Dreams...

When we first got married we were broke kids in our early 20's. When we tied the knot we got some money which we then used towards our immigration costs. Once those were done we spent a long time paying back every cent we could towards Ken's American student loan. Not sure if anyone remembers back when our dollar was at 50% par level with the US dollar, but we sure do, as that is when we were paying back the loan. In one word, it SUCKED! Our big cash amounts would only work out to half and it left us very defeated.

Our friends started buying homes and we were in a tiny little one bedroom trying to save and pay as much as we could. No way to save a down payment in those conditions. Ken and I were both working full time and able to make some extra money to which we kept putting towards the loan and started contributing to RRSPs. When we moved into our place we are in now, 3 bedroom townhouse style apartment we felt good. It was room to move and we wanted a family to share it with.

I started doing work from home, now pregnant with Ariel and of course our income changed. Making those larger payments to the loan were trickier. We then were blessed with some money to finish paying off the last of the student loan from Ken's Dad, when Grandpa passed away. Of course now we were dealing with new costs of having an older car that needed repairs, kids and life on a single income as I wasn't doing as much having 2 young kids to chase after.

Our dream as always been to have our own place. We both decided early on that we wanted a down payment to do it. I know not everyone does that, but for my own personal issues (worry wart) I wanted to do the down payment. Plus my Dad has always been the voice of reason and wisdom on the subject, and advised us the same thing. Our investment lady asked us yearly if we wanted to use our RRSPs towards a down payment, but we just didn't have enough for our area.

With me working at home with my business, I started to generate a bit more income for us, which I hope grows as I can take on more once both kids are in school full time. Now 10 years later, both in our 30's, we saw the dream we had coming closer... our patience and waiting would pay off... more than we knew.

I woke up one morning to an email from my Uncle, who was handing everything estate-wise when Papa passed away. Basically, in a nutshell, we have our long awaited down-payment. It didn't sink in right away, in fact we kept looking at the email, sure we had misread something. Then the panic set it. Haha.

Talked to Dad, who started right away talking about mortgages, rates and stuff that was somewhat overwhelming. I knew some stuff, but I soon dove into learning as much as I could, watching everything on first time homebuying on HGTV and reading online. Tonight I finally posted a question on facebook putting it out there, as they say, its real once its been on facebook. Haha.

Soooooo, finally we talked at dinner with the kids, of course Xander had no clue but Ariel was old enough to understand our question of: 'what if we moved to a new home?' No joke, the girl burst out in tears. We both freaked, comforting her, answering her questions of what moving would be like. Yes we would take her toys etc. She soon got excited, talking about a new room and asked:

'Can it be pink?'
'Your room? Of course'
'No, our new house?'
'Um, no... sorry' haha.

So that week she drew me this picture, and see she got past the 'pink' idea... although the sidewalk is pink and purple, lol.


I can't wait to start looking for a townhouse, pretty much our best bet if we stay in this area, you trade size for community, something we are totally willing to live with. We love our place we are in now, if we could get something with rooms a tad bigger for the kids, and a slightly bigger kitchen for my work and a deck we can actually have a bbq on, we would be thrilled. I will keep you posted on our new adventure as things move along, but I was finally ready to share this with you all, after coming to grips with the fact it was reality.

First up, talking to mortgage brokers and banks for rates... I think this scares me the most. Once that is done I think I will be much better, I just have this fear of them laughing at us shouting NO Money for you! Eek... pray they like us.