whose the big winner?

I got it! I am going in to sign the lease tomorrow. Moving in the last weekend in November. So pumped! Feel like I won the lottery. Which makes no sense when I am paying a significant amount of rent. I did, of course, comparison shop, and the other 1 bedrooms in the same building are being rented for $200 more.

Watch out Chris! I am now just two blocks away. Can you say three's company? I will walking down Richards to ask Ritchy if I can borrow some flour. Wait...I don't cook.

The amenities look great so it is like I am joining a new gym. Which is awesome because the current gym I belong to is a 40 minute walk from my new place.

In another 'I'm all grows up' move I am going to hire movers rather than risk friendships and backs to get my stuff from Burnaby to Downtown.

My house/apartment warming will have to be closer to Christmas.

5 apartments in 4 hours

I spent over 4 hours today viewing apartments. 5 apartments. Here is the run down on them.

#1
I almost missed this place because I was late leaving Burnaby. That would have been shame because it is my top pick. Only downside is that it has built in cabinets in the bedroom so the closet is outside the bedroom. Other than that it is perfect. Gas stove, movable granite counter top island that acts as a breakfast bar, great hardwood floors, balcony you can fit a bbq on, great layout, 16th floor, seemed relatively quiet and it had a view. When the owner found out where I work we bonded because he knows a colleague. He saw the list of places that I am looking at and asked me to email if I found something else. I think that means I am in the running!!!!!!!!!!!

#2
Brutal. At $1425 it is over priced for 588 sq ft with no balcony on the 5th floor. Old building. Old appliances. Crappy layout. Cheap laminates. The realtor showing me the place found out I was looking at 3 more today and wanted me to email or call and let him know if the place is over priced. It is. By like $300.

#3
The building is the one next to Rachel's' and it faces the alley so I could totally spy on her working out in the morning. It is a nice place on the 3rd floor overlooking the courtyard but over priced at $1600. The owners seemed nervous about renting it out and the place was packed to the gills their crap making it difficult to imagine living there. No gym or pool. They emailed me after saying they would sublet the parking spot for me and bring the rent down to $1500 but it is still over priced. It did have front loading laundry and a balcony that could hold a bbq but I have decided not to apply.

#4
This one left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Why? Because they guy offered a one year lease OR you can get a 2 year lease for $200 more per month and that way they WON'T kick you out so they can rent it out during the Games. The greed made me want to punch the guy. He justified a 5k rent increase over 2 years by saying it made up for what he was losing by renting it out to me over the Games period. I almost, almost went off on him and told him what a mistake he was making. It was a 700 sq ft open single level loft style apartment that is brand new. On the 2nd floor of a building on Hastings. Super loud! No amenities and the parking is some weird off-site thing that would be a hassle to sublet. The place was beautiful but the whole thing was tainted by his greed. I put in an application and I hope I get it so I can say no thank you and give him a piece of my mind.

#5
Almost out of my league. Almost...
This was by far the nicest. Wicked view. Brand new. Great layout. I know I would sleep well here since the den is off the bedroom meaning there are two walls between me and the outside world when I am sleeping. And at just two blocks from Rachel's I already know a neighbor. It is in a brand new building that is half hotel, half condos. Just waiting to hear about whether the locals get to use the amenities because it has a wicked pool. What makes this affordable is that I can sublet the parking spot for $100 or more per month. I think I will get beaten out in the application process as it is available right now even though the ad said December 1st. I don't want it enough to throw away a months rent paying for two places at once.

Fingers crossed for #1 and #5. I texted my roommate to give him advance warning that I am planning on moving out. My excuse for the non-personal touch is that we are rarely home at the same time. That, and the fact that he came home at 1am and was making a ton of noise in the kitchen.

grind your own beans (Make-do Sally would)

So I am getting a bit out of control on the coffee making at home. This is my counter coffee set up. Electric espresso maker (I ruined the stove top one and had bought this for work but brought it home), fresh coffee beans, syrup, milk frother, a thermos to take the espresso to work and now, the coffee bean grinder. It has three settings and you set a dial to let it know how many cups of coffee worth you need.

I am now also looking at buying this cool milk frother for $100. The Italians at work have one and swear by it. The reality is that to buy a good espresso machine would cost me $800. All together these smaller machines will end up costing me $200. A little bit of justification...

Must go to bed so I can wake up and make myself coffee!

friends in the city

The rowers descended on Vancouver this weekend. All my national team rowing friends (minus the two that are still rowing and chose to race at Head of Charles in Boston instead of catch up with the rest of us) came to town for the weekend. 2 arrived from Calgary, another 2 from Toronto and then there are the 3 of us in Vancouver/New West.

All of us hasbeens were hosted by Rachel. Drinks and excellent cooking nourished us while we traded stories about what we are up to now, and reminisced about the years we spent training together 3 x a day 6 days a week. We walked the seawall and the out of towners enjoyed the view of the city and the fall leaves. Saturday night 6 out of 7 made it out the door to a bar. 3 out of 7 stayed out long enough to hit the Roxy after midnight. I think I was asleep at that point.

