What things are most important to you in choosing a home?

We have never been very systematic or organised when it came to choosing a house. Our first home was a town house in Deep Cove in North Vancouver. We had gone for a drive on a beautiful, sunny, fall afternoon and saw a development taking shape right down close to the water and the dock in Deep Cove. At that time ( 1970) it was a groundbreaking concept to have a Strata Council and a development of ‘row’ housing.

I think it was the first in BC. We were very taken by the location so followed up with the advertised realtor and within no time at all had committed to our first home. We were one of the first to buy in and so had the choice of the development. We chose an end unit closest to the water.

It was 1200 square feet on two levels with a full, unfinished basement. I loved our little house, Dad had his first attempts at gardening there and found his passion! It cost us $21.000 and I was petrified! What was important?

I think the location and the fact that it was a new home, but it was very much an impulse buy… just seemed right at the time. Our second home was also in North Vancouver, again we were out for a drive ( those good old days of being DINKS) and found a new build ( again ) in a newly developed part of the Blueridge area. It was a much bigger house, I guess we were feeling upwardly mobile. It had a beautiful big lot with a view out over the Seymour River Valley, over the Vancouver City Harbour and over to Vancouver Island.

Again we found our inner gardener and completely landscaped the lot, bringing in, and shovelling, truck loads of topsoil as the lot was cleared forest. We took a huge leap of faith and paid $64.000 for that house, selling it three years late in the middle of a housing boom for $99.000. Again there was no real reason for buying it other than we thought we would like it! It was way more space than we ever needed, or used.

We sold in North Vancouver when Joel was about 4 months old. I was home with our new baby and Jim was driving to work across the Second Narrows Bridge and in to Vancouver General Hospital along 12th Avenue. It was a busy commute which we had done it together when I was still working at VGH. It seemed to be a lot of time travelling at both ends of the day for him,I suppose it was about 40 minutes on a good day.

Sometimes the Bridge got a bit clogged up…… We talked about moving into town and saw an ad. for 619 West 19th. We went and looked and without any real thought other than we both had a really good feeling about the house when we went inside, we bought… knowing that it would need a fair amount of work. The lady we bought from had lived there since the house was built in 1913 - this was 1976. So there was much that was good and original and unchanged about the house and much that desperately needed updating.

Anyways, young and full of energy we went for it! Seriously checked it out for possible nightmares … no… just really loved the house and the location. It meant Dad could walk to work, it was close to shops and parks…loved it! We bought there for $64.000, so with our sale in North Vancouver were able to buy clear title,which very much set the tone for our financial stability… a good move.

In 1988 we moved from Vancouver, and our lovely old home, which I still remember with great fondness. iIt WAS all that we could have wanted in a family home and all of our children were born from there ( well maybe not Joel) so it is a house that I have many memories of of babies and little ones and happy ( though mostly exhausted!) times. Dad was offered a job at the Hospital in Campbell River and, for all sorts of reasons, we felt that the timing was right for us to make a move with the family so we had to look for a house in Campbell River.

This time it was a combined family search with all four offspring having very decided wants, if they were going to be giving up ther home in Vancouver. There really was not much on the market that met our criteria, a bedroom each, a decent garden, room for a dog … and a cat. So it was by chance, and having turned down onlythe other available house in Mittlenatch… it was absolutely a no go as it was ‘snot green’….. We had decided that we liked the subdivision even though it was a little way out of town and by chance drove by a ‘For Sale by Owner’ sign.

The rest is history. 103 Redonda had enough bedrooms, looked to be in good shape and both Dad & I fell in love with the garden… SOLD! Once again we were fortunate to ride a high in the property market and sold in Vancouver for $265.000 and were able to buy clear title in Campbell River for $149.000. We have been blessed with our homes, all bought pretty much on the spur of the moment, but all have felt very right for us at the time. Who knows what or why the next move will be…maybe there will be a more planned move than any in the past………I sort of doubt it!