condo get

[jazzfish]

Well. We took possession of the new place on Sunday, and saw it for the first time since the inspection in mid-October. And also saw it empty of other people's stuff for the first time.

It is mostly a little better than I remembered. I'm mildly annoyed by the medium-shade wood floor but only mildly; ditto the light blue walls in the living room. The kitchen's a tad roomier than I'd thought.

Some things are a little worse. The closets have been filled with awkward wire shelving instead of a normal hanging dowel rod. There are stupid mirrored wardrobes anchored to the wall in the master bedroom; two of those have been relocated. There's some ongoing discussion about whether to relocate the other two as well. The much-touted patio is a little smaller than anticipated. There seem to be small elephants children upstairs, and a wood-frame building means we'll get to hear them. Hoping that doesn't also mean we get to hear people going to bed above us. Maybe they'll have decent carpeting in the bedroom.

There's a stone head lying next to the gate to the patio. Between that and the plaster head that we're planning to hang in the hall, this house may be the Maison Defarge.

It's mildly interesting to compare where we ended up with the list of requirements that I sent to Rhonda back in August:

Location requirements:

• Near (<10min walk) to groceries
  
• Near (<10min walk) to Skytrain or a very reliable bus
  
• In (<5min walk) an Interesting Neighborhood

Entirely successful. Grandview was our first choice of neighborhood. It's a little more than ten minutes' walk to the main Skytrain stop; I'll forgive it that, since the walk's pretty flat and has the choice of "interesting" or "quiet and tree-lined."

Housing requirements:

• Under $650,000
  
• Allows two cats.
  
• Two bedrooms, both of which can comfortably fit a queen-sized bed and one of which can fit two dressers (or one with lots of closet space)
  
• A balcony (small is okay), or at least a sunroom
  
• Wall-space for bookcases

All successful. The queen bed is a little tight in the second bedroom and there's not quite as much bookcase-space as we might have wanted. Instead of a balcony we got a patio, which I think is an improvement.

Housing effectively-requirements:

• Dishwasher and in-suite laundry. Not a requirement if everything else is perfect and there's room for a portable dishwasher/washer/dryer.
  
• 850 sqft. Not a requirement, but given the bedroom and bookcase requirements, it may as well be.

Ha. Missed both of these. The place is pretty intelligently laid-out, which makes the 836 sqft acceptable (just). The lack of insuite laundry counts as one of the few things that may drive us nuts.

Housing nice-to-haves:

• Under $625,000
  
• Low-rise (six floors or smaller)
  
• Windows that can make a crossbreeze
  
• Den/office/third bedroom
  
• Storage room, either in the unit or elsewhere in the building
  
• Gas stove
  
• Gas fireplace
  
• Windows that slide open rather than hinging open
  
• Built-in window screens
  
• Overhead lighting / ceiling fans
  
• Built-in microwave
  
• Large bathtub
  
• Allows barbecues
  
• Not south-facing

About half:

• There's no crossbreeze, which may be deathly in the summer; no way to tell until July.
  
• The storage room is referred to on the floorplan as a "den" but is basically unusable for the purpose.
  
• There's no gas, which makes me sad.
  
• There's overhead lighting ... but the fixtures are set towards the backs of the rooms to maximise light during the day, which means that ceiling fans aren't an option unless we move the fixtures (ugh).
  
• There's no built-in microwave or large bathtub. Redoing the kitchen cabinets is very high on the priority list, and we can get a microwave then; redoing the bathroom is a much larger project and will be undertaken next fall if we decide we're serious about staying here.
  
• It's south facing ... but there are a lot of trees, which will hopefully mitigate the oppressive summer heat, and this place isn't a glass greenhouse like the last two.

Curiously absent from that list, in retrospect, is "A second bathroom," which is also lacking.

We move in next Monday. Ask me again in a month but I think we'll be reasonably happy there.

Comments

[beable]

Sounds awesome (but holy hell, Vancouver prices!).

i dont know what your current laundry situation is like (e.g. same building? or nearby laundromat) but if you have the space/wiring for a dishwasher or dont mind setting up as a portable, then there are expensive but decent options that dont require the dryer venting (which I assume you dont have).

I have one of the LG washer/dryer ventless combos in my apartment (LG WM3987, but im sure models have changed since I bought) and it works great. it's a learning curve if you are used to daisy chaining loads and the difference between vented air and ventless feels a little different for the drying, but the machine can fit in the same space a dishwasher takes up or can be setup as portable.

[jazzfish]

I was partly inured to Van prices from having lived in/near DC for years... but yes. It is ridiculous and cannot possibly be sustainable, except that it's sustained for this long, so.

Laundry's in the building, but it's down a significant hallway and then a flight of stairs (or short elevator). Laundry not in building would have been an absolute dealbreaker.

Unfortunately the strata bylaws specifically say "absolutely no washing machines," and that includes portables. Rhonda the realtor speculates that they just redid all the pipes in the building and don't want anyone putting any more of a load on them. :( Oh well. We shall see. (There /is/ a dishwasher, so there's that.)