Living Downtown

We have been thinking a lot about moving lately but we're really torn. Living downtown is awesome but in exchange for our great location we live in a small condo. There are many times when I think that I want a yard, a bike, a dog and a car. All things we're saving for when we buy a house. As far as the car is concerned, it's something we could theoretically have now but it wouldn't be practical. D walks to work and I take the subway which is only a couple of blocks away (driving to work would be stupid with gas and parking rates). Instead, we rent and when we need a car it's always new and in good condition. That said, the itch to move is ALWAYS there. Ideally we would wait until my mat leave is over to move. That way I'll be downtown in walking distance to D's work and not isolated in some far flung suburb.
Although we're still looking and have expanded our search it seems that we may just stay here as planned and make some improvements to maximize our space. For one, we're going to rent a closet -Manhattan Style- and store our seasonal items like the xmas tree. I told D it seems excessive to spend $300 a year to store xmas decorations (why not just get a real tree and throw it out each year) but we do have other items we can put away. I think these other items could get the curb treatment with the real tree but we can't agree on that one. So, we're getting a closet (yay) and we're going to invest in some nifty PAX storage sytems from Ikea. We're pretty much doing this to our bedroom:


We're also going to get this sofabed from EQ3 for the living room. Our chair and ottoman are EQ3 and we really love them. This will helpwhen guests sleep over. It will be nice to have a bed to offer instead of the couch. It's also smaller than our current mammoth couch. Our living area is too small for a full size - not to mention the fact that a couch that doesn't come in 5o pieces won't fit up our stairwell. Condo living rocks.
The sofabed:

We're also thinking about pulling up the carpet (wall 2 wall) and putting in laminate or hardwood flooring. Our condo rules stipulate that you have to have area rugs over your hardwood flooring where people walk so it's kind of pointless to put down hardwood if you have to cover it. As much as I hate the carpet I don't know if I want to go through that for someplace we'll only live for 2-3 more years.

Dinner is ready.....!