Last couple of days I have really been on fire with my post titles. I am untouchable.

I have a dream to one day own a house. Renting has been fine and we have a pretty great building manager that has been more than fair to us with rent amounts because Leah is a student. But now that I am a husband, I want to do husbandly things. Really, I want the ability to putter. I want to be allowed to put a hole in the wall and then get Leah to fix it because I don’t know how. I want to be able to run mad experiments in the basement (read: vermicomposting). But I can’t do any of those things in a rental. I would also love my own office. I would love to have a garden and a yard to sit in (or throw the cats into (and hope that JD never comes back)). But Leah is a student. I don’t make a ton of money. I can’t get a mortgage. So I dream.

Over the last year I have dreamed. I have watched the housing market slowly slip back into slightly sane levels. I like to look at houses online and plan out how I could arrange the house and the different colours I could paint the walls, etc. Recently, there was a small house in our area for sale. It was 95 years old. It needed work and it wasn’t selling. I watched over a couple months as the price dropped lower and lower. From the pictures, I had the whole house planned out. I had a plan for a slow remodel. It said the house was in good shape, but it needed lots of cosmetic work. I couldn’t take it anymore and I phoned a real estate agent. I wanted to know if it would be possible to get a mortgage. Maybe there was a shot in the dark. I had to try.

We chatted briefly and the agent suggested I meet with his mortgage broker. Two days ago, Leah and I trekked down to the south end of Calgary and met with a mortgage broker. I just wanted to know what we were eligible for, how we could plan/save for the future and any tips that she might have. She put through an application for pre-approval. We were approved—enough that we could potentially buy a house in Calgary. We could actually do it. I couldn’t believe that someone was willing to give me money. I was literally speechless. I did not believe that I would ever be accepted. We have good credit, but I assumed that my salary wouldn’t be enough to float us.

We got home that night and now that my shot in the dark came true I went and looked at that house again. The old one. The one I wanted and really planned for. It’s gone. It was pulled off the MLS. It was either sold or pulled off the market. What kind of dumb luck is that? The one house that inspired the entire process, the day I was approved, is gone. But I understand that’s the way it goes.

Leah and I are thinking about purchasing a place in Calgary. How cool is that?

Photo by Rick Audet