Three years ago, Christy was working as a bartender and renting near 17 Avenue S.W. In September 2007, now a non-profit worker in the human services realm, she found herself suddenly living alone in her two-bedroom condo, newly certified as a yoga instructor and free to use her extra bedroom as a yoga practise space.

Prior to her career and home ownership, Christy was living alone in a trendy area, and knew she needed to find a cheaper option for when she started working in her chosen field of human services. When her father asked her if she was in a position to buy, she considered it ... and realized that she was.

After that, a whirlwind of shopping, preparation and papers landed Christy in a West Hillhurst condo in just two weeks. “Having a deadline to get everything done really helped,” she says. “I found I was getting put off, so having a date was really good.”

“If I did it again, that’s what I would do differently—know what I needed to do and create a timeline for myself, because there were so many times that I thought I was ahead of the ball and found out that that was not true.”

She had seen too many small, rundown (albeit central) condos and was fast approaching the deadline for finding a new home. Then a suitable condo in West Hillhurst dropped significantly in price, bringing it into her price range. Christy and her realtor went to view the condo the next day, and that was that. She was moved in two weeks later.

Though things fell into place during the buying process, it was stressful at times. As a first-time homebuyer who happened to need a place to live before the month was up, Christy had much to learn in a very short time. She had to rely on her support team of mortgage broker, realtor, condo document specialist and lawyer to answer her many questions. Complicating matters was the fact that some people did not take her seriously.

“It was really frustrating. There was a presumption that I was playing around with daddy’s money. The down payment was coming from me, but people would say, ‘OK, so, you’ll probably need to talk to your parents to see how much they’re willing to put down.’ 

“In my field I am used to advocating and standing up for people so those skills came in really handy.”

The worst offender was her mortgage broker, who spoke down to her constantly. Christy eventually fired her mortgage broker and hired a new one who would show her some respect. She did, however, find her condo document specialist to be respectful and invaluable. She had no clue what to look for in the stack of documents her potential condo board presented her with, but the specialist walked her through everything from reserve funds and consistency of condo board meetings to post-tension construction.

“The binder that they gave me—there was no way I could have known what to look for,” she says. “It was nice because she (at Condo Check) took them time to go through everything with me and never spoke down to me.”

The building, located at the corner of Kensington Road and Crowchild Trail, was built in 1969 and is a six-storey building with an elevator (though Christy points out the lift is showing its age). Because the building is post-tension, she had to be sure the proper maintenance had been taking place and was planned for the future, but she has also found some advantages to this all-concrete type of construction, which employs cables.

“I love it, because it’s so quiet. I can walk down the hall and not hear people’s loud music or the screaming baby,” she relates. “I didn’t know there was a newborn next to me until I was riding the elevator with my neighbour and she said, ‘I’m sorry about my baby crying all the time,’ ” and I said, ‘You have a baby?!’

She also discovered early on, though, that concrete walls, floors and ceilings require a cement drill for regular decorating endeavours like hanging pictures and lights.

Though the process was stressful and she wishes she had known what to expect going in, given the circumstances, Christy says there is nothing she would have done differently.

“I think I was just so naive that I just thought this would work out, and then when it got to the point where I should be scared, I just said, ‘OK, we have to make this happen.’ ”

At the time, Christy was practising Ashtanga yoga, but had no plans to train as a yoga instructor. She completed her instructor training in September 2007, at the same time as she was losing another roommate. Everything fell into place—with the extra income she would be gaining from teaching yoga, she could now afford to live on her own again, and use her extra bedroom as a personal yoga practise space.

“Becoming a teacher is really hard on your practice sometimes, because you’re teaching it all the regular times you used to practise or go to classes, so this just kind of brings it into the home,” says Christy.

The previous owner had put in new slate flooring and carpet and tiled countertops, and Christy has made improvements to the condo as she could afford to do so, painting and changing the lighting throughout, and of course, designing her yoga space. In the yoga room, she will use a varnished chipboard sub-floor to prevent slippage during poses. She added some wooden carvings of Buddha from Manana Imports and Gifts and will hang a cedar candle chandelier from Willow Studio in Kensington over her meditation space—once she gets a new cement drill.

“For right now it’s just for my personal use, but it’s nice to have (the possibility of doing) private lessons there in the future.”