Whenever I’ve rented an apartment I’ve always jumped on the cheapest thing that will fit my needs. In college I remember us stuffing six people into a three bedroom townhouse in a run-down complex in Calgary (the infamous Vista Heights). We had our rent + utilities down to $100 per person!
The last place I was in was a small studio that was a little rough around the edges. It was the first time I’d splurged on living without roommates and again, I wanted to keep it as cheap as I could. Rent is like throwing money into a bonfire — that’s the philosophy I’ve always had.
The same thinking applied when I started looking at condos. I wanted to keep things cheap so I could pay off the mortgage quickly and start putting that extra cash towards an investment portfolio which will help get me to retirement faster. When I found a place that was *amazing* and had no rental restrictions I realized it was time to spend a little more on a better long-term investment even if it meant it would take a bit longer to get rid of the mortgage. So that’s how I ended up in my new pad!
Tonight is my first evening at home and I just threw in a load of laundry. For most people this isn’t a big deal, but for me it’s pretty huge. I left home when I was 18 and I’ve never lived in a place that’s had in-suite laundry since. So being able to walk upstairs and throw my clothes into the laundry machine in my own apartment is more exciting than I would’ve expected. Laundry has gone from being something that needs to be planned in advance to something I can do as casually as putting on my shoes. I never have to go downstairs to the laundry room to find all the machines taken. Nor do I have to set an egg timer to go and get my clothes out so the next person isn’t inconvenienced.
The biggest bonus: I don’t have to keep a sock full of loonies in my apartment to pay for laundry machines anymore!
Now that I think of it, there was one brief time when we had laundry in our townhouse. Back at Vista Heights Dave and Lance found a “deal” on a washer and dryer for $100. Not wanting to believe that this opportunity was too good to be true, they ran out and bought the pair, dragged them home, and proudly threw in a bunch of clothes to get laundered. Unfortunately the laundry machine started making all kinds of racket and when the clothes came out they had big black rubber streaks across them from where one of the internal parts had caught as the washer tub spun around. It took a couple of trips to the local laundromat to get all the rubber off their clothes and we never used the washer and dryer again.