Houses, Homes and all that Jazz

So Ryan and I are in that stage of life where we are saving for a home. The earliest possible time we could move into a home...... next year. A little depressing but it's also nice to have something to focus on. We'd been talking about what area we would like to move to - take into account that this is the area that we will start raising a family in.... a lot of thought has to go into it! So the big decision had been made, we love Ottawa and this is home so this is where we will stay (a simple decision I hear you cry, well remember Canada is HUGE!). We have lived in the west end and did not like it. Everything is too spread out and disorganized and travelling from downtown Ottawa on a week day the traffic is HORRENDOUS. The only thing going for it is the hockey stadium. We now live a little south of the city but the location is great. Everything is no more than 10 minutes away (the hockey stadium excepted but it's not that far and it's a nice treat to go on a little road trip every now and again.... it's not like we have season tickets, we can't do everything! Anyway, that's why we got cable!) and it's a nice area. However it is VERY expensive and if we're planning just on Ryan's wage beauty comes at a price.... too much of a price. However the south of the city was my first choice. So do we have any options left??? Oh yes...........

Ryan grew up in the east end of the city. He played football (soccer), went to school, learned to ride his bike, how to swim and how to drive a car. He has many fond memories and loves the area. I on the other hand do not know that end of the city at all and so being someone who is not fond of change (big change.... little change I can handle.... actually I can't really describe why I like some change and not others) I was not at all interested, until today.

Today has been absolutely gorgeous. After a thunderstorm last night (puny thunderstorm I hasten to add) the air was cleared of it's mugginess and the sun was shining beautifully. Ryan suggested we go for a drive to the east end of the city and see what was there and so he could show me where he grew up. I love car rides so I was all in. We drove and oh my goodness! It was great! There were some fantastic stores and it really wasn't as confusing to find my way around as I thought it would be. We drove around some of the houses and there are some really beautiful areas. Ryan's old neighbourhood was beautiful, very green and his primary (elementary) school and secondary (high) school were both right there and French immersion. A must for our kids as I feel it will help them immensely in their lives in Ottawa as we are after all a bilingual city. We drove around his street where we saw some friends in their garden (kind of) and stopped in to chat with them. Their kids are our age and off at university so they were able to give us some really helpful tips about home buying and the area. After stopping in with them we drove around a little longer and timed ourselves on the motorway (highway) to get into the city which only takes 5-10minutes! The area has a lot of parks and bike paths and the river is there which is all stunning. Homes in that part of the city too are a lot cheaper as most people are moving to the west end. So the long and short of it is Ryan won me over. We will 99.9% buy our first home in the east of the city. We are very excited.

Ryan borrowed a book from the library by David Bach (one of our favourite authors we have another of his books) about becoming a millionaire through home ownership. He's read the whole thing already (you know it's a good book when Ryan reads the whole thing in a week) and now we are making a goal to every night Ryan will read a chapter while I write any notes or key points we feel are relevant to us.... it's a lot of fun.