Living in the Suburbs

“Living in the Suburbs”, whenever I hear that phrase as a kid I didn’t think that would be me.

Plus as a kid “Suburban Living” was a place where they lived in the US. The Movies might have something to do with how I got that idea.

In my teens, living in the country I was going for a bike ride in the summer and got stopped by a vehicle. A bunch of ladies in their 20’s poke their head out. “Where’s the LAKE??”, “We’ve been driving for like EVER!!”. So I gave them directions and told them it would be maybe another 40 minutes (depending on which beach they go to).

Their last comment to me was, “You live in the BOONIES”.

It turns out a bunch of them from San Francisco where here visiting their friend from Vancouver.

The boonies comment has stuck with me because I thought they were crazy to think that. But now when we do go visit Vancouver and drive back home I think about those ladies. I put myself in their shoes and I would think driving it for the first time and when you go through to the turn off for Cultus Lake it’s mostly a lot of trees and farms (for a visitor that may seem like the boonies)…

Today, The Fraser Valley area outside of Vancouver where I grew up is vastly changing and definitely the “Suburbs of Vancouver”.

It’s becoming more like the suburbs that I saw in the movies as a kid.

Top that off, LOTS of movies and TV shows are filmed here. I recently bumped into a prop guy in the flower aisle at a local dollar store.  We got chatting and he told me there was 20 filming contracts currently in town.

Living in the Suburbs is different for me. My husband grew up in town, where as I grew up in the country.  As I said in the beginning I didn’t think I would be “Living in the Suburbs”. Here I am.

If your currently living in the suburbs or thinking of moving there, here’s some insight.

I honestly thought I would have to give up so much of what I love (open space).

If I could be a mini backyard homestead I would in a heartbeat.

But, our Suburban City  lot is still JUST to small for that dream.

You can still live and create your home to be the home you’ve dreamed of living in the suburbs.

Everyone has their own likes and dislikes or styles. There’s a place for community and getting to know your neighbors (or not, if you don’t want to).

I didn’t think giving our realtor our wish list that he would hit most of the check boxes for example: Family Home, Room for RV, Big backyard etc…. Then we came to this house and there was a bonus on my dream list, the greenhouse.

Along with those likes and dislikes, there’s so many options in the Suburbs. For us right now, we’ve been able to buy an affordable, “fixer upper” home. We’ve done a big renovation on our townhouse (meant to be short term to flip) and yes, it’s a LOT of work, and it paid off in the end.

I’m planning to share those renovations in the near future. I love a good “Before and After”. I’m a massive binge watcher of anything Reno and love watching the transformation.  We’ve done a small upgrade in our kitchen that’s made a massive impact already.

We’ve already done some much needed work in our backyard and our house has forced us to do the major updates for the important things like the furnace and roof to name a few.

Yes, my big dream is to have acreage and if I could write a “Homestead blog” I would fully do that. BUT, like I’ve shared before we live in the suburbs and our lot won’t be able to be the little homestead dream at this time.

For now, I get an abundance of raspberries and lovely flowers from the lady behind me. Our neighbor beside has a lovely grapevine and mini orchard and we share garden tips all the time. Love where we are at and our little community.

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Until my next post, have a great day!