During our neighbourhood walks V and I talk about our living situation sometimes. Our current home – are we happy with it? Do we dream about what/where our future home would be? When is the time to upgrade, if we ever decided to? Walking amongst flashy “For sale” signs (counted five just on our corner the other day) has that effect on us sometimes, not that we are not happy with where we are now but we both have an open mind about it.Truthfully, I haven’t decided on how I feel about this culture of changing houses frequently. I come from a country where most people never move from their apartments once they buy them. Both my grandmas have been living in theirs for as long as I can remember and friends, who have been lucky to get approved for mortgage, are looking at a one-bedroom apartment and consider a two-bedroom a luxury.
In this Western world, things are different completely. Apartment buildings aren’t meant for families and most of the times people get settled in semi-detached homes, terrace houses, town houses or single homes - depending on their needs, situation and budget.
As for us, the couple that is somewhere between the two worlds, we have decided that we are perfectly settled for now. Even with baby to join us soon, we have no intention on moving or upsizing. When we bought our semi two years ago, we knew that it would be our home for the next few years ahead and that gave us a green light to start prettifying it. At first, we were making the upgrades with a “for sale soon” idea in mind. It wasn’t right, it felt like we were not really living there and we dropped that notion. We started making decisions with “us” in mind: what we like, what we want, despite of the resale value that's been holding us up before. Now I can’t help but fall in love with our home more and more. Yes, there are things that could have been better (less noisy neighbour, a garage maybe?) but can you ever find something 100% perfect?
I can’t help but feel happy for what we’ve already done to this house and what’s ahead. And more importantly, I feel grateful that we have a place that we can call our home.
wonderfully said!
ReplyDeletehaving done the moving thing way too much I can tell you all the hype about "more space" is just that - hype! We get pity looks when we talk about the townhouse as our forever home. Yet, when we describe it to friends back home they consider it beyond spacious and luxurious.
As much as we love the condo, and we really do love it, we can't wait to move this summer and call the townhouse our permanent, dream, forever home.
I think what you have done last year – downsized in spite of your family getting bigger – was a brave and smart decision. And I’m sure after seeing how you will manage your new place and what it will become (after some awesome upgrades), will show those who disapproved your decision that it’s not about acquiring more space and upgrading to a bigger home, but rather about how you use the space you have and make it work for you and not others.
Deletegreat post! You made your place comfortable & lovely and it's already filling up with memories and special moments (soon enought those will go into overdrive, he he) - it is a true home. In these times, when so much of our lives is out there in public view (Facebook, Instagram, etc) it almost takes courage to live your life the way YOU want to, not the way that would just make it appear cool, fab, trendy etc.. So, chapeau! (snimau shlyapu :) ~M
ReplyDeleteYou’re sweet:). Thankfully, there are people out there who do promote a simpler life and less consumer ways of making their houses unique without being too trendy and too perfect. I do like to think that I can learn from them and do the same.
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