Apartment therapy
So after finishing Queer Eye I have determined that I’m in a rut and the only cure is to start working on all the projects I have put off with my apartment.
The source of the rut is this: we have been semi casually looking for houses for the past year and it’s been really tough. The Toronto market is insane, even though this year its supposedly gone back to “normal” levels, it’s still out of reach for us to get a place that we want in a neighbourhood that we want. We don’t want a semi so that has been limiting. I constantly wonder who is capable of affording these houses. Jason and I are VERY lucky people. We have no debt. We have a huge down payment saved (25%) just sitting there in cash. We both make well over 6 figures. And we still can’t get a nice house! We STILL get outbid by like 400 grand on houses that imo are merely “pretty good” they are NOT mansions by any stretch. Basically to get a Normal detached house in a half decent neighbourhood near transit is literally 1.4 million dollars and even then you will be making concessions. What kind of people are dropping 2 million on a house? It is not a rare occurrence here- it’s happened to us 3 times. How do people have a 20% downpayment plus a combined salary of like 600 grand?! It is seriously a mystery to me how they can qualify for this mortgage unless they have a 50% downpayment somehow. WHO IS EARNING THESE SALARIES? Toronto’s wages have not kept on pace with the price of housing. Incomes here are not like New York or SF.
Anyways, so after 1.5 years of that, I’m kind of like fuck it we will live in this apartment forever. I really love my apartment but there’s a few issues with it, namely the kitchen is very small and hasn’t been renovated in 35 years (we have new appliances tho). So I’ve decided to get new cabinets and countertops installed through IKEA. I’ve been meaning to do this for 2 years but I’m always thinking “what’s the point if we are gonna buy a place”? Well, that appears not to be happening so I just need to start doing something I have control over. it’s causing me such anxiety to stay here and fret over whether I should redo the cabinets which don’t even close.
Also I’m pretty sure Jason doesn’t want a house bc I always drag him kicking and screaming to every house showing. He hates spending money and thinks it’s a huge rip off most of the time, and he’s not wrong. So anyways, the other source of my anxiety is why are we house shopping if we aren’t engaged? Like seriously what is my plan here ????
So I can’t control my relationship status nor can I control my home purchasing status. What I can control is my kitchen cabinets.
Step 1 of my apartment therapy was to purchase, assemble and install a bookcase I got on sale from West Elm. It makes our living area look much homier. I also bought a shitload of house plants from ikea which helped fill the space up.
Step 2 is the ikea remodel. The guys are coming this Wednesday to measure everything in the kitchen and then I get to pick stuff out. I hate doing this shit but I think I need to start doing something or I’m gonna go crazy in this no mans land.
PS I am attempting to update this from the LJ iOS app which is awful. Does anyone have any better ideas? Every time I scroll up, the keyboard takes over the screen and I can’t keep writing!