Reverb#10 - Day 10

What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

We took the plunge and bought a house this summer. A lot of factors played into it. Because of my recovery and the years it will take to settle the law suit, we decided that buying a house made more sense. Our apartment was old, the stairs steep. Our bedroom and bathroom were in the basement so just needing to pee was arduous when I first came home, as the staircase was quite steep. We had the 1st floor and basement of a row house so except for the kitchen, the apartment had no light. Quite depressing in winter. I'd been saving and investing since I started nursing and i had amassed enough for a down payment. We decided on a budget, went to a friend who was a real estate agent and started looking. We knew we wanted to stay in the East end of the city, and anywhere from where the apartment was east to the Beaches would work location wise. I ideally wanted to live near my best friend Britt, who had bought a house a few years earlier at the end of a dead end street that ended at a railway line. The area, Little India, was residential, had long tree lined streets, ample parks, and was still close to the down town by means of the Gardiner expressway, the Southern express route that followed the Lakeshore westwards out of the city, and the Don Valley Parkway which was the main artery North out of the city.
Originally we wanted a three bedroom house, with most of the necessities recently replaced or serviced. Four weeks of looking and a few unsuccessful bids later we realized that to stay within our budget and not have to do any major renovations or replacements, we would have to either look outside of the area we wanted or consider a two bedroom house. We opted for the latter, which turned out to be the smartest decision we'd made all year. That weekend I came across a 2 bedroom house that met all our requirements, right in the heart of the Indian bazaar. The best part. It was one street east and a 5 minute walk from Britt's house.
The moment we went to view the place I knew that we'd found our home. It was clean, bright with a long backyard, a covered porch/cloakroom, a newly renovated bathroom with a spa like shower which meant no hauling myself in and out of a tub. It had a new kitchen, a large unfinished basement with tons of potential, new essentials, a large bright master bedroom with excellent storage and tons of warmth and characteur. It is perfect.
We put a bid in and after two nail biting days, the house was offered to us. We closed with the typical stress 4 weeks later and moved in 2 weeks after that on a Friday. We spent the first weekend in shock that the house was ours, that we had sunlight in our bedroom for the first time in 4 years. We repainted, pitched a ton on unneeded stuff to charity. 33 months later we still haven't completely moved in yet but the dog has a backyard and a dog park 7 minutes away, I live near Britt and delicious Indian food again, we aren't on a main street but instead a quiet one way street, the house is clean and new. Even the cat is much happier as she can sit in one of he many windows and sunbathe or watch the world go by, and sometimes we let her outside for a bit, as the street is quiet and lazy, and she has all sorts of trees, yards and other cats to play with.
Our family is happy which makes me happy. My recovery is much more enhanced simply because I live n a much better space. Our office is in the second bedroom. The walls are this beautiful blue-lavender, which we figured would be a gender neutral colour for the nursery we hope to have sometime from now.

Our house. Definitely the best decision yet.