I’ve really been in love with my vintage blazer lately, finding it to be the perfect amount of class and sass added to each outfit. Today I paired it with my blue watercolor dress and suede MJ bow flats for a slightly nautical look. Would have been even more perfect because I was supposed to have dinner with my parents at the yacht club but that was moved till tomorrow tonight because of the weather (yum, free food!).
Anyhoo, my life has taken an interesting turn over these last few days and I find myself with a new conundrum to deal with this summer.
As most of you know, my man Mike and I are looking to buy our own apartment. I already own my own apartment, the one we are living in right now, but the place is a teeny tiny one room studio which is ideally meant for one person, not two. And I’ve been there for three years almost, so I alone am just plain fed up with the place, the small size, the noisy neighbours and the legal battle us unit owners are knee-deep in against our corrupt maintanence fee company.
So, since last August, we have talked about buying a place. At first we tried to sell but that was a crazy idea in this market. In fact, we needed to sell in order to get the down payment for our next place for my dad was willing to give us the 60k he invested in my current place. But the way the market it, we would barely get any of that 60K. It’s just not worth it to sell right now and why sell when you can rent, right?
The plan then was that my bf’s father would give us 25-30K as a deposit for our next place and I would just rent out my apartment. We went on for a few months, believing this to be the plan, having meetings with our mortgage broker, realtor, etc. Anyway last Sunday at our Sunday dinner, we brought up the fact that we found renters who are interested in renting starting July 1st and we are totally ready to get going with this whole deal.
Well, my future father-in-law is a shrewd man who has made his millions in investments, so I guess he knows what he is talking about. But he basically said that he’s totally on board to give us money BUT A) I must secure the tenants first – for realz yo – and have them living in my place for at least a month so we know how serious they are and B) the market is not at its lowest point and is worth waiting out even longer.
That was all very true but it still kinda left a bad feeling in my mouth cuz, wait, I’m to rent out my place for a bit first? Where the hell are WE gonna live?
We have two options. One is that we rent a place for ourselves. But here is the problem we have with that (and when I say we, I mean “I”): A) After paying a mortgage for years, I abhor the idea of paying rent , I don’t care that meanwhile someone else is paying down my mortgage, it just doesn’t make sense B) It’s very hard to find a nice place to rent right now – or anytime actually – in Vancouver C) It’s even harder to find a place that would let us stay there without signing a one-year lease, cuz after all, we might only be needing a place for three months D) I hate moving and this place would have to be furnished E) I hate the idea of living in some strange place for a few months, I mean would we bother even unpacking? It wouldn’t feel like home and it would make me uneasy F) what if our tenants do bow out right away for some reason? We are stuck with paying rent AND my mortgage till we find new ones.
The second option is: move in with Mike’s parents. There is also the option to move in with my parents (they live down the street from them) but OH HAIL NAW!
Ah yes, us living with Mike’s parents for three months – you can see now how this a step backwards, right? I mean, I go from traveling the world, living all over the place, owning my own apartment in downtown Vancouver to…living back in the town I abhor the most, filled with losers (no offense to you people from t-town but you know its true), and with my boyfriend’s parents on top of it all. Those aren’t even my parents, it’s somehow worse.
That aside though, I actually have no beef with his parents. In fact, if they lived in Vancouver and not sucktown suburbia, I would have no qualms about this arrangement. I would jump at the chance. I mean, let’s look at the positives, shall we?
A) They live in a Mansion B) a Mansion with a huge property, wonderful view of the mountains, gardens, hot tub, massive lawn C) both parents are gourmet cooks and we would get such meals every night D) both parents are huge wine drinkers and it would be like living in an open wine bar E) We would get the sweet-as guest bedroom (which used to be their old master bedroom) which is the SAME SIZE AS OUR CURRENT APARTMENT D) Satellite big screen HD TV and recliner chairs E) free laundry - Oh I am going to do so much laundry! and F) We would be living rent free – RENT FREE, which would mean if we were there for 3 months, I would save about $7,200 (not subtracting lunches, gas, cell phone bill etc). That’s not pocket change though. I could for once seriously save some major cash for travels, emergencies, new apartment furniture, etc. And clothes, of course, and gadgets! Digital SLR Camera here I finally come!
Of course, the bad part of all this is feeling like an utter failure for having to do this and also having to live in sucktown again. My commute to work will be an extra half hour longer (on the plus side, I am going to take advantage of my company’s flex-time program and work an hour longer every day to avoid traffic and then I can have every second Friday off, which is perfect for summer). For my bf it’s a bit easier since I think work is slightly closer to him this way but what’s hard for him is having to go to his band rehearsal space – downtown - 3 times a week. Which means he’ll have to drive from Richmond to Tsawwassen (1/2 hour) to go home, get changed and then drive back out PAST Richmond, to downtown Vancouver again (45 min) and then back. Ugh, I don’t envy THAT commute but I have faith that he can work something out and maybe rehearse 2x a week instead.
So that’s kinda what’s new with me. As much as I hate the idea of taking a step backwards and living with his parents, I know that deep down it is the smart and responsible thing to do. That way we can take our time looking for a place and hopefully secure a closing date of Oct or November so that we know that there is an end in sight. My bestie Kelly says it will be worth it (short-term pain, long-term gain) and the end product will be a home for us that we will have and cherish for years.
Besides, as my mom said to me: “you’ve done tons of crazy things in your life, this is just another one of those things. And hey, you can probably write about it.”
And write about it I shall.
