Condo conundrum

Dh is on a condo kick again.

On & off over the years, since we've realized we aren't going to have the standard 2.2 children (let alone one) to go with the house & white picket fence in suburbia -- and usually after a particularly arduous session of snow shovelling or lawn mowing -- dh has brought up the subject of condo living.

Not downtown in the city, mind you, where condos continue to sprout like mushrooms, cheek to jowl alongside of bars & restaurants, or right along the 16 lanes of the main highway. We had a staff event on the patio at Wayne Gretzky's bar & restaurant awhile back, & I could practically have reached out & touched the patio of the condo in the tower next door. Imagine having that noise right outside your door on a hot summer night (& since Thursday nights are the main party night downtown, a weeknight to boot).

There ARE condos out in the suburbs where we live -- not a lot, but some, and getting to be more & more. Some of the locations are less than desirable -- but we've found a few. Dh is particularly taken by a newish development located in a very nice community that's about a 20-minute drive from where we currently live, heading further away from the city. It's close to transit, shopping and, best of all, it's right on the waterfront. Many of the units have a lakefront view. He found some listings in the MLS & showed me.

I had to admit they looked very nice, AND the prices were, for the most part, reasonable for a fair-sized unit. I would never want to live in a 500-square foot box, but judging from the current listings, we could buy a 1,000 square foot, two-bedroom condo for not much more money than we could probably sell our house for, and pay monthly fees that aren't too terribly much more than we currently pay in utilities. Not to mention that we would no longer be dealing with the problem of yard upkeep, shovelling snow, plumbing repairs, asking a neighbour to pick up our mail for us when we go away, etc.

I love our little house -- but it is 27 years old & showing its age in several respects. (So, for that matter, are we.) We bought it 21 years ago, with the idea that we would move up to something bigger when our family expanded. Instead, we've remained a family of two, and we're still here.

We've done some major repairs & renovations over the past 10 years or so -- new furnace, new roof, replaced most of the windows, repaved the driveway. We know the list is only going to get longer the longer we stay. Dh, bless him, is not particularly handy, which means we either have to ask for help from BIL, or go through the hassle of hiring outside people. This, as we all know, can be time consuming, stressful and expensive.

We have a big backyard -- bought with kids in mind -- that never gets used. Dh & I have never really been outdoors people. Both of our mothers used to have to yell at us to turn off the TV, get our nose out of our book & go outside to play. (One of dh's cousins tells me her lingering image of dh from growing up was sitting in the corner at a family wedding, bored & reading a book.) But even if gardening is something I find hard to make time for, the grass still needs mowing and the weeds constantly need pulling.

But for all its stresses, there is something about home ownership that appeals. Let's face it: it's the American (& Canadian) dream, and by "home ownership," we generally don't tend to think of a condo: we think of a house with a nice yard in a nice neighbourhood with (hopefully) nice neighbours. And, more often than not, a family. Maybe when you're young & just starting out (we had a tiny one-bedroom apartment for the first five years of our marriage), or when you're older. (I like to think we're not THAT old, yet.)

For all its faults, I love my little house. I like the neighbourhood where we live. I like having a basement that can accommodate our overflow stuff (I don't think a condo storage locker will quite match it). I even like having a big backyard. For all that it sometimes reminds me of the little people who aren't playing out there, as planned, I like having some extra space around me. (Of course, I'm not the one who mows the lawn...!)

Condo or not? This is not a decision we are likely to make overnight, or anytime soon. Remember, we're the couple who took five years before we decided we were ready to buy a house, and another 4-5 after that before we decided we were finally ready to have kids.

Have you thought about downsizing your living space (particularly if you've decided to remain childless/free)?