HOUSE: The Final Frontier

Well, boys and girls, as of 9:15 am yesterday, we are the proud new leasees of a 3-bedroom house on Pickford Drive in Kanata.

I.

am.

Kanatian!

Yikes, that sounds odd! Stacey and I have come to terms with the distance from downtown as much as we can, and we're both very excited about starting up in a new neighbourhood. Neither of us knows Kanata very well yet. Stacey was commenting on the fact that it seemed like a whole new city far, far away when we were driving around last weekend, and I have to agree with her. But we're happy that many of the things we love having close to us at our current house, like the Blockbuster and the grocery store in particular, are still going to be within walking distance.

Here's a little bit about the place, now that I'm confident that it's ours and we've signed on the dotted line and all. The house is about 7-10 years old and it's in fantastic condition. It's a 3-story townhouse, one of the middle units. When you walk in downstairs, there's a small hallway with the garage on the left, the utility room straight ahead, with a patio door going out to the little backyard, and a staircase on the right, going up to the main level.

When you get up there, you're in the living room, which has a wood-burning fireplace and a patio door going out to a small balcony overlooking the backyard on the right and the dining room on the left. The dining room and living room are separated by a small step up and a single column, making the rooms open-concept but defined into two spaces. There's an opening or pass-through between the kitchen and the dining room, a feature that we really like about our current house. The kitchen's about the same size as what we have now, which is very comfortable, with a space for a table and chairs, and big windows looking out onto the street. To the right of the kitchen is a small washroom, a closet hiding the washer and dryer, and the staircase up to the third level.

Upstairs, there are two small bedrooms at the back of the house (on the right), just big enough for Stacey's office and my office / guest bedroom. At the left, there's the main bathroom, and just to the right of that, the master bedroom. And here's the kicker....it has an ensuite bathroom. Which is just wacky. Three bathrooms for two people. We're still not sure what we're going to do with them all.

All in all, we're not sure that it's any bigger than what we have now (although 1/3 of the space we have now, we barely use...with the unfinished basement and all), but it has a lot more character, the layout really appeals to us, and we feel that it has more usable space. It's a condo, so the yard work is taken care of, and all we really have to do is keep the place in good shape. Lots of storage space, not too much that's needed in the way of repairs, and a small window air conditioner, which we're buying off the current tenants, already installed.

Moving day is October 1st, and there'll definitely be a house-warming. I let you all know when the shindig's going down, in case you'd like to stop by. It will probably be later in the month. Maybe we'll do a Hallowe'en theme, as per the GW crestings I've attended in the past. But with a whole lot less squid.