The Great Debate ...of Ottawa

Ottawa is a great city. I love it, and am happy to live here as a close second to my home town. It's a shame that I'm four hours away from home, but I can deal with the drive.

Given that Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the cost of living is fairly steep... particularly downtown. Superman goes to school and works downtown. I work in central Ottawa, and hope to one day work a little closer to downtown. 

We live in the province of Quebec. Ottawa (Ontario) borders Quebec... and for some strange reason living in Quebec is so much cheaper, so you get a whole lot more bang for your buck. Gatineau/Hull (where we live) is actually closer than most of the reasonably priced locations in Ottawa, and is a 1-5 minute drive (depending on traffic and the bridge you choose) to downtown Ottawa.

It works and it's nice...except it's a hassle.

Living in a different province causes a lot of grief. My driver's license is in Ontario, my health card is in Ontario, I work in Ontario, my family is from Ontario, and taxing is different in Ontario. So to keep everything in Ontario (which is so much easier) we keep our parent's homes as our permanent addresses. It's frustrating to have to figure this all out, and have two addresses for everything. A lot of stuff is not available in Quebec. Not to mention everything is in French. The list goes on, and writing it out doesn't give it justice to how annoying it really is.

So the debate begins. We love our apartment. It's big. It's cheap. It's clean. It's nice. It's our home... but it's in Quebec.

So, what do we do?

We've decided we want to live in Ontario. The hassle is just too much.

The problem now is finding a new apartment that doesn't bust our budget, is in a safe area, and close to downtown. I have a car, so it doesn't matter much where I live, but Superman takes public transit, and needs to be able to get to school and work in a reasonable amount of time, with an option of biking.

We don't want to give up what we have. It has to be equally as good, or better.

So the search begins... to find the perfect apartment in Ontario.

Wish us luck... because it's not going to be easy!

And just to give you an idea of how amazing our apartment is now... here are a few pictures. We've made quite a few changes since, but you get the idea.

Kitchen

Bedroom

       

Living room/kitchen

Bathroom

Office

What would you do??