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Buying and selling
Capital Muse
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e bought our first house six years ago. We had a down payment saved, a child and another on the way, and we figured it was a good time to settle in somewhere for at least five years. Before that, I’d only ever thought about the next six months. Buying a house can be an emotional event, especially if you’re pregnant. Find something you like, and you can spend days imagining you and your family growing in this place, and how the walls will shape you, and before long you can’t imagine yourself anywhere else. Desperation overtakes logic as you head into the largest ever business transaction of your life. It’s probably not the best thing to get emotionally worked up about. In our first experience, we did, and we bid, only to end up in what could have been a financially devastating bidding war for one house of thousands. In the end, the inspection told us the house was prone to flooding, our plans for renovations would have to go on hold, and the mortgage was too high for us anyway. I remember crying about this loss, unable to imagine how my family would prosper anywhere else. It was my mortgage specialist who brought me back to reality: “Brynna, this is a business transaction. Crying about this house is like crying when you see the 97 bus pull away from the curb without you. There’s always another bus. And there’s always another house.” And he was right, and I stopped grieving, and we bought a different house
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Does Ottawa have what it takes to be a great city?
What is Canada’s way forward in the daycare debate?
A)
A)
Only if our council is willing to spend money where it counts to get things done.
Keep the status quo. Universal childcare is too expensive and limiting.
B) No, this is the city that fun forgot – just
B) Create a universal childcare pro-
look at the loss of the Ex this year.
gram to reduce costs and get kids off waiting lists.
C) It is the individual communities and their events that make this a great place to live.
C) Create a partial universal program
D) Ottawa is already filled with great venues
that helps low-income families and stops sending cheques to those that don’t need it.
and activities, you just need to know where to find them.
D) Scrap all daycare subsidies and let people fend for themselves.
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BRYNNA LESLIE
within three days. Six years on, we’re in another new situation. Emotional me has fallen in love with my neighbourhood and the people who live here and I never want to move. But our house has a few quirks that we’ve never quite grown into. Another house has come up for sale around the corner that we’d like to grow into. And I’ve spent the last three days in anticipation and agony, meeting with bankers, lawyers and realtors to find out if and how we can possibly purchase this house. They’re trying to be nice, but they also sense my desperation. As my new mortgage specialist quipped after I spent 10 minutes rambling about the absolute necessity of getting into the new place: “I get it. This house is for now. The new house is for life.” Yes, kind of. But it scared me when he said it. For life? I suppose, but until now we’ve only ever looked five years down the road at a time. This is a neighbourhood where people live in their homes for decades, only to eventually die in their kitchens by natural causes. I pictured myself flailing in the kitchen at the new place – a kitchen which has its own undesirable quirks – grey-haired and alone, and I started to panic. Maybe I’m not ready to make a lifelong commitment. And all the doubts began to emerge. After all, there are a lot of complicating factors, like the fact that we have to sell our house before we can afford to buy a new one. And the fact that we have to decide whether it’s worth it to raise our monthly outputs just as we’re starting to feel financially comfortable. After many sleepless nights and meetings and imaginings, I’ve decided to put the emotions away. I’m going to look at the house for the first time tonight – yeah, I haven’t even seen the inside of the place yet – and if we like it, we’ll bid. But we’re not going to compromise. Because, at the end of the day, for all its quirks, the house we’ve got is pretty darned good. And who wants to go through the hassle of a move anyway?
9 August 25, 2011 - OTTAWA THIS WEEK - EAST
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