My House

One of the more exciting events of last year was us finally buying our own place. Probably more exciting that it would normally been, had we not been living with the in-laws for the two years prior to this. Let me just say, had it not been for Janette's parents putting me up (not only without question, but by making me feel like I'd always been there, and I was just another one of their kids), I'd probably have been in a whole lot of trouble. At the same time, it was kind of absurd after having left my parent's place so many years beforehand to go back the way and effectively move back in with my parents (except it was my in-laws). Even more absurd when you consider that I was a married man with a kid but with no home to really call my own. Then it gets even more absurd when you consider that Janette's brother also lived in the basement at the time. We had the top floor, the in-laws the two middle sections, and the brother in the basement. Full house by most standards, but Janette's parents house is HUGE (as anyone who stayed there when Janette and I got married will testify), so it was never really too cramped. Still, a man and his family need their own space, you know?

So, we bought this little 3.5 bedroom townhouse out in Whitby, which is in the Durham region of Ontario, about 30 miles away from downtown Toronto (though about 10 minutes away from the Greater Toronto Area). We literally went house shopping five minutes after me starting work full time, and this was actually the first place we looked at. We looked at a few more, but we were blown away by this place. It's about 5 years old, and the only person living here previously was a single woman who really kept the place looking like new. We weren't looking to spend much at the time (as when we bought it, we were entirely dependant on my income as Janette hadn't landed full-time work yet), and the asking price for this place was just too good, even though it's a townhouse. Ironically, Janette landed a full-time job in Ajax (which is about 5 minutes down the road), so we could have easily bought a place considerably bigger and much closer to Toronto. Still, Whitby is such a rapidly growing area that the property values are just shooting through the roof, so when we finally come to sell the place it'll be money in the bank for us, which was a big part of the reason I was interested.

Anyway, I thought I'd post some pictures to show rather than tell, though the only pictures I've got were taken last summer, and at that it's mostly outside pictures I want to show... some parts of the house have been redecorated so look completely different (the girl who lived here before didn't decorate, so it was mostly brand-new builder's WHITE), but it's something for now at least.

First up, here's a view from the front. There's a whole lot more flowers in the front yard now because my Mum was over last summer and decided to make a real garden out of it. Note the 1999 Mercury Sable in the driveway, one of our two cars (the other being a Ford Contour, which I don't seem to have a picture of). The Sable is "my" car, Janette takes the smaller car because she's on the road more and it uses less gas.



Here's a shot from the back. Not the biggest back yard in the world, but for some reason someone decided to plant a maple tree right in the middle, for some completely bizarre reason. I haven't yet worked out what to do to replant it.



Here's a closer look at my deck. I said deck. If you look closely, you may spot a young kid rocking out in the background. I teach him well. Anyway, this is a beautiful place to sit out in the summer. The sun is always at the back of my house, from sunrise to sunset, so it's pretty cozy. I go all Canadian here on the nicer weekends, it's where my barbeque usually sits (can you believe I have my own barbeque that I built with my own hands?), so I like to grab a couple of beers and go out here to cook up some burgers, hot dogs, souvlakis, and if I'm feeling frisky, some juicy steaks. It rocks.



Here's a back yard view from my back door. See those houses the neighbours have? Imagine that scene repeated about a million times over, and you've got Whitby.



Of course, these shots were taken in the summer, it doesn't look like that out there just now. From mid-January till about a week ago my entire house was buried in about a billion tons of good old-fashioned Ontario snow, so my back yard looked something a little more like this:



Here's another shot of my Sable. It's not very flashy, what with it being a 1999 model of a car built for families of cheap asses, but I love it. Probably because it's my first car, and with me being a poor Scot it's pretty great for a first car. Not even close to being as flashy as Meech's Audi, I'm sure, but then again, it's probably only a fraction of the cost, and I paid for it in full out of my own pocket. Mercury are a sister company owned by Ford, by the way - I can't remember if you get Mercury back home. The Sable is exactly the same as the old model of Ford Taurus, but I don't think there's a Ford Taurus in Britain either, so that's a pretty pointless description.



Into the house now, with a shot of my little dining room area (and Janette and Andrew's computer desk. Yes, we're a two computer family). Here's a funny thing that I didn't notice when I first got here - in Canada, kitchens don't have doors. They are not their own rooms. My dining room, kitchen, and living room are all the same big room. This is completely normal over here... in fact, people look at me like I'm nuts when I say that kitchens in Scotland have doors. No picture of the kitchen and living room for now, because Janette has redecorated them now and they look awesome, but I'll try and remember to take some soon.



Now here's what's possibly one of my favourite areas of the house; my "office". The area at the top of my stairs is huge, so I decided that was going to be my area, and moved all my junk in there. I'm supposed to do "work" here, but most of my time is spent playing video games and listening to music. Janette hates the shelves full of video games, especially now (it's twice as full as it is in this picture). I dunno, I just like to have them on display. I have no shame.



Last but not least, here's one of the more important areas - the toilet. The upstairs toilet. In Canada, you don't have less than two toilets in your house. In fact, people will look down their noses at you for only having two toilets. I don't think I ever appreciated just how great it is for two people in a household to go for a crap at the same time.



Well, that's it for now. I'm not showing much of the inside of my house, but as I said, it's because I need to take some new shots now that Janette's done all the redecorating. Maybe I'll snap some at the weekend, because what she's done looks great.

It's not the biggest house in the world, but it's perfect for the three of us (five, if you count my cats eh). As I say, it's likely to make us a little bit of money in the long run. I've also got a fairly big basement area (as every house in Canada has a basement) that right now we're only using for storage as it's not finished... we're planning on finishing it soon though, turning it into another room or something for when we have people over from Scotland and stuff. That's going to add a ton of value to the house.

Other than that, it's a REALLY nice area to live. Get this - to get to my subdivision, you need to drive past these great big beautiful flashy houses, the likes of which I've NEVER seen anywhere in Scotland. All around us there's actually lots of nice houses, with our pokey little row of townhouses in the middle, so we look a lot flashier than we actually are. It's real quiet around here, too... almost too quiet, for a born-and-raised Scotsman. After 8pm, you're lucky to even hear the wind blow out there, it's so peaceful. I actually used to find it unsettling, being used to hearing (and being) a passing drunk having a singalong in every place I've ever lived before.

My only real issue with the area itself doesn't have much within walking distance... just schools and more houses. If I jump in my car, I'm five minutes away from everything I'd ever need - there's a huge plaza near hear with the likes of Wal*Mart and all these other mega places, so if I ever need to buy anything, and I mean anything, it's right there. I could drive for a couple of minutes to get to Whitby town center, too, and have all the bars and clubs and restaurants I'd likely ever need... but again, a little too far to be walking distance. There's not even a little neighbourhood newsagents. This kind of bugs me, because my whole entire life I've been used to walking everywhere.

Oh, and the other thing is the commute to my work (in downtown Toronto) is quite long... but I'll save that for another day. Look at the size of this entry, just talking about my house. I have truly become as dull as a brick, and not even that awesome brick that Meech sculpted and painted into the likeness of Wakko, just a regular, plain old red brick.