With the yoga challenge and vegan challenge I kind of neglected to tell you anymore information about the townhouse we bought. Whoops!

We don’t get possession until March 15 (a month has never felt so long) but I thought it would be fun to talk about some of the reasons we decided to venture into home ownership, especially since we’re kinda young (22 and 24)!

Also, when it gets closer to move-in time I’m sure I’ll be blogging more about it as we are painting the entire thing, top to bottom, and I need some painting/interior design advice!

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Background

Once we knew that Eric was going to school here (guaranteeing that we would live here for at least another 4 years) we started researching properties – this was last May or June. Since Kamloops is a smaller city and the buyers market is good right now there were a lot of townhouses out there for a good price.

Once we got more serious about it and kind of said to each other “yes, we’re going to buy one” I got in touch with a mortgage broker to see what kind of mortgage we qualified for (this was in Septemberish). She came back with a relatively small, but doable amount, so we started looking more aggressively in that price range.

Huge Fiasco

Originally we were doing all the legwork ourselves by searching on MLS and contacting the listing realtor. This is what led to the huge fiasco that happened to us back in December. In hindsight, I am so glad we never got that place because the one we got is a way better fit for us and in a 100x better location.

Getting a Good Realtor

After the holidays, I followed up with a really nice realtor who had shown us a property previously. She continued following up and calling about properties she thought we’d like. I asked her to “officially” be our realtor and it was the best decision ever!

We were no longer doing all the leg work and she was finding the properties for us. If anyone in Kamloops’ ever stumbles upon this blog post looking for realtor please email me because I seriously cannot recommend ours enough!

The townhouse we ended up buying came through her office and the sellers wanted to move it fast so it was listed for an awesome price and she negotiated it down even lower. To give you some perspective on her awesome negotiating, the townhouse right beside it is currently listed for $18,000 more than we paid for ours!

The Money Thing

So here’s the thing, buying a townhouse is expensive and a big commitment. Here are a few reasons we knew we were ready for it:

1. We have no debt. This put us in a good position for getting a mortgage/having mortgage payments every month – because we are not currently paying off any other debt.

2. With housing prices vs. rent prices in Kamloops it just made sense. Our mortgage payment (1,300 sq feet) is going to be less than we are currently paying for rent (550 sq feet). Of course, there are a bunch of other costs associated with it (taxes, strata, bills etc.), but even when you add together all of those things, we couldn’t rent a bigger place for that cost. It just made sense to put all that money towards something we own.

3. Luckily for us, my mom was able to help us out with the down payment. Since we’re first-time home buyers we only needed 5%. But she lent us a little bit extra which will help bring our overall mortgage payments down and let us use some of our savings for moving/new furniture costs etc. If my mom wasn’t able to help us out we still would have bought, we just wouldn’t have been financially there yet. Likely this summer or spring we would have saved up the money to do it ourselves.

Wrap-it-up

This is an insanely long and wordy blog post, but I just wanted to share with you guys the process we kind of went through. I definitely don’t think that buying a house is right for everyone, but it was the right decision for us. I can’t wait to get possession, exactly one month from yesterday!

If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments.

Do you own or rent? If you’re a homeowner what was your first time home-buying experience like?

I’m not going to lie you guys, yesterday the cravings hit hard. All I wanted was cheese. And pizza. Pizza with cheese. And some sushi.

So, to break up the monotony of the challenge, yesterday Meghan (who is also doing the Vegan Challenge) and I ventured to Pure Cuisine – a new(ish) raw/vegan restaurant – for lunch.

From the website:

All of our food is made daily purely using raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, which is ultimately the most nutirious food on the planet. We do not use wheat, dairy, eggs, sugar, meat, fish or preservatives. Our food is great for people who are looking at greatly improving their health, vegans and those challenged with food allergies and intorlerances such as wheat and lactose.

A fun lunch date was the perfect solution to take my mind off the cheese.

Plus I got to catch up with this lovely lady!

Pure Cuisine is a super cute little retro lunch spot/cafe. The bright green walls and open kitchen area make it feel modern and funky.

And they have raw/vegan truffles. What’s not to love?

I satisfied my craving for sushi by ordering the sushi and pea soup.

Meghan had the pad thai (pasta was actually made with strips of zucchini – I had a bite, it was good!)

And then Meghan treated us to dessert! Raw truffles made with coconut oil and organic cocoa powder.

O. M. G. These were so good.

After our lunch date we chatted with the owner for a bit and told her all about our challenge. She was really interesting to chat with – it’s always fun to talk to other people who are passionate/interested in nutrition and food. She said that she was about 95% raw/vegan but sometimes she “cheats” and has edamame or sweet potato fries. Cheats….righhhtttt

Pure Cuisine also offers lots of cooking classes AND a 28 days to raw challenge. I might see about signing myself (and Eric!) up for a cooking classes.

I don’t think I could ever go fully raw or vegan but it’s an eating lifestyle I do want to incorporate into my life more, even after the challenge is over. There’s no reason I need to be having animal products every single day of the week, and my lunch at Pure Cuisine showed me that raw/vegan food can not only be delicious, but also satisfying and filling!

Have you ever ate at a “raw food” restaurant? If so, what was your experience like? Anyone incorporate raw eating into their diet on a regular basis?

When I was younger my dad and I would go skiing every Sunday. On our drive to the ski hill he would always quiz me on my times tables

I grew up skiing (and then snowboarding) on a really small hill about 1.5 hours out of FSJ. When I was about 12 or 13 snowboarding became the “cool” thing to do.

So despite taking an hour to get down the green run my first time, multiple bruises and pain over the first season, and not even being able to use my back edge for an entire winter (only using your front edge results in wicked painful shin splints) I persevered through and learned how to snowboard.

Today Eric and I headed up snowboarding for only the third time in three years. Since I finished high school snowboarding fell off my radar and I rarely did it (despite owning my own board and boots).

It’s shame since Kamloops is only 45 minutes from Sun Peaks, considered one of the top 20 skiing resorts in the world!

So I decided Eric and I were going to spend more time snowboarding this winter and I booked us a weekend at Sun Peaks to celebrate our anniversary in February.

But first, we needed to brush up on our skillz (like how I added that little ‘z’ there )

And that’s where Harper Mountain comes in.

Today Eric and I headed up to Harper Mountain (only a 30 minute drive from Kamloops) to brush up on our snowboarding skills. We’re also hoping to go a few more times before our weekend at Sun Peaks.

This was my first time at Harper Mountain so I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was fantastic!

It’s a lot bigger than the small hill we grew up snowboarding on, but not as huge as a big mountain like Sun Peaks. Plus it’s such a short drive from Kamloops!

We’re already discussing getting a seasons pass next year so we can go more often we both had so much fun!

There was even quite a bit of powder today. Maybe not much too experienced skiers and boarders, but a lot for us!

Our legs were definitely feeling the effects of all that powder by the end, which is why we cut the day short at 4 hours. Need to build our endurance back up after all

Overall it was a super fun day and it’s always nice to do things outside in the winer time. We’re hoping to go again in the next couple of weeks and I can’t wait!

Do you ski or snowboard?