Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’…

This is another click where Wellington, Ontario meets Lake Ontario. I’m good with that. I love water. I love blue sky and white clouds. I love rocks and waves. I love the County.

So…

As I’ve mentioned briefly, we’re contemplating a major change in our lives — a wee adventure. Okay. A big ass domestic adventure. We’re exploring both moving to the City with a capital C. The big TO. The 416. The Six. Aaaand, we’re exploring moving to a more rural environment. A village. A hamlet. A county. An island.

In other words, we’re exploring hot-footing it out of Burbville. There are pros and cons, baby. Pros and cons.

To that end, Tuesday, we went into the City to begin exploring Option A. We’d earmarked three buildings to look at in three different neighborhoods. Destination 2 was discounted immediately for area. Clearly the area is being reimagined, but I can’t wait that long. Too bad, because it was a green building with a gold level Leed certification. We didn’t make it to Destination 3. That’s saved for another day.

I got peckish, man!

So. Let’s talk about Destination 1. A new building with a studio through town home (a two story apartment) range. We asked to see a 1 bedroom and a 1 bedroom + den. We aren’t doing all this purging for nothing. The Accommodations Specialist was young and lively. Here’s how it went…

AS: “Okay. I’m going to show you a 1 bedroom on the 28th floor and…”

Me: “Say what?”

AS: “… And then I’ll show you the 1 + den on the 26th floor.”

I could feel sweat forming behind my knees. Never a good sign.

Me: “What’s the lowest floor you have available?”

AS scans my vital signs and facial expression with her Accommodations Specialist super powers.

AS: “I could show you the 1 bedroom + den on the 10th floor.”

Me: “Make it so.”

We got in the elevator with some construction crew and zipped to the 28th floor. And I do mean zip. A silent swish.

The 1 bedroom was 524 sq. ft. And I stood in the kitchen–living room–entrance and imagined my life there. And it took about as long as Snapchat or Insta Story. 524 sq. ft. included a stove, fridge, dishwasher, kitchen island, microwave and an in suite stacked washer/dryer. The bedroom fit a queen bed with two night stands. The bathroom held a full-sized tub. As God is my witness, I don’t know how they did it. Pretty impressive.

And the AS swung open the door to the patio. I put one foot onto the patio. And then a second.

Holy Gorgeous View, Batman!

And then I tried to look down and stumbled back into the kitchen–living room–entrance with my hand over my heart and my head reeling.

AS: “Right. Directly to the 10th floor for you.”

The 1 bedroom + den was 653 sq. ft. The apartment was longer to accommodate a den. The bathroom was slightly bigger with shelves for linens. Everything else was pretty much the same.

Still. I was not going to be happy above the first or second floors, which would be above the lobby, concierge, and community rooms. So unless someone gets kicked to the curb on either of those floors, I’m in for a wait. Because even with an indoor lap pool and exercise room and yoga studio and guest suites available and basement locker rooms (which you would absolutely have to have) and so on and so forth and shooby-dooby-do, the in suite balcony would be dead to me. And that’s practically another room. I might as well just pitch a tent on that suspension bridge of a few posts ago.

Later that evening as I sat in my 1800 sq. ft., I looked at my stuff and realized there wasn’t anything I could take with me, discounting the queen bed. I would have to reimagine my life in IKEA and IKEA hacks.

The City offers public transit, the AGO, the ROM, galleries and restaurants and U of T and everything that a multicultural city has to offer. A life that’s meant to be lived in community space more than in personal space. Conversely, with grocery and pharmacy delivery, I would never have to leave that studio to town home building.

We’ve already begun exploring the village-hamlet-county-island end of the spectrum. That’s a post for another day.

And then I’m like — Ooooh, Ottawa! Ooooh, Moncton! Ooooh, Exclamation Point!

500-600 sq. ft. Could you do it? Would you do it? Are you doing it?

Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.

Here be Friday.

You know what to do. Meet you in the bar in 3…2…1…

Elen

NOTE: THIS IMAGE IS A LICENSED, ROYALTY-FREE IMAGE FROM FOTOLIA.COM. NO POACHING, PLEASE.