Five years of condo living

Yes, it's been five years!! ("That was fast!!"  dh commented. Does it count when one full year plus is spent sitting around and hardly ever leaving the house??)  

If you've been around this blog for a while, you'll know that selling our house & moving to a condo (and not just a condo, but a condo HERE, closer to BIL & family) was dh's idea, and that I was basically dragged here kicking & screaming. While I'm still not much fonder of the community itself where we are, I must admit that I love the condo itself and it's been great being closer to family -- especially with a little great-nephew living nearby to spoil (at least until they move into their new home), and especially this past year. Even though we haven't been able to see them too often because of the pandemic & social distancing, we know they're here if we need them, and vice-versa.  And for us, getting out of the aging house that we once thought would be filled with children, in the great family neighbourhood with the good schools, and living somewhere that better suits the life we have now (as well as the life we're heading into, as we age -- one without a big back yard full of grass to mow and gardens to maintain, as well as stairs to navigate, etc.) was ultimately a good move. Plus, if/when the day FINALLY comes when we're free to travel again, it will be a lot easier to leave our condo unit for weeks at a time than it would have been to leave our house (especially with BIL & the nephews nearby to check on things every couple of days). 

I started writing out some of the ups & downs of condo living we've discovered over the past five years, and then realized I've covered them all (more than once) in my past posts on the subject, especially my condo anniversary posts (see links below).  I will say that you definitely need to have at least some level of tolerance for living in close quarters with other people, including noise. (Living in a dorm and with roommates during my five years of university, not to mention 28 years of working in a cubicle office setting, has no doubt helped me in that regard...!)  I'm not saying you have to grin & bear constant partying and loud music -- that's what condo boards and property managers are for -- but there WILL be occasional parties -- and doors slamming and babies crying down the hall and dogs barking as they're travelling to & from the elevator for their walks outside, and occasional weird thump-thump-thumps overhead from the unit upstairs. If those kinds of things drive you up the wall, condo life may not be for you. But to date, the advantages have outweighed the occasional annoyances. :)  

All "condo living" posts 

Condo living, three years later  (Apparently I didn't write one last year to mark four years...!) 

Condo living, two years later 

Condo living, one year later