I'll House You

It had to have been THE most expensive hole in the ground. But it was OUR hole in the ground. And now? It's our four walls, three floors, 1099 square feet (not including another 280 square feet of sunny, west facing, roof top terrace). It's our two bedrooms and TWO bathrooms.

Soon it will be our hardwood floors, our shiny new stainless steel appliances and our beige (to match the pug) berber (sp?) carpets.

For the last 13 months, it has also been our main source of excitement, anxiety, uncertainty and happiness. Our house. Our very first house.

Sure, it's not the Victorian Century home of my dreams. It won't be the slow and steady labour of love that we fix up bit-by-bit on weekends. I'm hoping it won't involve unexpected leaks that capture with buckets and laugh about a few months later ( I hope!).

It is, to be specific, an "urban town", a.k.a. stacked town house/condo. It's nestled in a little community of row after row of "urban towns" in a small area of downtown Toronto known as Liberty Village. It's an industrial area now, but one that is rapidly becoming developed and infused with young urban professionals (read: yuppies). A visit to the shiny new grocery store promises many SUV sightings. I'm sure that Starbucks will move in any minute (I hate to admit it but I sure do love a grande non-fat latte, you know?). It's going to be our community, yuppies, train tracks and all.

Yesterday, after 13 months and four separate notices of delay, we received our "confirmed occupancy closing date, which supersedes the tentative occupancy closing date." That confirmed-which-supersedes-the-tentative-date is August 23. Just a little over three months away.

We both laughed at that word--confirmed--and said, "yeah, sure, as if." When something that you've been waiting on for so long keeps getting pushed away, you start to think that it's not real. But this time, I think it is real. I think this thing, those four walls, hardwood floors, roof top terrace is really going to be ours on August 23.

Well, it'll sort of be the bank's, but let's not ruin the moment.