As the year draws to a close, it is a natural and indeed common time to reflect upon the past 12 months. At first thought, my mind naturally went to the negative—the romantic disappointments, job stresses, and Gizmo’s ill-health, to name a few. As humans, negative experiences and feelings are distorted in our memories, given disproportionate saliency and crowding out the host of positive memories we may hold.

The first couple of months after moving into the condo, I lived and breathed this room. Because I didn't really have much furniture yet, I slept, ate, lounged, and worked on a twin air mattress. This room has been nothing if not an exercise in patience, with the last major puzzle piece finally coming together over two years after I moved in.

I’ve always hated running. Vivid, wheezing memories of running 4-lap tests around the sandy, high school track at Cariboo Hill will forever be seared into my subconscious. It was something that I so loathed growing up, that it was a real victory to enter into adulthood, with all the freedom of choice that entails, and leave the unwanted remnants of any kind of running hobby behind on that sandy track. Given all of that, I admit to being a bit daunted and perplexed to find myself, twenty years later, voluntarily signed up to run a half-marathon.

When I was living in Chicago, I’d had an honest-to-goodness dining room, which was the site of many a dinner party and lively gathering, and I’ve sorely missed having a space to really host and entertain since being in Toronto. As such, one of the big selling features of this condo was finally having an actual dining space.

I knew from the get-go that the room that would need the most transformative work was the kitchen. Much like the bathroom, things were a little on the dated side—rickety cabinets, laminate countertop, all in variations on a beige-y theme. The little pass-through window, while somewhat charming, meant that the kitchen felt very boxed-in and closed-off from the rest of the space.

As mentioned in an earlier post, when I’d first walked into what would become my bedroom, it was staged as a living room. It seemed perfectly lovely as a living room at the time, and I didn’t give it much of a second thought until I moved in and started inhabiting the space. The decision primarily came from my not wanting the adjacent room to be the bedroom.

When I started looking at condos online, I think I had it in my mind that I wanted my pick to be all shiny and finished when I bought it. Why would I want to take on that kind of work to renovate? However, when I first toured my eventual condo, I was struck not only by what was there but also by what it could be. I loved the bones of the place, a rare and spacious layout, and quickly realized that I’d be willing to take on renovating just to get those bones.

The first room I wanted to feature was one of the first rooms I actually “finished” in the condo, as it didn’t require any renovations: my den of productivity (a.k.a. the office). I’m sure the space will evolve over the years, as my needs change–but right now, I need an office space to hunker down in for the majority of my weekdays.

My homeownership story begins in a somewhat unlikely place: a hot tub. I had traveled to B.C. to see my family, and we’d holed up in a rented home in Revelstoke to have an early Christmas. Whilst sitting in the hot tub, my folks and I started talking about investments and the future, what my plans were and what I was hoping for. Many conversations later and I was back in Toronto, searching in earnest on condo websites for a new home.

The current global COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated drastic but necessary self-isolation measures for everyone, which means that we're all now spending an inordinate amount of time in our homes. While we may start to feel like the walls are closing in (or that we're ready to start climbing them), I'm trying to use this opportunity to "get to know" my own home--to be grateful for it, appreciate what it is, and also think about ways to improve it.

Strangely enough, I can ultimately credit my newfound zest for leading a more active life to a time-traveling Englishwoman and a red-haired Scotsman. Back in April, I stumbled across the television show Outlander on Netflix and proceeded to binge watch the available two seasons in a few days (not much sleep was had, which will surprise absolutely no one who knows me). Much Googling and internet insanity ensued, and I eventually learned that the show's lead actor, Sam Heughan, had founded a charitable organization called My Peak Challenge.

I feel like we have had the opportunity to eat and drink at some wonderful establishments and the good fortune of seeing some amazing things here. However, this is the third-largest city in the US, and as such, there is a wealth of unexplored territory. We've started creating a Chicago bucket list filled with all the things we'd like to see and do and eat, either for the first time or re-visited, before we leave.