Brunch this morning at Subeeze and then they headed for the airport. So great to spend a weekend with people that know you really well. It was so relaxing and my abs hurt from laughing for 2 days.

dora needs a new pair of shoes

For some reason I realised last night, after arriving home from the amazing turkey dinner at Chach and Dave's, that I need shoes. Solid shoes to wear to work int he winter. Right now I am tiptoeing around on kitten heels, showing toe cleavage and exposing that maple leaf to the world. And, surprisingly, my feet are cold. So I need shoes that support my feet and will keep them warm. I looked on eBay. No great deals and nothing I wanted. So I looked on zappos.com. I found some sale shoes that I liked and that miraculously came in size 12. They are all reasonably heeled, wearable with dress socks if needs be and best of all they were all 40-50% off. Sweet.

Now I know Rachel will not like them. She will tell me they are not cute or attractive and they look like they just might be for an older person who is wearing compression hose with them. I already have a similar pair to these ones on the right but in brown and I love wearing them. My feet are happy and as I enter my 30s/old age that is the most important thing. I have lots of 4 inch heels kicking around that I just can't wear without limping after an hour. I get nervous when I have to walk between buildings at work...I can feel my feet cringing just thinking about it. But these shoes are going to get me through the winter.

I think with duty and taxes I ended up paying around $260 for 3 pairs of shoes but to me...they're priceless.

this could be my life

It has been a great weekend so far and it is not yet done.

I've walked the seawall, drank red wine (not Rachel's of course. Just a my own tasty bottle of beaujolias drank over 2 days), read books, got obsessed with a new TV show (Fringe: it is like the new X Files but not scary), got possessed with owning a TiVo or PVR so I that I could tape more shows and watch them at my leisure and sans commercials, read realestate blogs with some interesting forecasts for the market and had excellent coffee brewed at home. I'm a 20 minute skytrain ride from home but I feel like I'm on vacation. It is like I've tested out Rachel's life for the weekend...without the husband and great cooking skills. And now it is a stat holiday and I am totally relaxed.

These realestate blogs are really interesting. I told my realtor that I wanted to ideally move into a place next spring and I for sure should be waiting to buy a place until then. The blog I was reading was run by two realtors and they pointed out that in one building downtown an apartment sold last week for 310k when, at the peak 8 months ago, the same one bedrooms were selling for 377-385k. Crazy! The women that rejected my 20k off listing price offer is going to be so mad at herself in a few months for not accepting it.

There seems to be two ideas on what will happen to the realestate market; by next summer it will have fallen by 30% from its peak OR in 3 years it will have fallen 50% from its peak. Crazy. But really great for me. A bit awkward as I rave to my friends who bought in the last two years about what a bargain I am going to get. Really hoping to buying something similar to what they bought at 320k for hopefully 250k or less. Did I also mention that I've lost almost 20% of my down payment to this crazy market? It has formed a bit of a roadblock to me buying right now anyways.

In the mean time I need to hunt for a rental apartment. I was going to try to wait until next April to move as I am saving a ton where I am but I don't think I can put a price on my happiness. Even if the market falls and I find something to buy in the spring, I think it would be worth it to break the lease on something I am renting. And I would be much happier downtown, Fairview or Main street. Those are the 3 neighborhoods I am looking at.

Off to cook my cauliflower with cheese sauce for Turkey day at the Dunnet-Holzer's.

Staycation

Let the weekend begin! All of my work emails sent post 2pm were greeted with nasty replies telling me to start my long weekend. Delayed leaving work as I went with the mumma to the oncologist. A good visit for her but disappointing for me as he dropped into the conversation something about his wife. It was really adding to the appointments to believe he was single and one day the appointment would end with him asking me out.

As mum has/is departing for the GF Dunnets and Richard is leaving to see her beau I have decided to vacation in the city. Literally. I am staying at Rachel's for the weekend while she is away and pretending I live downtown. Seeing how the other half lives. There is no pretense that a house sitter is needed. There are not cats, dogs, fish or plants here that need tending. Just a lot of expensive wine sitting around that should really be tasted.

My weekend plans include; getting my highlights done, walking the seawall, reading books, going to a few open houses and hitting the Chach/Dave turkey meal on Monday. I think I am bringing cauliflower with cheese sauce. Just need a great cheese sauce recipe.

Offered on the dream condo and was declined. Their loss. This market is heading into a shame spiral. My 2nd choice condo just dropped by 15k! Let me know your thoughts. It practically has a real kitchen. Pros: set back from the street so it is quiet, decent view, great kitchen, separate storage, parking, and amenities. Cons: no breakfast bar off the kitchen, no balcony for my bbq, strata fee is a bit pricier, and no separate den.

I am still waiting for a December fire sale. Someone has to be getting desperate.

Now going to have a sleepover with Ritchy and then drive her to the airport for 5:30am!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a Sunday in Vancouver

Beautiful day to live in Vancouver. The sisters, mumma and I walked the CIBC Run for Cure and then headed to Provence for a delicious brunch. I was stuffed after and headed out to walk some of it off. In total gmap tells me I walked over 20kms today. A lot more fun than going to the gym! I saw 5 condos at open houses and fell in love with one that is out of my price range. Big debate over the Station St one as they are planning to put in a hospital across the street. That would make it easy to rent out but maybe not so great to live in. The derelict lots on the rest of the block would be developed. No information on where the ER entrance will be...

Now going to enjoy the rest of Sunday and read a National Geographic magazine on travel in Spain. Then I have big plans to make a prawn green thai curry.