we moved!

about 3 months ago (maybe a little less?) we had some leaking in our apartment. at first, it was just a few drips, but then one day when dylan got home in the afternoon, water was all over our den and everything in the hall closet soaked. we had workers coming in and our of our place for weeks unable to find the problem. was it rain? was it coming from the unit above? was it coming from the mechanical room? it was a mystery. we had to move most of our stuff from the den (luckily nothing was ruined) into the living area and we were living in a mess. then water started coming up through the floors! it smelled and our place was disgusting. after about 4 weeks, they finally discovered it (but wouldn't pass on any information to us) and then had workers in and out fixing things up. but between then, they had completely ripped out our closet, torn down drywall in the den, and made everything a general mess. it was awful.

all of this was basically the icing on the cake to move. now that we're not there anymore, i feel i can say where we lived - we were on the 48th floor of the one of the newer towers in cityplace. i'm just putting it out there if you're from toronto or thinking of moving there -- DO NOT DO IT. the building was so poorly run and the people that started moving in recently are not people we want to live with. and then there are the elevator situations. there are 49 floors in the condo we were in and 3 elevators. 3!! and i would say for about the last 6 months, there was always one down, meaning 2 elevators were now servicing 49 floors. rush hours were miserable and 20-30 minute waits were not unusual. forget weekends when another would be on service for people moving in or out, you might as well not even try to leave your place unless you want to take the stairs (which we did a few times).

this is all to say, we finally said enough is enough, we have to get out of here!  dylan wanted to be around the st lawrence market and i agreed that it's a great neighborhood. i looked online at a bunch of places and finally found a listing i liked. i booked a viewing without dylan because he was sleeping from work and i actually really liked it. i showed him the video i took and he was sold. 6 days after we got home from italy, we packed everything up and got the hell out of our old place.

our new place is fantastic. the building is a little older, much smaller, and a much higher percentage of owner occupancy vs renters, which means that the people here actually care about where they live. we moved from the 48th floor to the 2nd, and elevators aren't even part of our life anymore! we decided to forego the shiny new stainless steel appliances in favour of location and a unit that was a little bigger. we moved from about 600 square feet to almost 800 and let me tell you, it feels so much bigger. and bonus: the new place has a locker! oh and the laundry in our unit? in a massive storage room where we can hang coats, keep towels, tools, our vacuum etc. so even though we have slightly less cabinet space overall, we definitely have more storage.

let's go!

that's enough for the first day!

we were able to put the middle piece of our sectional back in after 2 years in storage. if you can believe it, with the built in cabinetry in the old place, the width of the couch didn't even fit.

a real dining area. finally.

we found this fantastic bar sign at the st lawrence antique market.

1 day after moving in, we had my parents over for dinner. definitely motivation to get everything in place.

the den is still very much a work in progress. dylan is looking for the right futon, he's still got a new tv stand to put together, and he's ordered a bunch of star wars posters to be hung. it's basically going to be his video game, board game, nerdy man den.

and that's the tour! we're so much happier here and really love the neighborhood. one of the upside of renting is being able to try different areas and move along when you please.

pivot! pivot!

moving day went surprisingly smoothly given the fact that we didn't have as much packed as we would have liked. it started out at about 7:30am, dylan got the truck around 8am, and then his friend and brother met us at our place to start getting it loaded. they actually helped us pack a lot of other things we weren't planning on taking just yet, just because we were ready early, but didn't have the service elevator at our new place until 3:30pm.

 let's do this!

pivot! pivot! pivvvoootttt!!

 our life in a truck.

 :)

 nope. not excited at all.

 time to unpack now..

 everything. everywhere.

never-ending boxes.

somehow, somehow we unpacked everything and this place was completely ready within 24 hours. i have no idea how we did that. in our other place, i think it took us a good month to get settled and get everything put away and pictures hung. not here! we still have our other place for a month and have random stuff still there in storage (truthfully, we have no idea what's down there. we haven't been down/looked in our storage for 9 months, which means there's a good chance we don't need anything in there and can sell the stuff. the only remaining thing left to do there is clean it spotless for the next tenant!  

waking up at 7am, still laying in bed, and this is now my view.

we're loving it here. obviously.

keys to the good life...

monday, we met with our agent one last time at our new place, signed a few final documents, and got the keys!! we were beyond excited, obviously. we took a look around all the amentities (we couldn't see them until we were actually residents) and they are ahhhhmazing! there is everything you could possibly think of, right at our fingertips, for free. we basically live in a resort. every month there's a fitness schedule all mapped out (yoga, pilates, bootcamp, body fuse etc)..i better get my butt down there and put it to good use!
we met up with our friend and showed him around our new digs, and then walked around the city a bit. then of course, we were so giddy, we drove home after rush hour, got a few things to bring back and some stuff to sleep over. along with wine and chips. and we slept on the floor. uncomfortably. but we just couldn't help ourselves.

the drive in. obviously looking forward to it.

i'm back, baby.

from our balcony; the lake and the airport. can't wait to see planes coming in and leaving.

missing the fridge? nope, the fridge and freezer are the white 'cabinets' beside the oven there. and one of the 'cabinets' by the sink? that's the dishwasher. a dishwasher! hidden gems.

ahhHH!!

the happy couple moving into our 2nd place together.

a few things for our first sleepover + netflix.

our ultra comfy sleeping arrangements.

of course, we brought the morning essentials with us.

we're completely in love with this place and can't wait to really get moved in soon. the only issue? our big (and it is big, but oh so comfy) sectional is actually too big for this place. we paid a fair amount for it, and even though it's only 9 months old, nobody would pay close to full price for a used sofa. so a light bulb went off and i asked dylan why not just try to take the middle section out and piece together the end two. even though it's a sectional, there's hooks and brackets and it's not really meant to mix and match the pieces; it's meant  to be used as one huge couch. but! dylan went to work and we think we may just be able to make it work. thank goodness because i do not want to go on the hunt for another couch purchase. that was the worst. living in a tiny condo? you must be resourceful.