When I first met Bob, he lived in a condo. I didn’t know if it was a beautiful place or not as we were dating and it was a significant amount of time before I was invited to his home. That day came and he had me over. I really liked it. I wouldn’t call it beautiful; but it was a very nice, dark, flat, house; a three-bedroom home, was condo style with another condo on top with people above. The walls were thick. We didn’t hear the people above; but it made it feel like a cave to me.
I say dark as there were three small windows and one patio window only on the east side; with such shade trees that the whole inside of the house never seemed to see the light of day.
Going there was beautiful for me as I tend to be a busy, people person; lots of activity and it was great to have a quiet, dark, candlelight atmosphere to relax with Bob. We’d cozy up in front of the fireplace; maybe watch an NFL game and young love blossomed.
When it came time that we were making the major move of living together, we made the decision to use the condo as our home, as our circumstances fit. My character home had a young woman renting the suite downstairs and my sister and her new husband were moving to Saskatoon needing a place to live till they found their own; they rented my house and I moved into Bob’s condo.
The darkness of that condo fit for the exciting change of life as a new couple; as a respite after a day of hard-working life; and a place to grieve as my dad passed away earlier that season. Bob and I travelled in the winter to sunnier places; he to Thailand; me to Columbia and Peru. That next summer I was learning to golf and Bob was out on the course daily; so evenings in the condo were right up our alley.
What is great is not so great sometimes too. The longer I was in it; the lack of light was a challenge for me. The shade trees could not be taken down and neither would I ever want that. The only other small kitchen window faced a garage. Our lives moved on. We purchased our Arizona home. Bob was now retired; he’d be in Arizona. I was going back and forth from Arizona to the condo by myself in the winter.
In the winter, there hardly seems to be any light in Saskatchewan. At nine am we are waiting for the sunrise in December and early January. You leave for work in the dark; you come home in the dark.
The condo was also on the opposite side of town to our summer lives, Bob had a half hour drive to the golf course each day; an hour commute by the end of the day. It was also that far or farther for myself to get to the golf courses I used. We started talking about retirement and what that might look like for us if we were to live half time in Arizona and half time in Saskatoon. We went for walks and scouted out some areas. We chose one area with established condos; did some price checking; saying if one of those condos were to come up for sale, we would seriously check it out.
Lo and behold, I was at work one day the next year; heard of a condo there for sale, phoned Bob in Arizona who looked at it on line; and agreed we should check it out. My noon hour had me hightailing it in a realtor’s car to the east side of the city; out of that car, and a step into a beautiful place. If I were to put no furniture in it; or nothing on the walls, it was and is a place full of light! We bought it; we love it and it is, and has been a beautiful place.
JANUARY 25, 2016
ellensagh 