By the time the property for sale listing came to our attention we had more or less given up house hunting and downsizing; put it on the back burner, so to speak. But this apartment renovation was different. Everything was just where it should be; proportions and placement had been carefully considered. A truly professional job. It was perfect, it had everything we had wanted. Buy it or not, I just had to see it.
“I’m going to look at it”, I said, “I need to see if it’s as good as the pictures. Come if you like.”
Well, it was even better than I expected. Afternoon sunlight streamed through west-facing windows. There was a large enough balcony, a million dollar view, and great bright cooking space in a functional kitchen. Moreover, the reno design proved interesting enough to replace the modern multi-level home we were leaving. The apartment building was as we remembered from a previous visit and the undercover garage space would work just fine. Personally, I was sold. My partner, meh, not so much.
She slid back the patio door. The traffic on the street was not exactly quiet even at ten floors up.
“A bit noisy, don’t you think?” she said over the street sounds.
“Well, what do you expect,” I returned. “There are no curtains or draperies, all the floors are hardwood, no carpets, and no soft furniture yet. Nothing to deaden the sound.”
“Come on out and let’s see,” she challenged.
On the balcony I softened a bit and countered with, “Yeah, there’s some noise, but we’ll get used to it, and after a while we won’t hear it anymore.”
Our Realtor© and I convinced her that the apartment was truly everything we’d wished, and that we really should buy it. So we did. And moved in mid-October nearly 3 years ago.
Between October and January with the cold weather, the doors and windows were mostly closed so the street noise was somewhat muted. From January to March we were away so whatever noise there was we didn’t hear it. Cut to the chase: summer 2019 and another wish.
“I wish there wasn’t so much noise from the traffic.”
“I wish it was quieter on the balcony.”
