We are running out of space. With no basement, and a growing collection of baby stuff, our condo walls are quickly shrinking in around us. To find something even slightly bigger in the downtown area is out-of-this-world expensive. It's depressing! But what is even more depressing to me is the thought of moving to "the burbs."
It would be less expensive to buy in suburbia (in a cookie cutter-like home in a "treeless", "characterless" housing development), but we would be paying the price in other ways. Right now I can walk to work in ten minutes. I can go home at lunch. The grocery store, liquor store, mall, parkland, restaurants, and a whole host of other amenities are ALL within a short walk of our door. And most importantly, when my maternity leave ends, I'll be able to pick my baby up earlier from day care (provided I can find child care in our neighborhood. A topic for a future blog...). Every minute I save with my commute means more time spent with my son. You can't put a price tag on that.
Is having more space and a more affordable mortgage worth spending an hour or more each day driving a car or riding the bus? I honestly don't think so.
I was inspired by a conversation I overheard at the park the other day. A woman, very pregnant with her third child, was asked if she was planning to move into a bigger house. "No," she replied definitively. "We're going to make due." She went on to explain that her family loved the central location of their current home, and that the older kids could share a room. A bigger home simply wasn't in the family's budget. It made me think that maybe we could make due too, at least for a little while. If we just get a little creative with the space we have, it may just work.
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