shaver

More movement on the housing front: and we have another place to see today, an open house to hit, an appointment for Monday morning down at 50 Prince Arthur and the Annex condo holdover from yesterday. Dangerous levels of hope can be found in our hotel room.

Brunch at Taro Grill was expertly arranged by Tyla — “if we ask people where and when to eat, we’ll never get anywhere, so I’m just going to say that we’re going to be there at 11:30, and they can decide if they want to show up” — and rather nummy. Em and Christina and Mark and Aven took off to see some jazz at the waterfront, and Madhava joined Tyla and I on a trip to MEC. I picked up a man-purse, Madhava found some shorts, and Tyla dug a few new ads out of the Sunday classifieds. We were running a little late for our first appointment — a 3-bedroom apartment near St. Clair and Ossington — so we hopped in a cab instead of walking from the nearest station to get a feel for the neighbourhood.

The apartment wasn’t amazing, and the kitchen was show-stoppingly small, so we wandered over to an open house on nearby Maplewood. This place was much more promising: a 3-bedroom house with backyard, not-really-finished-but-close basement and a working fireplace. It was a variant on the layout of Aven and Mark’s house, via a handful of reflections and rotations, so we knew that it was a viable place for truly ambitious entertaining. The appliances were no great draw, and it lacked a dishwasher, but plans for deploying our own set and buying a portable dishwasher quickly began to dance in our heads. We filled out an application form, and the landlady told us to call her after work tomorrow and tell her if we wanted the place (we still had two appointments in our list). The walk to the St. Clair West subway station, with its accompanying Loblaws and LCBO, showed off the many splendors of that neighbourhood.

Our 8pm appointment at the Annex condo made everything difficult. A beautiful, brand-new renovation — the excellent appliances still had their tags in place — combined with unbeatable location always tends to do that. It’s not especially large, so we would have to shed many, many belongings, but we’re starting to think it’s worth it. We should probably do that anyway, as our palatial Montreal home has been covering for our pack-rat tendencies for too long, and we’re never going to find a similarly large place in Toronto that we’re willing to pay for.

A nice short walk followed, to Aven and Mark’s for a backyard barbeque and much, much Sangria. I helped Aven finish her steak, and get rid of the Sangria, as a good guest should. Em’s going to be in Malaysia on her birthday, so Tyla and I decided to take her out to Canoe for dinner tomorrow, pretty much on the spur of the moment. I know I’m going to wake up hung over tomorrow, I just know it.