Moving homes 2014

I’m writing again from my stenograph.  Since I was spending a lot of time last week packing away things and moving to a new home, I also had my computer reinstalled and didn’t get a chance to connect my stenograph to my computer so I had to resort to using my QWERTY keyboard to type.  I haven’t written about steno stuff in a while, but I can’t tell you how much I missed using it to type and write to people.  There’s just something about it that’s so quick and easy to type things out.  I think ever since I started to learn it in 2008 until now, I’ve always used it whenever possible so that I can sharpen up on my steno skills to improve on speed.  Nevertheless, I’m back to daily posts now on stenoodie since I’m all moved in!

This weekend was a bit crazy.  At first, I thought that moving from a condo into a house wouldn’t have been as crazy as last year’s move where we went from house to condo (since there would be less stuff), but I was wrong.  We left it a little late to start packing this year so the last 2-3 days was intensely full of crazy packing everything into boxes and luggage.  Moving is always a little stressful but I’m so glad that everything is all done now. 🙂

One thing I couldn’t believe was how much stuff we had accumulated in our little condo space in the space of 365 days.  After looking at all the things we own, I realize I need to cut down even more on the things I own and keep and lower my ecological footprint even more.  I discovered that we have boxes of stuff that I’ve kept over the years that I don’t use anymore but when I see it, I feel like I still need to keep it.  The next time we move, I need to throw these things out… or even throw them out now if they’re of no use to me.

Over this past year of living in a condo, I’ve realized the pros and cons of it (you can stop reading now if you’re not interested in hearing about my random thoughts — I haven’t written a post like this in a while. :))  Pros:  You don’t need to shovel snow or mow the lawn or take care of any building/house things — especially for this past winter of December 2013-February 2014, Toronto has seen some crazy and intense winter patterns that I’m so grateful that we were in a condo.  We didn’t have to hack ice or shovel anything at all.  Pro:  Life is a little more simple since everything is so close together in a condo.  You have and use less of everything and can’t really hoard anything since there’s limited space.  Pro:  Security — there’s always surveillance cameras and security guards looking after you in the building.  Pro:  Getting to use the gym and swimming pool that was just downstairs!  I just really enjoyed the simplicity of condo living.  So easy and you don’t have to worry about anything!

Cons:  Limited space — because there is less space, you also feel like you can’t do much.  Everyone is closer together so you share more space and you know there are certain limitations — I can’t really exercise in the living quarters since there’s no basement or large living area for me to do yoga, for example.  Con:  Despite the condo administration doing an amazing job at keeping the building clean and running well, I felt like they took the condo maintenance services a little too far by having fire alarm checks and maintenance events happening every single month.  Every time that something needs to be done, they post a notice in the elevator walls.  I can recall that there was not a month in the time that I was living there where there wasn’t a notice about an upcoming event.  It becomes very frustrating to have to divert my driving route or not have access to running water a few hours or days at a time when they were doing the maintenance work.   I understand that it’s for the benefit of all the residents living there, but for once, I didn’t want to be inconvenienced.  Con:  Having to use the elevator to go up and down in the building — this takes a little bit of time and it can get frustrating when the elevator stops on certain floors when people have to get on/off when you’re in a rush.

Despite all this, I’m super happy and excited to be living in a house again (there’s so much space!).  I can’t believe the fact that I’ve missed running up the stairs too.  This is going to help with my food adventures (lol).  Now that we are in a new location, I’m excited for adventures to come.  SO much has happened in the time that we’ve moved last year until now that I can’t wait for the next 365 days.  I’ll be doing a more detailed reflection post at the end of the year in December but for now, life is moving along so well and I can’t wait to see what new adventures are in the works. 🙂

Thanks, everyone, for reading!  You didn’t see any posts the last 2 days since I was busy moving and wanted to take a little bit of a blog posting break. 🙂 Hope you all had an amazing Labour Day long weekend! 🙂

*Edit: One more thing I miss about living in a house is that when it rains, I can’t hear the rain drops against the window panes when I’m in a condo. 🙂