday is on December 29th. I'm celebrating my birthday by raising enough money to bring 40 people clean water for life, and we're already 20% there! So, as a gift to me and to the world, let's make this happen.
Don't get me wrong. I am excited about the Palinode and I buying our first home and moving out of this mould-ridden dump of an apartment. I really am.
Seriously, though, this place is a dump. If you don't look too closely, it's spacious at over 1200 square feet with tons of light, hardwood floors, 3 bedrooms, and a fireplace. Live here for a week, though, and you start to notice that the bathroom wall is literally caved in behind the cheap tub surround, there's mould blistering through the paint in three rooms that occasionally comes up through the floorboards, the floors are so uneven in two rooms that it's hard to keep your rolly chair at a desk, there is no heat all day sometimes when it's -40° out, the floor at one end of the hall is shifting up and down more and more when you walk on it, the radiators are veritable running taps, the basement right under us floods repeatedly, which creates a stink in our apartment, the bathroom in the apartment upstairs leaks water that bubbles behind the paint near our ceiling, and the banging of pipes is loud enough to send the cats running for cover.
But I'm not bitter.
And this is about our new condo!
So, a friend of the Palinode's father was selling her condo, and we went to see it at the beginning of August, even though we weren't looking for a place to buy. We liked it, she said she wanted to close in three weeks, and here we find ourselves quite unexpectedly as first time homeowners.
Visiting it as our own place for the first time yesterday left me weak-kneed, achy, and more than a little nauseous.
I don't know if you know this, but I am not great with handling change. It freaks out my whole system. So, while I would love to just be excited and start packing up this mess of an apartment to start our new lives in a gorgeous heritage building away from all this grossness, I am working through giant anxiety attacks.
Yay! We just bought a heritage condo in a building I love! Let me break out in hives and hyperventilate and lose sleep and grind my teeth and cry and self-medicate with grease and carbohydrates for a few days.
I am spending some time today investigating paint colours to distract myself from my dry mouth and muscle tension, because I am going to find my excitement, dammit.
Can any of you help me find the perfect robin's egg blue?
------------------------
PS. My 40th birthday is on December 29th. I'm celebrating my birthday by raising enough money to bring 40 people clean water for life, and we're already 20% there! So, as a gift to me and to the world, let's make this happen.
Reader Comments (22)
Congratulations on your first condo!!!! Take lots of photos and post!
Congratulations!
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who gets dry mouth and general freaked-outedness over real estate transactions. That's probably why we're still living in our "starter house" sixteen years later with no plans to ever move again.
I am so happy for you. I keep saying that over and over because it's all I got. :) (Except I get the anxiety of good change. Big is big, yeah? Hopefully it'll fuel some most excellent paint choices.)
Congratulations! It IS nerve-wracking because better the devil you know than the devil you don't but it will be awesome and hopefully not epilepsy-inducing. Congratulations to you both again and looking forward to seeing the pictures!
I thought I would have to be hospitalized when we bought our house. Hives, hair falling out, jittery all the time, self medicating with food. I can relate to it all. Once you settle in, you will be happy you made the decision and that this is finally something that belongs to you and you can do with it as you please without worrying that you will be evicted or have your apartment turned into condos or that rent will go up or anything. And you can finally stop setting fire to your money. So happy for you! Congratulations!
Congrats! I hope it's everything you want/need and more!
Owning a house is wonderful. It will keep you busy and broke the rest of your lives but you were that anyhow and at lest now it is your own place. Enjoy.
As you know, there are pros & cons to each, but I truly believe this IS the right time for you guys or the universe wouldn't have brought this opportunity to you at this time. As corny as it may be, this line from Desiderata is timely, "And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should." so go with that! It's all good.
I'm selfishly hoping for photos of your new home, mostly so I can picture myself in it alongside you and Palinode. I'm so happy for you, even if you are nervous and angsty about the change. Change is terrifying. But can be oh, so good. xo
Congrats! And I love robin's egg blue- let us know which one you settle on. That's what color I'm dying to repaint my kitchen with.
The great thing about paint, and I mean this tenderly and fliply (a word?), is that you can paint over it.
Good luck. Keep the bath tub shots coming!
