Welcome To My New Victorian House!
This past August was a whirlwind of a month to say the least! My fiance and I got back from our trip to Powell River only to celebrate my birthday and take possession of our new house all in the same day! It took us a good three days to get all of our stuff into the new place (with a lot of unexpected surprises along the way), but we are finally here!
I honestly could not be more thrilled to share my new house journey with you, but if you are new and are just tuning in now, this new chapter has been almost a year in the making. I vividly remember last September when Adam (my boyfriend at the time) and I deciding to sell my condo and start looking for a house together. I had just spent the entire summer at his family cottage and loved having the extra living space to enjoy. The idea of returning to condo life in a city still under COVID restrictions felt very daunting and I knew one day soon I wanted to find a house in the city instead. Little did I know, selling my condo was going to be even more challenging than I anticipated!
If you’re in a similar life stage as me, you may have already started paying attention to the real estate market. Perhaps you are thinking it’s a great way to invest you money and want a place to call your own - which it is - but since the beginning of the pandemic, the real estate market has been going crazy in big cities like Toronto. Condo’s have seen huge fluctuations in demand and value. Further, home prices have skyrocketed thanks to low interest rates and a lack of supply. Needless to say, what I thought would be a quick transaction turned into a few months of my condo being on the market before I accepted an offer I was happy with.
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The next phase of actually buying a house did not get any easier. Between skyrocketing prices, shady antics from agents, and lack of supply, it took us 4-5 months of searching, over 50 viewings, and 11 offers before we won a bid. If you’re looking to start your own house hunting journey soon, you should read my recent blog post about tips for first time home buyers on how to psychologically prepare. It was a really tough process for me - harder then I ever imagined - but I’m happy to say now it was worth the sweat, mental frustration, and tears because in the end I landed a beautiful home that is beyond anything I imagined I would end up with and I can’t wait to share it with you!
Since starting our house hunting journey a lot has also happened in my personal life including getting engaged to my boyfriend at the end of May. A few weeks later, we visited this beautiful Victorian style house in one of the most coveted neighborhoods in downtown Toronto and I instantly fell in love. The house is over 125 years old, and had so much original character, putting in an offer was a no brainier.
One of the first things that caught my eye was the beautifully arched brick entrance way! You could tell that the front of the house had been landscaped recently with a cobble stone pathway and large stone slab stairs, not to mention it was hard to miss the glorious smoke bush tree out front that provides a bit of privacy to anyone sitting in the front living room. It felt like it could be a scene from a movie - one where a young couple runs up to the front archway trying to duck out of the rain right before one of them gets the courage to lean in and steal their first kiss. Can you see it? Haha!
Perhaps it’s the romantic in me but the love affair with this house didn’t stop at the front door. The house also featured so much original molding and stain glass that I instantly became smitten.
Prior to even starting our house hunt in Toronto I had always loved old homes. Downtown Toronto is full of old homes and Victorian style houses are definitely my favorite, but unfortunately as we learned, a lot of them are not being very well taken care of, and the ones that are have lost a lot of their original charms due to updates/renovation. 90% of what we saw during our house hunting journey were that Victorian house style and I think at one point I started to drive my boyfriend nuts because I wouldn’t budge on what I wanted. But there is no denying the beauty of a Victorian home! Especially ones still full of original character! It’s rare, trust me I’ve looked! Lesson being, I am so glad I stuck to my guns!
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As I walked through the house, my romantic entanglement only grew. The front living room definitely became (and still is) my favorite room in the entire house as it feature so much original Victorian house interior character and a beautiful stain glass motif! In the morning, warm light shines through the window and casts large rainbows of light on the walls inside! There is something very bright and airy about the space that always gives me really good vibes anytime I spend time in here. Since moving in, it has definitely become the room I enjoy working from the most - as a matter of fact, I am writing this very blog post from it now!
Even though we fell in love with the house after only one visit, we do have plans to do some renovations to it. Since the house is actually broken up into two units (check out the video below for the full tour) we originally planned on renting half of it out to Adam’s brother. As fate would have it (and unexpected issues with the house and our ‘new’ appliances) we decided to push up the renovations and start them this fall. Don’t worry, we are keeping as much of the original Victorian charm as we can!
Turning our house back into a single family home is going to be a lot of work but I’m really looking forward to starting renovations in a few months and putting in my dream kitchen. Before we start the renovations though, I wanted to do a quick home tour with you so you can see the canvas I am working with. In this video I will be walking you through my downtown Toronto Victorian house as well as giving you a little sneak peek on what we are planning on changing.
I hope you fell in love with the house as much as I did when I first saw it. If you have any questions or comments about this video, feel free to leave them down below!
I'm also going to be creating a lot of new content around my new home (renovations, home DIY's, and sharing about my interior decorating journey) so if you are interested in following along, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel or follow me on Instagram @IsThatSoh!
