Two Years of House Love

Tomorrow is my anniversary.  Well not MY anniversary, but the two year anniversary of Jeff and I with our house.  You’re now thinking: this is a weird thing to write about.  Yes.  Admittedly, Jeff and I are sort of nuts about our house – probably ad nauseum at times – but the happiness this place has brought us has been an incredibly significant part of our lives.  Our house is our pet, our baby, our third family member.  So I wanted to take a moment to give it the shout out it deserves!  For those just tuning into my life, Jeff is my husband (together since ’07, married in ’11) who moved into my first owned home (a townhouse in Guelph, Ontario that I bought just after securing my first job) in December 2008.  He currently rents his owned property in Stratford, Ontario which he was unable to sell during the recession (go figure) when he moved to Guelph.

This is the story of our journey to our dream home. It was an accident, really.  We love looking at open houses “just for fun” (something I for sure inherited from my parents who did this to me many Saturdays in my childhood).  In June 2009 we hit up an open house that was just out of our price range on an adorable street in Guelph’s west end: Sugarbush Place.  With a name that cute, and houses built right into a towering maple forest, how could this place not be meant for us?  Long story short, it wasn’t meant for us.  A drastically reduced price was still out of our price range and our lowball offer wasn’t accepted. We were crushed.  But from that experience, a fiesty fire was lit within us (mainly me) and we embarked on a couple of seriously crazy months.  Summer for me is already a hysterically busy time.  This particular summer I was splitting my time between two jobs (I’d been seconded from my original position to a job that involved a commute to Toronto three days a week), working in the field at least half that time which involved travel all over southern Ontario, and competing for a new job at my original organization.  Couldn’t have picked a better time to become obsessed with finding a new house!  However, once that fire was lit it wouldn’t go out.  We were lucky enough to meet our real estate agent Will Lenssen (Homelife Realty, Guelph, if you’re looking for a great, kind and honest agent!) during The Sugarbush Incident and he was eager to help us find our dream home.  We’re a little picky, though.  We looked at every house on the market in Guelph in our price range during July and August 2009 and came up absolutely short.  Frustrated with Jeff (who ended up being the pickier one.. I had a tendency to “LOVE” and “WANT!!!!” every house that moderately met our needs – I have the real estate crazies, full on) I said to him one Saturday morning “if you don’t like what’s out there in our price range, you’re going to have to start thinking seriously about building a house”.  We had always shunned the idea of building a house.  Crowded subdivisions!  Every house looks the same!  Tiny backyards with no privacy!  (I’m not denying most of this isn’t true).  But we decided to look into it because maybe we could get some of our dream “wants” along with our “needs” – a mid-level family room; three bathrooms; a dining room and two living rooms – just maybe!  We had an almost-there with Cityview’s The Vales in Guelph on a quiet crescent in the east end which backed onto conservation trails.  Seemed perfect!  But their absolute refusal to budge a dollar on the price ended up being the sticking point.  With Jeff and I each having a mortgage in our name, our upper price limit was very firm (as in, the mortgage company would NOT lend us more even if I pleaded that we were superhero budgeters, which we are!! They weren’t having any of it..).  I remember Jeff hugging me in the driveway of the model home while I cried as our little dream slipped away. 

We ventured out on a camping trip that weekend where we’d promised not to think about houses until we were in the car on the way home. I remember I was still wearing my three days old camping and Pelee Island touring clothes, several days out from a shower (picture stink lines rising off of me) when we walked into the Ashton Ridge model home in Guelph’s far east end. Stink aside, I was transfixed by the artist’s rendition on the wall : The Iona. 2,000 square feet, mid-level den, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, extra living room, dining room, main floor laundry, A 40’ WIDE x 121’ DEEP LOT (anyone building in the “I’m Middle Class” price range will appreciate that), funky exterior designs with no two houses in a row being the same, and, I’m sorry, what? In our price range with $10,000 in free upgrades?!?!  We were basically signing the papers while twigs fell out of my hair.  We were back at the model the next night, putting our “yellow dot” on the lot plan to reserve it Lot 10, conditional on the sale of my house. 

