Article
October 27, 2005
Happy homeowner
Wouldn’t mind sticking around for a while
For 26-year-old Amanda, it was fate that led her to purchase her first home, an apartment condo in the southwest community of Bankview. “I was looking on the MLS site just for fun,” she recalls. “I saw this place, so I called my girlfriend to go look at it with me. She told me that she had just seen a place on the MLS site that was perfect for me. It turned out to be the same place! Later I told another friend, and she said the same thing. I knew then, that was it!”
From that point on, the wheels went into motion, and Amanda moved into her place in May of this year. Despite the fact that she wasn't really even seriously looking for a place to buy, she knew that this was her ideal first home. It had been the previous owner's first home too, and she had really loved it, so that made Amanda feel even better about the deal. She felt so sure about the place that she didn't really look at anything else. “I looked at two others, but really just for comparison,” she says.
She already had a good sense of what was on the market as she often checked the condo listings just to see what was for sale. “Everything else I liked was just too expensive,” she explains. “I wasn't prepared to spend a huge amount of money. It's my first place; I didn't want it to be too expensive.”
The condo is a great starter home for Amanda. It's one of nine units in a 1970s building with one bedroom and one bathroom - all the space she needs. And she prefers that it's a smaller condo building that's more intimate with less traffic flow. Her 495 square foot unit seems bigger than it is with the generous living room space that opens into the kitchen.
“I really wanted something with a big living a area and open kitchen,” she says.
“I like to cook a lot, and I like to have lots of space. And there's a dishwasher. I've never had one, so that was a plus! It's also good for entertaining. I have friends over a lot so it's nice to have one open space.”
Location was also an important factor for Amanda, who works as a legal assistant downtown. “I can walk to work; it's great.
I like being central and close to downtown.” She's also used to living near downtown as she's always rented in the vicinity, so she didn't want to give that up when she bought a place.
Amanda didn't even consider a house as her first home purchase because she knew that it wasn't going to be what she needed. “I don't want to keep up after all the maintenance of a house. A whole house would be too big for just me. And it'd be too expensive. I just couldn't afford it right now.”
Having moved from small town Saskatchewan to Calgary in 1996, Amanda easily made the switch from farm life to condo living. “I lived on a farm in Saskatchewan, so I know about maintenance. Condos are just much more manageable for me at the moment.”
Not to mention that she is much happier about owning than renting. “It's worth it. It is scary at first, but it's way better than renting, that's for sure. It's more money, but not that much more, plus it's yours now. And the people [that own] are just different. When you live in a rental building, people just don't care. You have to put up with more. Here, everyone takes more care because they own it.”
Now that Amanda is fairly settled into her place, she is starting to think like a true homeowner, and considering some small renos. “I will want to paint eventually, and change the tiles and countertops. But I really like the place as it is. Although now when I go to Ikea or Home Depot, the wheels just start turning in my head. Before, I never really paid attention because it wasn't my place. Now it is.”
Not even a disaster on moving day could turn Amanda off the place. It turns out her couch was just too big for the condo, and the movers told her they couldn't get it in. So, they left it in her parking spot since there was nowhere else to put it. She was so distraught that her girlfriend Jen decided that they would move the couch into her condo. So, the two slender gals wasted no time moving the couch up three tight flights of stairs back up to Amanda's condo. They got it to the front door, and it seemed the movers were right. It wouldn't fit through the door. But after much manoeuvring, they somehow got it in. “I have no idea how we got it in here,” she says with a laugh. “We just kept trying and suddenly it was moving. It was like, go, go, go! Then it was in!”
Since then, Amanda has managed to make the couch look new again with a clever curtain-cum-slipcover in a beautiful dark chocolate brown. Her dark furniture against the light walls and floors make for a nice contrast, and her décor is minimalist. “I don't like to have lots of stuff to clean,” she confesses. The laminate flooring is also a big draw for Amanda, not only because it looks nice, but because it means no vacuuming. “I hate vacuuming! This way, I can just Swiffer everything.”
All in all, Amanda is what you'd call one happy homeowner, particularly since she was in no hurry to buy a place at all. But now that she has, she's quite pleased about it. “I really like it. I definitely wouldn't mind staying here a while.”