#16 - We're Home Owners!!

16: Buy a home

When people say that buying a home is stressful, I think they actually mean unnerving. I found it incredibly disconcerting to fall so hard for a condo and not know whether or not we could actually have it in the end! Because no matter how much you want it, someone else just might want it more (throw down a bigger offer if you end up in competition,) or just have luck on their side and get their offer accepted first (like we did!)

We got word of this place from our realtor the morning it was posted on the market (for realtors' eyes only), but before it was actually available to the public. We booked a viewing for the next day, and when we walked in, I believe my words were something like, "whooaaaahhaaOOOHH myyy god. Wow. Can we get it? I think this it, I want this place, Luc...I WANT IT!" Something resembling a little kid seeing a power wheels car for the first time. The really nerve-wracking part though, for me, was after signing countless documents with the realtor to get our offer in writing....then waiting to hear back from the sellers. Would they counter? Would they outright reject our offer? Would they accept right away?? Needless to say, it was a rather sleepless night and what followed was a distracted day at work, wherein I checked my cellphone more often than I check my twitter feed.

We had put in the offer at 8pm on Monday night, and by about 3pm on Tuesday afternoon we had received a counter from the sellers - and word from our agent that 3 other viewings had been arranged for the next day, two of which were second viewings. The good thing was, the counter-offer was fantastic, so we accepted it immediately, signed the documents, and were whisked away into more paperwork...a home inspection...more paperwork...yadda yadda yadda, we move in on November 24th!

The night that we accepted the offer, Luc and I played a little game called, "I'm most excited for..." The list was long and included things like:
-Having an island in the kitchen
-Being able to blow dry my hair without shorting out all of the power
-Being able to walk to work rather than take 2 skytrains and a bus
-The enormous patio (and the BBQ that we're going to put out there)
-Having in-suite laundry rather than battling it out with neighbours for washer time
-A concrete buliding...meaning, no worries about noise
-Having an ensuite bathroom so I don't have to walk into the dark, scary hallway at night

The only hard part left...waiting another 6 weeks to move in!!