Located at the corner of 6th Street and Shawville Gate, Sun Village consists of four three-storey buildings, although the development appears much larger because it is surrounded by 10 or 12 similarly styled rental apartment buildings. The Somerset LRT station is right across the street and it’s easy walking distance (less than five minutes) to stores like Wal-Mart, Zellers, Canadian Tire, Co-op, Home Depot and several restaurants.

Although she admits the area has grown rapidly and can seem a little busy, it doesn’t affect her, she says, because she’s really only home in the evenings and once she’s inside her suite she’s immune to whatever’s going on outside.

At 800-square-feet, Michelle’s condo offers plenty of living space for this single career gal who works for a local oilfield service company. Other units in the apartment-style development include one-bedroom and two-bedroom layouts. “And I think there’s 12 units per floor,” she says. Michelle’s suite also has a small west-facing balcony where she’s got room for a potted plant or two, a couple of chairs and her barbecue.

The suite also came with a closeted stacked washer/dryer, fridge, stove, dishwasher, and trash compactor. “As one person I really don’t have enough garbage to need a compactor,” says the avid baker, who has fresh cookies and muffins cooling on the kitchen counter. “I’d rather have more cupboards.”

Although the living room still has it’s original Berber carpet, Michelle has added ceramic tile in both the kitchen and bathroom. She’s also re-painted most of her condo and replaced nearly all of the lighting fixtures. As for possible future projects, “I could stand a bigger bathroom,” she says, “and a walk-in closet in the bedroom.”

Michelle’s interior decorating definitely has a common theme to it. It’s all from Bombay. The company, not the city. The china cabinet, TV stand, phone stand and coffee table are all from her favourite furniture store.

She uses her den for extra storage, including hobby items, and also has a small storage shed at the back of her underground parking stall.

Over the years Michelle has experienced the ups and downs of being a condo owner. She likes the security of the lock it and leave it lifestyle of an apartment style building, — “I feel more secure than when I lived in my house” — and the fact there’s “no maintenance, no shoveling, no mowing.” She also loves the secure heated underground parking.

Michelle has seen her condo fees jump from $130 a month to $300, over the years, thanks in large part to a retaining wall which collapsed several years ago, damaging a handful of units in Building Three.

She’s also experienced something every apartment dweller has at one time or another, noisy neighbours. “It’s not sound proof enough,” she says, “not side to side, but above and below.” Michelle doesn’t have a problem with her neighbours at the moment, she says, but she used to have one neighbour with a dog that would bark non-stop every time they left.

All in all, it’s turned out to be the perfect home base for Michelle’s active lifestyle centred around work, shopping, golf and, this year, traveling to both B.C. and Saskatchewan over the summer.

And the cookies and muffins? They were delicious!