My wife and I have been married for three months now.
We have been looking for a home to purchase ever since we got back from our honeymoon in Italy.
My wife, Irene is a complicated lady but has very singular tastes.
She doesn’t demand much but when she wants something, she surely knows how to get her way.
Her parents insisted we move into Cote-St-Luc, right into the house across from them. As if we would live in some type of “Everybody loves Raymond” nightmare and be content, they must be crazy.
Imagine waking up every morning, opening up your blinds, and seeing your father-in-law in his underwear watering his lawn, not a sight you want to start the day seeing.
Irene understands my concern for being too close to her parents, as much as she loves them she loves me too.
We agreed that we would not move into Cote-St-Luc but that we would stay close to them.
Irene always dreamed of a big beautiful house with a yard surrounded by a white picket fence and a nice backyard with a pool and a deck.
Unfortunately our budget doesn’t allow us to purchase such a dream home at this time.
We came to the conclusion that a condominium would be much more fitting to our economic and family situation.
I mean, we want kids, don’t get me wrong… it’s just not fair to bring a child into this world without the proper resources to accommodate it.
So we had our realtor take us around NDG and show us the condos.
NDG is close enough to Irene’s parents for her and them to be happy, and far enough for me to not have to worry about being traumatized by Irene’s father accidentally losing his pants again.
The NDG condos our realtor showed us were exceptional however there was something missing for Irene in each of them and that was a view.
He must have taken us to eight or nine condos before we finally found one that would stick.
It was situated on Monkland Street, which is a lively street day and night in NDG.
It is filled with restaurants, bars, and stores and is in a very convenient location with regards to other common Montreal streets.
I was never a fan of NDG as a child for it is where I grew up during a devastating financial time for my parents.
We did not have the luxury of shopping for a condo or eating at fancy restaurants on Monkland.
But NDG was different when I was a kid.
It was a beat up, old, low-income town with a few public schools and many project apartment buildings. Today, NDG is a cosmopolitan mixed income urban neighborhood highly sought after by young professionals.
The multitude of services, including parks and other green spaces, schools, clinics and major institutions, make it an ideal neighborhood to raise a family close to the center of the city of Montreal and its Central Business District.
The vintage and antique housing is generally well kept and the aesthetic of early 20th century first-ring suburb has been preserved.
Additionally, NDG is well served by public transit, including numerous bus lines, two metros and two train stations.
NDG used to be my home but Irene is my home now and if she wants an NDG condo, then an NDG condo is what she will get.
