Ah... the first post of our blog that will hopefully take us from the purchase of a virtually untouched 1950s bungalow to our completed home.  We searched for the right neighbourhood and house/land combination for nearly a year.  We offered on and lost 3 houses before offering and getting the best house that we had seen in all of our searching.  I was trying to tell myself that losing the other houses was all in some higher housing plan, and now I actually believe that this was the house we were meant to have.

All of this is a HUGE lifestyle change.  We have moved to the 'burbs, something I never thought I would do.  But, this quiet, quaint neighborhood is very appealing and in real world time, we live a 5 minute drive to work or a 15-20minute bike ride from downtown...hardly far by any standards.  Also, the 'burbs in this context is old 'burbs with each house on a large lot with mature trees, lots of green space and plenty of space between houses.  There are still individual mailboxes attached to the houses and there are no crazy rules restricting clothes lines or  requiring us to mow the lawn on a diagonal.