The Craftiest Workshop

I was fairly skeptical about the idea of moving into an apartment (even temporarily) after owning a home for the last 25 years. Chris and I rented an apartment in Moose Jaw in 1994. We lived there about a year and a half. Every move since then we have bought and sold houses. Until now…

We noticed some differences searching for an apartment over searching for a house. We have always used MLS or Realtor.ca to do our house hunting. Our son Thomas suggested using PadMapper to help us find a rental. I also joined a few Facebook groups for rentals to see if there were any properties there.

We have also always had a realtor when buying a house. They figure out properties for you to see and weed out the really bad ones. We didn’t have that with finding a rental. You send a message asking if the property is still available and try to set up a viewing. In a market where there are a lot of posted rentals, we were surprised how many were no longer available. In a week we were only able to get into 4 places that we were interested in.

Property managers are quite skeptical about people looking for rentals. They want a lot of personal information up front in order to just view a property.

We decided on the apartment we chose based on location (very close to Chris’s work), building amenities, inclusions (only pay electricity and parking on top of rent) and layout. Mid-May we signed a lease for a one bedroom with a den in a four storey apartment building in downtown Grande Prairie.

I will enjoy the underground parking if we stay here into the winter months. At home in Fort Mac, we park outside as our garage is full of wood.

Our house has air conditioning and the apartment does not. We do have a ceiling fan in the bedroom and have brought a floor fan. On the really hot days we have had so far, the apartment is VERY warm but we have coped.

We have chosen to limit our furniture to a bed in a box, some camping chairs, TV trays and a couple folding tables. If we had a lot of furniture, it would seem tight. Our house obviously has much more room for furniture.

The laundry/storage room in the apartment is actually bigger than the space we have in our house. I can actually set up a wire drying rack and there are shelves to store things.

So far, the noise from the apartment above has been minimal. There is street traffic noise with traffic being detoured in front of our building due to construction and construction begins each day at 7am. We just close the windows for the night and that really helps. Even at home, there is noise from neighbours chatting loudly outside, cutting the lawn or their dog barking early in the morning.

One of the big advantages to apartment living is that you have much more time for hobbies and interests as there is less housework and yard work to do. We spent 8 hours playing board games with Chris’s brother, his wife and another couple one afternoon. We didn’t feel any guilt or pressure to get back to the apartment. I spend quite a bit of time wood burning using a small fan to push any smoke out the window. We are also able to spend time in the evening exploring walking paths at the different local parks. At least once a week, we walk the disc golf course; Chris throws and I make sure he doesn’t lose any discs in the trees.

As of July 1 the gym in the building (two doors down from us) is open and I have been spending some time there using an exercise bike to strengthen my leg. The distance to the gym would be like me walking from our kitchen to the garage in our house. We also have a social room open now on the 1st floor. It has three square glass tables with four padded chairs for each, some leather couches, a kitchen and a large TV. We went down there one evening on a really hot day and played a few board games for a couple hours. A few building residents stuck their heads in to see what we were up to. If we want to meet people, this will be the place to hang out.

We have been driving to our house in Fort Mac every long weekend to check on Jonathan and Matthew, do some housework/gardening and visit friends.

All in all, living in an apartment feels much like a vacation. It doesn’t feel quite like home but there is comfort in the fact that you don’t have to think too much about what tasks or chores need to get done as there really aren’t any. But…like when you are on vacation, there comes a time when you are ready to go home. I know I wouldn’t like to live in an apartment forever at this stage in my life but for a few months, it isn’t so bad.