Condo Living

As many of you probably know, there was a big storm up in this area of the world yesterday. Toronto got about a foot of snow! I sat in my office and watched it come down with big fluffy flakes until it miraculously stopped soon before quitting time. I had to trudge through the snow to get to the subway, but somehow I made it all the way home on transit with no delays. If you have ever lived here you would know this is a TTC miracle.

I swear that on days like today I love condo living. No driveway to shovel!! :D

There are other strange perks to living in a condo, however. This week I got a notice from the management of our building that people are coming in to power clean our dryers to eliminate any lint. According to the email, they are not just cleaning the ducts, but they are actually taking apart my dryer and cleaning it out. What?? So random, but I guess they figure the cost of this is worth protecting our units from fire from lint.

Another condo thing- for the past couple of years I have noticed the odd tiny little bug. I am fairly confident they are carpet beetles but I literally find one a month and never paid much attention beyond killing them. Well some other unit owners noticed these little buggers too and management has been notified so someone will be coming in to fumigate or something. I don't know the details on that yet, but they are doing it when we get our annual visit from pest control.

On this note, my unit also gets annual visits from someone who does maintenance on my HVAC unit and tests my fire alarm. In fact, a few weeks ago management called and asked if they could enter my unit and check my alarm because one unit's alarm on my floor wasn't working.

Yes, these expenses come out of the general expense fund of the condo which is funded by my maintenance fees, but it is pretty nice having these things taken care of without a big hit on my own budget! Plus, these workers are accompanied at all times by security, so I don't need to take time off for them either. I know not everyone is comfortable with that, but you do get the choice of staying home if you want. They are very accommodating for special requests too. I was cat sitting for my friend during a scheduled visit and you can't leave pets running around if they are coming into your unit so I asked if they could come another day when the cat would be gone (but when the company was still contracted to be in the building since these projects take time) and they were fine with it!

So there you go- a little sneak peek into how maintenance-free condo living can be! It is a lot more than not mowing your lawn or shoveling your driveway. I know some people can have horror stories of the downside of condos, but I still love this type of housing!