Sunday, April 30, 2006

Why I live where I live

I saw this on Krista's blog today and it sounded like fun! It's the weekly Sunday Scribblings Sunday Challenge (plus, I love love love the picture so I had to join in on the fun).


Stephen and I moved into our house in a Montreal suburb the week before we were married. After visiting one too many fixer uppers, we decided to buy a new house. A house that would meet all of our needs and would be built to our specifications. First off, we wanted a house that we both loved where we would want to live for the rest of our lives. Second, it had to be in the boonies as they say, close but not too close to our respective parents. Third, we wanted to live in a community where there would be lots of young families so our (future) kids would have friends to play with and we wanted a quiet street where they could play street hockey. Fourth, it had to be close to the commuter train since we both work in the city. Oh, and I wanted it to be MarthaStewarty (Stephen still doesn't quite know what that means!)


We ended up buying the first house we saw! It was a bit out of our price range, but it by far exceeded our expectations so we took a leap of faith and bought it! We came by every Saturday while it was being built to see what had been added to it since our previous visit. It was so exciting. Sometimes, we couldn't wait until the weekend and would drive up on a Thursday night and peeked through the windows with a flashlight! Our builder was terrific. He built our house with his dad and everything was just right when we moved in. It is our dream house in every way.

Well, maybe except for the doors... The first week we were here Stephen kicked the laundry room door open after we locked ourselves out of it. That one required fixing mouldings, the knob and a paint touch up. Then, after seeing a really cool segment on Canadian House & Home about adding character to your newly built home, I decided to paint all of our upstairs doors black. I hated the result and tried everything to paint them white again but the gods were against it and I couldn't get primer nor paint to stick to them. We decided to change the doors altogether which was a disaster. The hinges didn't line up so we had to chisel out a new location for them on the doors and we did a really poor job hanging them. In fact we still have 4 doors that are unpainted and don't close! Oh, well. At least I can knit, right? Our door troubles were't over yet though.

The front door (which we never really liked anyway) warped from the cold this winter and we had wanted to replace it with one with a window anyway so we picked out a new one before Easter and hired Home Depot to come install it. They came by on Wednesday and got it done in a few hours under Julian's watchful eye.

I really love it. It makes such a wonderful difference, especially on the inside. We no longer have to turn on a light in the entrance in the middle of the day!

All in all, I love our house. I love our town. And I really hope to live here forever!

Why do you live where you live?

16 comments:

  1. I love the idea of living in a house forever. I still hope that someday I will have a forever house too. Yours is beautiful (and I hear what you say about front doors with windows in the them!)

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  2. You have a beautiful home! I wish we were already in the home we wanted to stay in for a long time. Love that new door too!

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  3. What a pretty house you have! And I love the picture of you in your wedding clothes on the front porch. So romantic.

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  4. Anonymous9:06 a.m.

    I loved the pictures of your house and hearing about how it is evolving as you live there. You are so lucky to have found your "forever house"! I'm still looking...

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  5. What a fun idea. We have a window in our front door too but I have really mixed feelings about it. Our house is close to the street and if we have the lights on you can see all the way up our stairwell as well as all the way to the back of the house through there. I wish it was frosted glass (or something to make me feel comfortable walking around in my jammies in my own home).

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  6. The house is beautiful. You deserve it. Sounds like you have what you want, and thats the best part of being happy.

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  7. what a great home - and i adore the blissful couple on the porch photo. precious! and that front door is terrific!!!

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  8. Your house is gorgeous. I know what you mean about living there forever. My partner and I built our own home and we intend to stay here for a very long time too.

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  9. Beautiful house and photos (especially of the happy couple). Sounds like you've really made it your home. Lucky you!

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  10. Really nice to find the home of your dreams so early in life. May you always be happy there & raise a loving family. I love your roof line, very Victorian and the porch too. After 54 years, I found my forever house finally. I think I'll write about it this weekend... you've seen the backyard pictures so you know that I am blessed also. Happy knitting!

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  11. Anny,

    I started leaving a comment and it got so long that I decided to do my own post instead! This is kind of a weepy time for me, but I'll try to be coherent! I absolutely adore your house. It's so...Anny. I'm glad you appreciate the blessing it is to have a home that you love.

    r

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  12. the house is gorgeous!
    :)

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  13. Nice house. Talk about a dream come true.

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  14. Beautiful house ... and beautiful reason for living where you live. :)

    Happy Knitting!

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  15. We live in a fixer upper - some days I would definitely love a new house but I always remind myself that we bought our property (lovely private country acreage) and not the house. Your house is definitely Marthaish and it looks so great. I agree with the forever - we are never moving either!

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  16. I'm a Montreal knitter as well. Do you know about Montreal Knits? We get together twice a month on Monkland and twice a month downtown to knit! The link is on my blog. I've been reading your blog lately, not realizing we live in the same town! How cool! Which "boonie" town do you live in? Must be west island, lol...

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