A spring morning in Halifax

It started to snow here last night, and we woke up to find everything covered in another blanket of white. No winter isn't done here yet. So we spent the morning shovelling the drive and walkway. I cleared the snow, while Nate shovelled it right back to where I had just cleared it from. Nice to have a helping hand eh? After the work, some play. I had to convince him to make this snowman. He kept knocking it down as we were building it, but it eventually got done. And now, he's fast asleep. Nothing like a bit of snow to tire out a kid!

The scarey house

View from backyard Kitchen Bedroom

office Master bedroom Bedroom

Rec room in the basement Living room Living room

When I first saw this house on MLS, I told Patty that this house scared me. It was big and ominous looking and just didn't look like the house I wanted to live in. We went to see it without much hope of actually finding anything worth our while.

It's a little oddly laid out. The front door opens up directly into a living room. Up three steps to the right and down a hallway is the other living room with working fireplace. Adjacent is the dining room and kitchen. There is a large master bedroom with en suite and deck, and three more good sized bedrooms with another bath upstairs. Finally there is a finished rec room in the basement.

The house is situated in a nice family oriented neighbourhood, with lots of walkways and parks. The school Nate would go to is a short walk away. It's very close to groceries and the mall, as well and the bus exchange.

It's practically a no-brainer. It's not quite the neighbourhood we were thinking of, but in many respects it is so much better than what we had in mind. We'd still need to do some work on it, and who knows if it would even pass inspection, but it's looking promising.

We've ruled out the house on Connaught, it's just a little out of the way for us. So for now the two contenders are the house on Almon and the scarey house on Edward Arab Avenue.

One year ago

Jesse at work, originally uploaded by J J Justinsen.

Earth hour 2008. Working the closing shift at JJ Bean on Main Street in Vancouver. We killed all the store lights for an hour and worked by candlelight. I was surprised at the number of customers who asked why we were doing it. That several people complained was no surprise. I know it was mostly symbolic, but it didn't look like anyone else in our neighbourhood participated.

I worked that shift with Jesse and Katie. Katie has moved to Toronto and I'm now in Halifax. Jesse is still working at JJ. I wonder if he is closing by candlelight tonight.

A house in the North end

This is a house on Albert Street, in the North end of the Halifax peninsula. You can see our friends Kevin and Karen's place from this house. They have 2 boys and a girl, which would be nice for Nate.

From the outside, a pretty uninteresting house. A rectangular block of brick and siding. Some nice touches inside though. I like the little teardrop windows in the door, and it's got a wood-burning insert in the fireplace. Good size kitchen and a dining room that looks out onto the backyard. There are four bedrooms upstairs, with attic access through one of the closets. There's also a one bedroom apartment in the basement, although we didn't get to see it.

For some reason it all felt a little cramped to me, I'm not sure why. Maybe it was just the incredibly small bathroom. Whatever it was, I'm not sure it's the house for us. It isn't close to any groceries and maybe I just had my heart set on an old Halifax house. Still I haven't ruled it out altogether. I'm trying to keep an open mind and keep our options open.

So this is how it's gonna be

Nate (calling loudly):

Nana! Nana! Where are you Nan?

Me (to Nate):

What do you need Nate?

Nate (loudly to me):

I NEED NANA!

Stalking houses

I'm afraid the bulk of the postings for the next little while will be more of the same. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but if you're even a little nosey like me, you'll probably get some mileage from them. I mean I've even asked to go see houses I know will not work for us, just because every once in awhile, one of them will look like this. Sadly that property was already under offer and we didn't get to see it.


The picture below are of a victorian house on Willow Street. It didn't look all that interesting from outside, but it all changed very quickly once we stepped inside





These photos don't do it justice, then again neither did the photos on MLS. It was a beautiful house. Large kitchen, one and a half baths, 3 bedrooms, good location, large yard and deck. Unfortunately, it was short a den or office space. I think our realtor saw us trying to make it work for us, and put a stop to it. She was right. Maybe we'd talk ourselves into it now, but we would be miserable a year later.


So when do you know you've found the right house? How do you know something even better isn't going to come on the market the very next week? Do you keep waiting for that absolutely perfect place to come along, or do you settle for the one that sorta fits the bill cause it's the closest thing out there and you don't want to lose it? So many questions. No answers. Maybe it wouldn't matter so much if I wasn't planning on dying in this house.

More from the hunt

The house on Connaught Street. We've always referred to this property as the purple house, because that's what it looks like on MLS. It didn't look anything like purple when we pulled up to it, and we're realizing that most colours on MLS bear no resemblance to the real thing. White balance people! Check your white balance!

Three bedrooms(carpeted) and a den upstairs. There's a living room, dining room, half bath, office and kitchen downstairs. We quite like this house. It was listed as a three bedroom, so we were pleasantly surprised by the office and den spaces. Access to two bedrooms are through the den, but it would make a nice sitting room/library/play space. The only real drawback is it faces onto 4 lanes of traffic, and the back yard is not exactly spacious. Nevertheless, at 334,900 it's pretty appealing.