We were now living in Ottawa. After moving from the UK to Canada with our two dogs and entire contents of our house, we’d lived in Vancouver in the west of Canada for 18 months during my post-grad studies, moved to Ottawa in the east in pursuit of a dream job, drove for 7 days across Canada to get to that dream job, and endured our first blood-curdlingly cold winter in the national capital. We then bought our first Canadian house.
 |
| House buying in Ottawa |
I’d always lived in the ‘burbs. As a kid growing up in the UK, I’d lived in a pleasant enough housing estate set amongst the green fields of Hampshire. These estates were fun places to grow up in, where we played with the other children in our street or ran our dog over the local park. Life in suburbia was generally safe, the streets and parks were clean and well kept, and for most people it was a routine, regular way of life that most people signed up to.
It never sat well with me. I spent weekends sat in front of the TV, listening to the persistent drone of lawnmowers up and down our street as the grass was cut to within an inch of its life. I joined neighbours in scrubbing our immaculate new cars until the paintwork was surely rubbed clean. In the week, these same vehicles would start up in unison to then join the daily procession of commuters heading down the street to work. It was monotony and routine at its finest, and I knew this part of our life should change – had to change – if our life was to be any less ordinary.
With this in the back of our minds, rather then move to one of the purpose-built ‘commuter’ suburbs on the outskirts of Ottawa, we opted to buy a house not ten minutes form the city centre, in a bustling little area known as Hintonburg.
 |
| Our Ottawan house |
Ironically remembered as one of the first suburbs of Ottawa, Hintonburg was less a suburb and more an inner city community. Whilst the houses were packed in to a small residential area between the Queensway (the major Ottawa freeway) and the Ottawa River, Hintonburg felt more open than most out-of-town housing estates. Although there was less space, people were more respectful of the smaller space you occupied.
 |
| Less space but more interesting |
Rather than concern themselves with spying on our business or waste time arguing over the proper parking of cars, folks would stop in the street to make conversation, neighbours gave us cuttings from their plants or shrubs and helped out with renovations on the house, and we made many a good friend on our evening meet-ups at the local dog park. It wasn’t that this didn’t occur in suburbia, it just felt more sincere and heartfelt in Hintonburg.
 |
| All quiet on the suburban front |
We made many acquaintances in those early months, remaining in touch with most folks upon leaving Canada. In the first three months spent renting in a cookie-cutter suburb to the east of the city, we didn’t see a soul. Neighbours would pull in to their drives, set the automatic double doors in motion, and disappear into the depths of their oversized garage with not even a ‘hello’ or a ‘goodbye’.
 |
| Parliament Hill |
Our new ‘urban’ environment gave us good access to local downtown parks and numerous trails by the river. We were within walking distance of a variety of local shopping villages including Westborough and its plentiful cafes, boutique outlets, and arts and crafts festivals. I could literally ride my bike to work – and did. We could even see Parliament Hill from the window of our third floor attic bedroom.
 |
| Full of character |
One of the obvious draws to this downtown setting was the age and character of the neighbourhood. With houses that were less cookie cutter and more individualistic, there was a rich variety in the architecture allowing you to spend hours walking the streets admiring the changing periods of house-building and the subsequent home renovations. We could quite easily have opted for the modern four-bedroom new build so desirable of immigrants moving to North America in their search for size and space. Yet we fell in love with our downtown pad, both for its period charm, relative uniqueness and, of course, the fair share of problems it gave us in its old age.
 |
| Plumbing issues drove us round the bend |
We took a risk in moving from our comfort zone in the suburbs into an environment we knew nothing about. Short as it was, living this new urban life altered our perspective of how different and how positive our home environment could be, with just a few tweaks here and a change in attitude there.
The move told us that living a life less ordinary would mean constantly changing things up and going against the ‘norm’. It also told us that the big move abroad was only one of these changes and that mixing things up closer to home would also be key.
Leave a Reply