Metro reporter Robyn Young will be taking readers on a whirlwind tour of the trials and tribulations of buying her first home. This is the last column on her jounrey a new home.
The final step to my officially becoming a property owner happened last week.
The seller delivered the status certificate for my new condo building to my lawyer for review.
From what I can gather, this is simply a document that holds all of the legal details of the building such as how much money the management has in reserve funds, the cost of property taxes and maintenance fees etc.
After the delivery my lawyer called to give me the lowdown on my new digs.
“Everything looks good,” he said. “I’d say go ahead and sign off on it.”
Phew! I thought.
Then he added: “You don’t have any pets do you?”
“Yes I have two cats,” I said, my heart skipping a beat.
“Hm,” he said. “Well it says here that you can have one cat and one dog but it doesn’t say anything about two cats; let me give them a call about that.”
In the end, they said two cats are fine as long as they don’t bark and I assured my lawyer there would be no barking from my tuxedo twins, J-dog and O-bone (Johnny and Oliver).
My agent hurried over with the final document to be signed and then faxed it off to the seller by deadline and that was the end of that.
Now there’s no turning back.
This is the first time in my life I’ve had an actual asset to my name and it feels pretty good. I can say I’m really worth something now because I own property.
Having travelled around a bit, lived in many different apartments and a couple of different cities, I’ve always kept my commitment level to any particular region, dwelling or even furniture, on the low side.
I’m 34 and although many of my friends are on house No. 2 and even kid No. 3, I’ve never really felt ready for any level of commitment before now.
I knew it was time to think about settling down when I started dreaming about having my own couch that’s not a hand-me-down; having a couch, to me, would symbolize my final transition into adulthood.
So, while awaiting the Aug. 5 closing day on my condo, I’ve been trekking around town, obsessed with finding the perfect furniture and finishing touches for my new abode.
So far, I’ve settled on and ordered one piece of furniture: A couch.
It’s green and it’s perfect.
The colour is called pear and I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to match the rest of my belongings with it.
But I’m going to try.
