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

[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...