The Iona (ours has less trees, more neighbours :P)

Throwing my town house up for sale and juggling the stream of viewings and open houses, getting finances and approvals in order for the new house, finishing out my summer secondment in TO, interviewing for my new position: this all happened in ONE WEEK. I can remember my (now) boss calling and going “So do you want to work for me?” and I said “Oh my gosh!!!! Of course!  Hang on my real estate agent is calling on my cell phone. (aside) Yes, a 2:00 showing today is fine. (back to boss) I’m so happy, thank you so much!” At least a I set a precedent for my level of candid unprofessionalism with him in that moment. 

Then came the glorious 4 months of watching the house get built.  I have never been so excited for a hole in the ground.  For poured concrete.  For 2 x 4s in a vertical formation.  Jeff and I were once again possessed, obsessed; visiting our concrete and wood creation every single day after work (I’d also sometimes drive by at lunch).  I remember stopping in on my way home from a meeting in Toronto to find Jeff already crawling around inside the house.  We took at least 500 pictures of the house being built. We took our very bored-looking friends along to marvel at it – “ohh… wood and concrete” they’d say, excitement nearly tangible. Once the doors, windows and drywall were in and the house was locked each day, we still managed to find our way inside. Every. Single. Day. The window in the downstairs bathroom still makes a funny noise when you open it from Jeff warping it by squeezing his not so tiny body through a very tiny space every day for about three weeks.  I can’t explain the feelings I had about this house, this pile of building materials.  I just knew in my gut what this pile o’ stuff really was: our home.


Admiring the hole in the ground



Jeff on a stealth nighttime break-in mission

Friends humouring us - Ben and Jeff outside our house



Our beloved work in progress



 And it has not disappointed.  The feeling I get when I pull in the driveway and my house smiles down at me still makes me happy EVERY SINGLE DAY.  I’m not kidding.  The sod went down and I nearly passed out with excitement.  I actually just went and sat on it, grinning.  This was MY GRASS.  In my backyard.  I watered it so it wouldn’t die – it relied on me for life that summer.  Truly, this house was our baby.  A deck, a fence, a top to bottom paint job and a massive living room renovation later; it continues to be shaped by us as the months tick by.  We’ve turned builder’s beige and sterility into something warm, cozy and living.  I have accidentally stayed in my house for three days at a time before (while sick, or working from home during the winter months) and not even minded or noticed.  Every corner I turn, every groove my toes touch in the floor tiles, every time I put my hand on the cool granite of the kitchen counter, I feel my house reach out and give me a little squeeze back. (“I love you too, crazy lady!”). Our house even made a surprise appearance in both our wedding vows last fall - a sweet note from each side about doing fun projects, and continuing to turn it into a home.

Which brings me to the point I was actually thinking about today: the pros and cons of a new build (I’ll make this short, gosh I’m rambly), just in case anyone is pondering having a house built.  I honestly don’t know if I’d do it again, but I just may (very decisive).  I’ll let you decide for yourself!

Pros:

- Being able to pick the model that’s right for you, and customize it (to some extent).

- Picking colours (walls, tiles, counters, cupboards, bricks – all of it!).  You can’t believe how much pink ceramic tile and blue laminate counter is out there in the resale market!!

- Watching your baby grow during the building process.  It is oddly fascinating watching a gaping hole in the ground turn into a house.

- Having a clean palate when it’s time to make your house your own through the years.  Ripping up standard beige carpet over pristine subfloor that’s been there for a couple of years is pretty easy compared to ripping up that 70s shag and wondering what surprises, damage or other flooring you might find underneath!

- Moving into a gorgeously clean home; not one that has cooked spaghetti in a kitchen drawer and a powder room that smells vaguely of pee for the first 6 months (lucky for me, both examples from my first home)

Cons:

- Unless you’re rich and living in an estate neighbourhood, you’re going to be in a typical subdivision and RIGHTNEXT to your neighbour.  Invest in window coverings immediately!!

- You live in a construction zone for at least 2 years (ours is FINALLY FINALLY almost done) – this means construction vehicles, dirt instead of lawns, debris (I frequently find siding on my front lawn), giant ruts in the unfinished road, no street trees, and perpetually dirty windows

- New build backyards are traditionally pretty teeny so you have to make good use of deck space to avoid losing your backyard entirely.

- Ashton Ridge is a phenomenal builder that broke ground in late September and had the house ready early January and us in by the promised closing date.  I still can’t believe it actually happened.  Many people live in their parents’ basement during the overlap of selling their old house and getting into their new one.  I recommend a long closing on your current property if you’re going the new build route, to be safe.