Our New Place

I have been getting pestered to tell you more about the new apartment so here goes...

We are close to two shopping malls and the Old Strathcona area which is where I can find all of my specialty butcher shops, markets, antiques and boutiques.  The coolest thing about Old Strathcona, though, is that it has the old train station, the public library and centers for the preforming arts. Although downtown has the big theaters and attractions, Old Strathcona is where you can find the stuff that is not yet mainstream. In fact, we had just missed The Fringe Festival when we arrived. Old Strathcona Hosts the oldest and largest Fringe Theater Festival in North America.

Obviously, we don't have a car yet.  Until we do, we have to use Edmonton's Transit System that takes me past several great places to shop on my way to and from work. I also pass through the down town core via train and bus. I do think that I would miss the spectacular views from the river valley at first light and dusk if we were to get a car. 

Our new apartment is in an older neighbourhood with mature trees, although most places in Edmonton have streets full of trees to be honest. Although Doug and I have only enjoyed a few evening walks together, I am sure it will become a common thing for us again, as it used to be.

Old School Heat

Our new apartment is small and vintage. Although, I was counting on small, the vintage part was a fun surprise during viewings. Unfortunately, they did do a minor reno on it before we moved in, so my ancient bird wallpaper is gone, but then again, so is the carpet!! Hardwood and tile makes this place easier for my cat and my allergies to get along.

Furnishing the new place is going to be a fun process, but I expect it will also take some time. There are a few antique markets near by that I want to go to to get a nice mix of old with the new stuff. Unfortunately I had to work through one of the biggest antique sales of the year, but I'm sure I can sniff out some deals regardless.

Our closet is a little small, so I will need to have more bedroom furniture than I had originally planned on. Not that I mind shopping, but I like an empty room to dream in.

 Each room has a large east-facing window that the cat has been enjoying.
We have been enjoying bright and sunny days and dark nights.

The Creeper!

We also have, what I call, a water closet! Oddly enough, the bathroom is a tub and shower with a sink, a generous window, and a tall rad that sits just below the towel rack to warm and dry the draped towels. The toilet is in a separate, windowless room that vents out to the bathroom. Unfortunately, just like the house, Moo moo must always be a part of what you're doing in there!

Although the building is still being renovated, I am liking it quite a bit. It is in such an ideal spot that I doubt we will move far from this area, if and when we do move.

I will have to end here, as I have a run to do. Today I think I will pick a new path. Any suggestions?

Our New Area

So, when we arrived in Edmonton we had expected to find an aparent in three days. Three days would have been enough time had we come after the civic holiday, but as we forgot about it, we ended up having to wait out the long weekend before we could even begin viewings. That ended up working to our favour, as we got to explore different areas of our beautiful new city and aquatint ourselves with them. My favourite area was Southgate, for the awesome upscale mall and pretty houses and condos. Unfortunately, out of the 20 apartments available to us, none of them were cat friendly. Although a friend tells me she knows people with cats who live in Southgate, school just started and a lot of the apartments recently available we're taken by the students who lost their homes when a local boarding school closed its doors.

 Old Strathcona was an exciting urben oasis, full of little boutiques, dellicitessons, patisiaries, theaters and pubs. Much as I enjoyed two days there, I think that the atmosphere was a little too young and happening for us to live in. I will be back to visit the awesome vegan markets and boutiques though.

Downtown was just far too big and busy to live in! The buildings towering and business people dominating the sidewalks and streets gave my head a buzz just driving through it! But the areas just on the outskirts were lovely, surrounded by the lush river valley and backdropped with the beautiful Edmonton skyline.
 We ended up taking an unlikely apartment in the beautiful older neighbourhoods of Forest Heights. This area boasts safety, being south of the river, and was close to a lot of stores I felt were essential.

 Even more important is that the river valley trail is a five minute walk from my house, making my morning run a scenic one. Older trees tower over the streets here, and the down town core is close enough to access when I need to. Below are some pictures of the trail, and the bridge that takes me to the downtown core. 

 

Our apartment is not ready yet, so we are staying in the two bedroom managers suite for ten days while the floors are being redone. We got a one bedroom apartment with carpet only in the bedroom, which was a must for us that was hard to find. The kitchen area is retro, but in a sweet way, the bedroom has a rather unique built in that I thought was artistic, I'm just hoping they don't paint over the retro bird wall paper that would be so in right now!

As for right now, we have the bare necessities, a new bed (on order), new dishes and a few things to put in them. Mitsy Moo-Moo hid in some open vents, in the managers suite, on day one, then woke Doug up that night fighting to get a ziplock bag off her face! She had tried to steel treats in the night again!!! She's been having a harder transition here. 

Tim Hortons Where Are You?

Edmonton is very different from the G.T.A. If you look at how we lived in Ajax, which ran into Pickering, which ran into Scarborough, which ran into..... you get my drift. The G.T.A. is very concentrated. Edmonton is very spacious. Each area is spread out with green spaces giving people room to breath. Much as I love and appreciate this, poor Douglas has a small problem with it. He is constantly asking, "So... where's Tim Hortons?"

There are 26 Tim Hortons in Edmonton which is the same amount as Toronto's core. But since Edmonton is 42.88 sq km larger and most of the Tim Hortons are downtown or north, here in the south end they are few and far between.

So for any of you "Tim's" addicts out there who plan on visiting us... be prepared to make your coffees at home.

"Everything Costs More In Alberta" - False.

So out first few days in Edmonton did not go as planned. We were expecting to view a few of the apartments on our list, and move on to one in the first three days. What we forgot was that there was a long weekend coming, and now we have to wait till the following Tuesday to  view anything. That was a bit of a shock, but we used the time to explore our area. 

Our motel was  at the best location! I had picked it to be close to my work, but it turned out that the Southgate area was exactly where I wanted to be for shopping, as well as quiet and safe neighborhoods.  Doug and I spent a lot of time just walking around, getting aquatinted with the area. One rainy day we decided to go to the West Edmonton Mall so Doug could see it for the first time and we could get a sense of the different things we could do there.

 

Usually malls are more exciting for me, but this time it was Doug's turn to be a kid in a candy store. The yellow Ferrari in the picture was his first bit of candy. That's him putting his ballot in. I think the next was the dolphin and sea lion show. I really don't think he believed me, a while back, when I told him there was a real dolphin there! Like a trail of breadcrumbs, the surprises just kept coming: water park, casino, amusement park, mini put, shooting range, I lost count!

Today we went to Southgate Mall.It is a pretty and stylish place that I am hoping will be in walking distance of the apartment we end up getting. We wandered around the neighbourhoods surrounding it, just enjoying the day. Few people seem to walk around in these neighbourhoods; the transit system is stellar. We ended up in a section of Southgate called Pleasant View that was lovely! Beautiful homes and nice cars were everywhere. We stopped to chat for a good 45 min with a resident. So far South end has been very exciting.

One thing we were pleasantly surprised to find on our wandering through the south end, is that the prices for things were lower. We knew that the taxes on them would be lower, but with all of the talk about it being more expensive to live out here, we were expecting higher prices!  Groceries were primarily the same, although they did have a few cheaper items. Electronic parts and repairs were cheaper by quite a bit. Gas, of course, is cheaper, along with preforming arts and entertainment. Clothing and DVD's were on the lower end of the spectrum. And the list just continues! Doug was not surprised to find that cigarettes were more expensive by $2 but, as he hopes to quit, I'm sure it won't effect him for long.