House: The First Chapter

[morgan_dhu]

glaurung and I are buying a house.

Gibber.

He looked at the house on Wednesday, we had a house inspection done Thursday morning, offers were due Thursday evening at 7:00pm, and by 8:00pm our real estate broker called to inform us that our offer had been accepted and we were committed to buying a house.

We are terrified.

Neither of us has ever assumed such a massive financial responsibility in our lives (we live in Toronto, where "starter houses" on tiny lots sell for a quarter mil).

We will have to do some remodelling in order to accommodate my mobility issues and there's some other things that have to be upgraded, from insulation to some of the wiring and we want to replace some of the HVAC system with more energy-efficient equipment.

But it's affordable (barely) and it's nice and it's in a decent location for people who do not and never will own a car and best of all, there will be no people using perfume or other chemical crap that makes us sick living in the basement or on the floor above us.

Out of consideration, I will identify all subsequent posts about this becoming a homeowner thing as House posts, so you can skip over them if this kind of thing makes your eyes glaze over.

Comments

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

I understand the gibbering. Great that you've found a place that you like, though. Here's wishing you the least stress-free move imaginable, and a very happy settling in.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It will likely be early in the new year before we can move in - we close November 15, and then we can bring in people to draw up plans for the modification we need to do, and get permits, and hire contractors and get the work done, all of which may take some time. And then we need to leave the house vacant while the new materials used in the renovations detoxify.

At least we are in the position of being able to carry mortgage and rent for a few months, so we don't have to hurry, and will be able to make sure we get everything we need, done - becasue of course, once we do move in, we will not be able to do any major work on the house again (barring some kind of emergency, when we'll just have to suffer, of course), becasue doing work while we are living there will just make us intolerably ill.

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

OMG! Buying a house anywhere is crazy enough, but it does seem like Canadian house-buying is superaccelerated. Congratulations!

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

The housing market in most urban areas in Canada is very hot right now - and in fact, Toronto isn't even the worst place - it's even hotter (and pricier) in many of the western cities - Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver - because they're in the middle of a major economic boom right now and people are flooding into the western provinces looking for work.

If a house is in good condition and priced appropriately, it's rarely on the market for more than a week.

[guyindkny.livejournal.com]

The market in Deadmonton--err, Edmonton right now is actually slowing. Houses are starting to sit on the market, vastly overpriced but not moving. Perhaps this will start to herald a bit of sanity returning to the housing market in this country...

[sauscony.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. Best of luck with everything and enjoy your home. And feel free to rant to me about the stress because I'll be going through the same thing around the same time, I hope.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Rant, rant, stress, stress, whimper, whimper.

Good luck with the place you're looking at.

We can then go through the insanities of closing and all that jazz together.

[xochiquetzl]

Woohoo! Congrats!

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Whimper.

Thank you.

::hides in corner and quivers::

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the ranks of the asset-rich cash-poor!

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

You got that one right. This is going to take all our savings. Being poor and responsible for the upkeep on a house is very scary.

[windsea.livejournal.com]

Oh, lovely. It DOES make a difference when the place where you eat and sleep and love and read and shower and all that jazz ... is yours.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

That's part of what we're looking forward to, certainly, although in some ways it's not as improtant to us as the idea that we will be able to control our environment.

We will be able to create safe spaces where we can put items that need detoxifying, and create other safe spaces where there will be nothing either inside or coming in from outside that can make us sick.

Right now, when we buy books or electronics, we have to do most of the detoxifying inside our living space, in a room that we have to keep aired out - but there's always some leakage. Our washing machine is in the kitchen, so when we wash new clothes or sheets or towels the five or six times that are necessary to get out the perfumes and chemicals picked up from being in warehouses or stores, the fumes get into the rest of the house. And so on.

In the new place, we can set up a detoxification space outside for large items like new furniture. We can make a room in the basement for detoxifying smaller things, and make it and the laundry room air-tight and install fans that would vent the air outside. We can keep our windows shut on smoggy days, or when the neighbours are doing laundry, without toxic fumes from other apartments seeping into our living space. We can seal off the furnace room so it only vents outside.

All of these things that will make it possible for me to be able to breathe more easily - and just maybe, if my exposures are dramatically reduced, I might stop getting sicker all the time - and maybe even get a little better, once my system isn't being stressed by so many chemicals every day.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Big congratulations!!! Sending wishes for the fixing up and moving in to go as smoothly as possible.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's going to take some time, becasue we have to do it all and do it right before we move in, becasue there won't be another chance once we are moved in.

But fortunately, we can carry both the rent we're paying and the mortgage for a few months, so we should be able to get it all done before we move in, likely sometime early in the new year.