Mucho Modern in Calgary

We did it folks, we bought a new house!! I don't think I have ever spent so much money so quickly in my life. Strike that - I am absolutely 100% certain that I have never spent so much money in my life in such a short amount of time. If I think too much about it, it makes me a little bit ill... so we'll move on.

Here's the scoop: Last weekend, my husband and I flew out to Calgary after work on Friday, and after dropping our kids off at our AMAZINGLY generous friends' house for 2 nights. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to explore Calgary with our agent. At this point our Toronto house was already on sale.

Now if you had asked me about Calgary a few months ago, I would not have been able to tell you anything, other than my opinion that it needed some more trees (lots more trees). After finding out that we were moving there, I spent hours, and hours, and hours online. I think I could identify just about any neighbourhood in the city in under 5 seconds at this point, and also tell you the name of the closest French Immersion school, how many minutes it would take you to ride a bike downtown, and how far the closest Starbucks is. I had that whole every-street-is-a-number and streets-go-one-way-and-avenues-go-another-way-and-don't-forget-about-the-quadrants thing DOWN. I have my mls/Google Maps/CalgarySchoolFinder black belt, and I know how to use it.

Up until last weekend though, I had never physically been in 99% of the places we were looking. Luckily, Calgary is wonderfully small! I mean that in the best way possible - we wanted to be "downtown" and were stressing about one area versus another, but really, they are all pretty close, and it is very easy to get around town.

Our agent and I had determined a short list of houses we wanted to see - I think 12? (... not sure who I am asking...) When we walked in this one, our jaws hit the floor. HIT. THE. FLOOR. We loved it! But... it was a bit further from downtown, and more than we were going to spend... yada yada yada. We said we would think about it. The next day we saw a few new ones that were great contenders, and then went back to look at this one again. I got tingles. That evening, we sat at the pub down the street and enjoyed local craft beer while signing our offer document. It took our agent all of a minute to print them off - he had already filled in all the information for this house the night before. He knew. I guess I am an open book.

We put in a low offer hoping that we could bring the price down a bit (yes, you can do this in Calgary!). When the sellers didn't budge much, we/I got cold feet and decided to drop it. Yup, just like that. It was just too nice for us.

Instead we focussed our attention on the "perfect-on-paper" runner up. The neighbourhood for house #2 was amazing - Chris could walk to work. We would be near friends of ours, and the school was great. The house was overpriced, according to our guy, and we could get it for much less than the first place. It was ugly - DAMN ugly - but heck, there would be lots to blog about! The before and after pictures would be killer. It was the responsible thing to do. However... when they got our offer, I guess the sellers had decided they weren't so keen to sell after all. They didn't budge on price, and they extended the possession date to the middle of the summer. This would not work.

I don't think I had even processed this bit of information before Chris was back on the phone to our agent telling him we wanted the first house! A day or so later, my finger nails were gone, and we were the new owners. Apparently there are Real Estate Fairy Godmothers, and I have one. (Thank you thank you REFG!)

Before I show you all the pics, let me begin by saying that I am pretty sure we are not worthy of this house. I can imagine walking in with our stuff, only to have the house twist itself up and spit me and my Value Village/Ikea As-Is finds back out onto the street. It is so beautiful. I don't know what the heck I am going to blog about, because I don't even think I will paint the damn walls.

It is a semi-detached, or duplex. I never thought I would spend so much to live in half of a house, but this is 80% of what is available in Calgary - brand new enormous duplexes. Our half is on the right.

Please note that this house has been staged for these photos impeccably. It was empty when we looked at it, but now I can't imagine it with any furniture other than this stuff.

The kitchen makes me want to be a better person. Or at least a better cook. Notice how it is similar to ours with the wood on the bottom and white lacquer on top? And there the similarities end...

There is so much storage in this freakin kitchen I think I am going to have to keep some of my clothes there.

So... yeah. I know. It's obscene. It's ridiculous. I don't even.... words fail me. By some amazing twist in the fabric of reality, I will (soon!) be living in this house. Surrounded by all those BIG TREES. (I'll take my words with a side of mayo, thank you...) Twenty minutes from downtown by bike, ten by car. With a yoga studio down the street. Basking like a cat in all that LIGHT. I am beside myself!

Anyone wanna come visit?