Decisions, decisions...

This past Sunday Zach, Sami and me went house hunting.   It’s not the first time, but it certainly had some interesting dynamics to the afternoon activities….   I had been pinging my real estate agent about some places I’d seen on realtor.ca from earlier in the week but he had been challenged in getting appointments, but me being me had just kept on sending him places I liked and asking for appointment.

He finally was able to secure us four of the multitude that I had enquired about…   Now convincing the kids that they should invest the time with me looking at houses – easier said than done, but really they were pretty good sports about it.

Sami jumped at the chance to find a new house, and was especially excited to find one with a bedroom for her to decorate in her specific tastes (eclectic might be too strong a word but she has a strong sense of what she likes and doesn’t like which is brilliant!)   Zach was fine to go along, but I could sense that he was less than enamored with spending the afternoon with Sami and me traveling to and fro to see a bunch of houses rather than on the couch watching his favorite NFL team (Cincinnati Bengals) play.

Real estate portal that I use for looking in Toronto

So it was with this as a backdrop that we set out to meet our agent last Sunday afternoon.  The first house was across town in an area of the city that “yet to be discovered” (let’s put it that way), it’s an older neighborhood with a 60’s feel to it.    As we navigated our way, we were, for the most part traveling in relatively familiar surroundings (recognizable main roads etc), but once we turned off and drove deeper into this particular area both kids were “this neighborhood is not for us…”.  

So being the concerned dad that I am (;-) asked, “What’s making you feel that way?”   Sometimes too quick for his own good, Zach replied, “Well for a start there is too much public housing!”.   Okay, now that we had the niceties out of the way I explained that to get a real sense of what types of houses are on the market we need to explore a range of choices and options not just the “perfect place”, perhaps there’s a “diamond in the rough” that we might find or that we could renovate that would be perfect for us in the long term.

Asking them to keep an open mind we met our agent at the first house.  I could sense that the kids were a little uncomfortable as the family was still in the house as the agent showed us around…   There was a little exploration and to be fair they were good about pointing out some of the cool features of the house during our tour.

Clearly the house didn’t quite fit the bill, but a good starter to open our minds to the possibilities and ground us in the realities of our price range.

As we drove away following our agent to the second house, I began to ask for their opinion about the positives and negatives to the house, but before I could get through Sami was already starting on the things she didn’t like….    Let’s back up and start again, but this time with the positives, “okay then I’ll talk when its time to talk about the negatives was her response”!    Generally, Sami is not a precocious child by any stretch of the imagination, (more passionate than precocious!) but she struggled to come up with a single good thing to say about the first house.   The voice in my head was saying, “this could be a long afternoon” :-)    Zach was a little more circumspect but his positive was that he liked the layout of the basement with its large open games and TV space.

A healthy discussion ensued as we drove the four kilometers to the next house in a more trendy and up and coming neighborhood.   From the outside a slightly older neighborhood, but with a newly and fully renovated house that we would be the first occupants – now this got their attention.   They both breezed into the house and were exploring in no time flat, commenting on who would have which bedroom, how we could arrange the kitchen to accommodate our ongoing cooking extravaganza’s, what types of furniture would look best in what areas …   To say it was night and day is a huge understatement!

So many features but which to choose with three points of view?

We spent the best part of an hour opening doors, cupboards, up and down stairs plus checking out the garage and backyard – you name it we did it.   I must admit it looked pretty good, but we were only half way done!

As we drove away the chatter was all on the positive side of the equation – wow, what a difference an hour makes to the complexion of the conversation I thought to myself!   Clearly they were like me, in that they could see themselves living this house and creating a new family setting.

The small hitch was that we were only half way done our afternoon and with two more places to view.   The next two were, surprisingly on the same street in the northern part of the city so it was a 40 min drive to get to them from where we were.  In fact, I was starting to wonder why I had suggested this area in the first place, as it was clearly too far north to make sense.   I guess it was the attractive price point for both houses :-) 

They were both designed and built in the 1950’s and each needed a lot of work, (sorry did I say LOT of work?) – to label them a “renovators dream” is a bit of an understatement!  

The rooms were small, dark and well you get the picture….    The kids were really doing a nice job of staying objective and gave some great pros and cons to each place, but it was clear that they really loved the second house.

Amazing access to data based on your search criteria...

I guess the most striking thing about our house hunting expedition is the kid’s ability to get into an objective mindset.   I was surprised - yes, it did take a couple of places but once there they were absolutely terrific with great observations both for the positives and negatives.   I can’t tell you how much it meant to me to have them participate so fully in the process and their levels of engagement.   

So almost a week has pasted since then and every time I see, talk or text the kids they ask me about the second house and if I’ve put in an offer yet…. all I can say is that we’re still negotiating the deal, getting closer but not quite there yet.  

I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop if we buy it :-)