Heart Over Head

Does it strike you as completely absurd that the most expensive purchase in your life is likely the one where you have the least chance to examine the product? When we bought the place we live in now, I was absolutely in love with it. I pictured us here. We saw three places and made an offer our first day out - it was heart over head all the way. D spent WAY more time agonising over my engagement ring, or his car. I've spent more time picking strollers or jeans. (Egads: just realised how gender-stereotyped my examples are; oh well.)

Luckily we've had two and half wonderful years here. D carried me over the threshold after our honeymoon; we found out we were pregnant in our open kitchen; our little boy was born in its big bath. There's been the mundane stuff too: I've spent lots of days leaning up to the fireplace, glancing out the windows at the view, entertaining friends and family. And of course there have been some sad times too, though thankfully not too many: I had a miscarriage; we found out my aunt has cancer. This place has been so important to us, and yet before we moved in we saw it for only 20 minutes.

Now we are getting ready to do house purchase number two. At least with this condo we had the comfort of knowing it was a new building still under warranty. Now we move into a fixer-upper. It doesn't help that the market here is insane. I think I referred to the fact that I live in neighbourhood where there are million dollar homes. When we were kids, if you heard a house was worth a million dollars, you pictured Tom Cruise's place. But no, I don't live next to 2-acre, gated estates. The homes around here are modest three-bedrooms on lots that are maybe 120 feet deep. The place I grew up in (in another city) was far nicer and more spacious than most of the places around here. Many of them aren't even particularly nice, but the land value alone means a tear-down is over $800,000. Needless to say, we will not be staying in this neighbourhood. But I do want to remain in city limits and that means, for a detached home, a lot of money. And no, D doesn't make gazillions. But in this city you get used to putting a huge amount of your income into real estate.

Anyway we have examined our finances and we've set a price range that we can afford, factoring in the exorbitant cost of daycare, another maternity leave in a couple of years, possibly a new car, RRSP contributions. I am so glad D is sensible like that because I am not. He has an Excel sheet a mile long. And yet, I know a lot our decision will be based on emotion, because that's how I am, and despite his sensibleness, he does let himself get carried away with me. (Don't tell him I said that!)

I saw a place yesterday and I fell in love with its antique fireplace and old-fashioned windows. It's a place we can afford, and it has loads of potential. The neighbourhood, while much shabbier than this one, has lots of young families and is close to a funky shopping area. I called D in a dither this morning after mulling it over for a couple of hours. We've only seen five places (plus a few open houses I've gone to solo), but I was already calling our realtor to say "we're considering this one... seriously." He said we hadn't seen enough. He pointed out the flaws. He think it's overpriced. He said, "I could say 'sure, let's write up an offer' and make my easy commission, but I think we can do better." So we agreed - we'll go see it again this weekend if it's still on the market, but we'll keep looking. I am so lucky to have people in my life to look out for me like that. In the end, real estate is a giant leap of faith. I'm so glad the right person is guiding us through it.