I’ve always moved around a lot. Growing up, my mom and I moved around a lot and even as an adult in my early 20s, I apartment hopped at the end of almost every lease. But some of my favourite rented houses are the ones my husband and I have made homes together.
Because it’s our four-year wedding anniversary next week, and we also find ourselves at the start of a new home journey. So, today, I am going to tell you about our homes. (And promise to devote a whole future post to the also charming places I lived in pre-marriage.)
First, there was Moberly, a spacious 80s-style terrace apartment with a view of False Creek in Vancouver. Affectionately named for the apartment-block-filled road it sat on so close to the water, Moberly was the quintessential boys’ rental and not at all beautiful. Completely normal, of course, because this was the “flat” my Kiwi then-boyfriend rented with a friend from New Zealand before we even met. The pad was meant to be their home base for a budget-friendly year of exploring Van-coo-vah (said in a Kiwi accent, of course). They filled it with furniture from Craigslist, including a monstrosity of a TV we eventually had to move out ourselves and not one but three sofas from the ‘free’ section of Craigslist. I still shudder when I think of them.
We didn’t live at Moberly together per se, but it’s where we first had a taste of cohabitating when my own apartment flooded and I had to vacate the premises for a few weeks. Spoiler alert: we loved living together and in a way that time cemented the foundation of how seriously we felt about each other.
The following fall, we moved into our first place together. We (very uncreatively) referred to it as “33rd” because it was right on the corner of Main and 33rd Ave in the Riley Park-Little Mountain neighbourhood.
Modern and completely devoid of character, but plentiful in efficient stainless steel appliances, 33rd had the hodgepodge decor of two 20-somethings who had amalgamated apartments. We did our best with what we had and sourced affordably, watched fireworks from Nat Bailey stadium from our bedroom, and revelled in the apartment’s proximity to now long-gone Little Mountain Coffee right across the street. I will never not miss the white chocolate mocha and the cinnamon bun croissant.
When we moved into this apartment, teachers happened to be on strike. With an abundance of free time, I took up new hobbies and completed my first furniture refinishing projects, doing my best to revitalize the pieces inherited from Moberly from our apartment sun room.
The year we lived on 33rd was also the year we decided to embark on a two-year adventure to New Zealand. Mike needed to apply for Canadian permanent residency, which was more easily done from overseas, and after an exhausting post-strike school year, I was ready for a change. At the end of our one-year lease, we sold our now third-hand furniture and packed up for Wellington, NZ.
Which brings me to the next: a tidy duplex in a suburb of Wellington. Our place backed up against a wildlife reserve—I heard my first morepork from the bathroom before sunrise one early morning—and was around the corner from a delightful fish and chips shop and Indian takeout restaurant. (After a long week of work we to this day sometimes still long for takeout from Karori Park Fish and Chips!!)
While we made so many memories while we lived in this house, including adopting our gorgeous girl Abbie, our first pet together; getting engaged; and Mike getting his permanent residency, we knew we weren’t putting down roots there and our decor choices, or lack thereof, reflected as much.
(I will also admit that though not aesthetically unpleasing, certain features of this house including the lack of insulation, ineffective heating system, and natural dampness, were the bane of my existence in our time there. If you ever plan to move to New Zealand, please contact me for a crash course on how to choose a rental. I learned a lot the hard way!)
At the end of our two years, we once again sold off our things, waved goodbye to yet another home, and hopped on a plane.
Back in Vancouver, our rental needs felt more complicated than before. Costs had risen, only one of us knew where they would be working, our wedding and all the associated costs were coming up in less than a year, and we had a cat. We also had enjoyed the freedom of living in a duplex rather than an apartment, and hoped for a place that would not require a flight or stairs or an elevator to take out the garbage or haul in groceries.
We were excited to learn about the Vancouver laneway house scheme, and found an absolutely lovely landlord who was willing to rent to us, cat included. With a smaller footprint and price, newly-built, cat-friendly with an extra bedroom for our hobbies and overseas family members, our urban cottage was absolutely perfect for our needs at the time.
It’s been almost five years of living here now. This is the house we came home to after our wedding, where we watched the pandemic unfold and worked from home, where I invited my students into the kitchen virtually during online teaching, and the home where we sadly said goodbye to our sweet Abbie and welcomed our kitten Mary.
Over the five years, I’ve loved so many parts of this space: the natural light, living on two levels, the new finishes, the soaker tub, the proximity to the cemetery where I love to take peaceful walks, and the safe and diverse community that until recently included the other renters on our property.
Sadly, but in a way also fortuitously, our time in our laneway house is coming to an end. Our landlords sold the property and while we don’t have to leave, some changes that are going to be made will greatly impact the privacy and convenience of living here.
At first we were just looking, but we quickly realized when we saw what else is out there, that this adorable little laneway house is just, well, too little for our current needs. Both literally and figuratively. (Seriously. We don’t argue as a couple often, but you try racing out of the house for work on a frenetic work morning and not trampling all over each other in a teeny tiny kitchen.)
So we are officially on the grind, hunting for a new rental that will meet our needs. Our criteria:
Closer to both of our workplaces. Local areas that would accomplish this for us include Ladner, Queensborough/New West, and my home town Richmond.
More spacious than our current place. Not hard to find, considering how small our current place is!
Multiple levels (ie. not an apartment). Vertical separation of living space really helps those of us who are light sleepers coexist with those of us who are late-night XBox gamers.
An extra bedroom for the potential for a foster youth (a plan we are actively working on but can’t really talk about too much in spaces like this).
Extra bedrooms and/or flex space for our hobbies. I dream of a garage that would allow me to work on furniture refinishing projects, but a covered carport would do!
And, finally, a note for those of you who have been reading my words long enough to know that a major dream of ours is to own our own home that we can style and renovate to our heart’s content. Home ownership is still a dream of ours, but in a world where the future is increasingly uncertain, we also want to make sure we enjoy our days while we work towards it. A writer I love, Kayte Ferris, refers to this as living “towards and within” your dreams.
Now, back to the hunt I go. I’ll be sharing behind the scenes and asking for your opinions over on Instagram, so follow along if you’re not already!
Send me good vibes, friends.
xx