As my mother always says, "It's just paint!" She means just pick one, don't agonize, paint that mother effer, and if you don't like it, YOU CAN PAINT IT.
Sounds so easy, right? Translates into forty million trips to Home Depot, and me doing edging work precariously balanced on a rolling chair at 3:00 in the morning.
I finally learned to take one shortcut: I paint several 12 inch by 12 inch swatch squares so I can compare.
I thought I wanted a Robin's egg shade of blue for the bedroom, but ended up with more of a blue lagoon color. I couldn't find the perfect Robin. I'm sure it's out there though and I bet you will find it.
Deep cleansing breaths.
SO excited for you guys! I don't do well with change, either. You can do it!
Oy! I grind my teeth when I'm stressed out too. Ouch. I'll pass the Naproxen and well wishes. :)
Congrats, and welcome to the semi-wonderful world of home ownership!
Much as your old apartment sounds like a living dream, owning is fantastic -- work and stress, yes, but a true feeling of home and comfit]rt. I freaked over my first place, then settled down and loved it.
Congrats!
I love you so much. It's a truth.
Glad that the turnaround was so quick, because it's less time to go absolutely batshit crazy. And a true fact: there are too many paint colour choices in the world. There's just too many, it's too confusing and the choosing will fuck you up. Be strong .. use the force. Say: THIS ONE IS THE RIGHT COLOUR. Buy it, and walk out that hardware store without turning back. You can do this.
XXXXX
I know that feeling, the anxiety of moving feeling. Here's to change, and to non-moldering living spaces!
Now, tell me, what is a heritage condo?
Tamara, the building was built in 1914, so heritage means it's old. It's a beautiful building, though.
Home ownership is change now, but it's stability for the future! This is good.
What's not to love here? You're settling down in your OWN HOME with the delectable Palinode, who is quite possibly the best husband I've ever heard of! Yes, it happened fast but that isn't such a bad thing - if I could quit making my landlords rich and become an investor in my own future I'd jump at the chance and it couldn't happen fast enough!
Speaking of moi, I live in a studio apartment (one room) from which I can see the ocean but can't really get to it without severely taxing my 65-year-old Rebel ass physically. Having lived right on the local one-way 5-MPH beach street here for 3 blissful years in the late 90's, my ultimate goal is to be back there, so much so that it just about kills me to drive down that road now. So recently I applied to rent an apartment on that road - the rent in that place is $350 more than I'm paying now and I'll have to make a lot of sacrifices if they - please Goddess! - let me go live there. My satellite dish will be the first thing to go, so no more TV - but to me the Blue Pacific has always been infinitely more entertaining to watch! The bottom line is that big life changes are almost ALWAYS scary but when it's POSITIVE change you just have to try and quell your fears and EMBRACE your future! Go with the flow, Baby, and enjoy every minute of this - a home of your own is such a blessing! You can paint, wallpaper, window-drape and carpet/tile it to both of your hearts' content - this is all pro and no con AFAIK, so go for it and congratulations to da botha youse ♥
Congrats on the home...Yes, it's really stressful and it actually took me about 5 YEARS to not freak out totally with torment and regret.
It's hard to explain the benefits. Well, we have a dog with impunity. We rent out rooms in our house to strangers to pay the mortgage. Maybe we can sell the house to send our kid to college. We are terrible at saving money so owning a home is sort of like forced savings. I don't know--roots?
After 5 years living here I realize we actually did make a good decision. I hope it happens faster for you. It's just tough for anxious people to do things like this I think.
It is really exciting though!!! It's one of those good kind of changes!!!
You'll see--soon!!! Just ride out the freak outs and remember what I said about it eventually settling down.
1200 SF is freaking huge. Also, clawfoot bathtub? And radiators. I love radiators!!! I am so bummed I don't have them anymore. And light?
All the cool places have uneven floors. I'm not making that up. I'm sure Versailles has uneven floors.
And yay for 40! Like the Jeffersons you're movin' on up!
I did contribute--anonymously--which ruins the contribution because I told you even though it was anonymous. I just didn't want you to think I was a big jerk because I was blathering about NGOs & whatnot like I even know what the hell I'm talking about.