Today is a big day - well - actually there's been a series of big days in the last week, and it will all culminate next week, but today is just as big a day as any of the others. I guess I have to explain that now...

As you might know from several of my recent blog posts, Michelle and I have been thinking about moving downtown, or at least to Toronto. She bought a condo in East York, but it won't be finished until early next year, and if we ever want to feel like real adults, we knew we had to move earlier. SO we found a place. That's the short version.

Last Wednesday, we went to see an apartment (3 in the same low-rise building actually) at Pape and Cosburn...to put it into perspective, the condo Michelle bought is being built at Cosburn and Donlands. You can literally see the crane from this place of where the condo is being built.

The original listing...it definitely didn't look as promising as it turned out
to be.

We saw three apartments - two slightly smaller (although small is relative) places, and one larger place. We didn't notice a huge difference in the three except for their locations in the building, so we decided to put an application in for one of the smaller ones that was on the Southeast corner of the building. It was being refinished, and was a bit of a mess still, but it had HUGE windows (like the other units we saw) and was in the right location.

Fast forward four days and a trip up North later, and we come home to an email from the landlord thanking us for being patient and offering us an apartment - just not the one we applied for. The larger unit was the one she was hoping we'd take...and although it wasn't our first choice, all of the good beat out the negatives and we decided to take it.

So fast forward again to today, when we'll be giving our last month's rent and officially signing the lease to move in.....NEXT WEEK! It's definitely fast, but what you don't know is that I've been silently packing for the last few weeks in anticipation that we'd find something for August 1 - a couple weeks extra (at no charge I might add) doesn't change things!

So here we are - caught up in the apartment hunting timeline to the present, and Michelle and I are officially moving in to our first place together....

I'm going to try my best to chronicle to move for a few reasons:

•  It'll be my first time away from my parents (not that I'm sheltered....it's just worked out that way), 
• I'll be moving to Toronto (I love Mississauga, and the suburbs, but I've always wanted to live in the city, and here's our chance), 

It's a shorter drive than it looks, but still...

• I'll become a commuter (as per my earlier blog posts...I'm getting rid of my car, and using the TTC and zipcar)

Anyone need a car?

• Michelle and I will be living together for the first time. 

So going forward, if you continue to read my blogs, you'll get to hear about the excitement, the struggles, and the growing up I suppose. It's going to be an experience...that's for sure.

..............

So let's get to it....

All I have for you right now is some details about the place...and how life is going to change once we move...

The place is at Pape/Cosburn, which is just North of Pape subway station on the Danforth, and just West of where the condo is going to be built that we'll be living in later on (at Donlands and Cosburn).

It's a one-bedroom apartment in a three-floor, 17 unit low-rise, and although I don't have any pictures yet....all I can say is that the windows are HUGE. This maybe doesn't matter to you...but I've been living in a basement for the last 10 years, and don't remember what it's like to be woken up by natural light, for all I know, the sun rises at 2 AM.

I'll be seeing the place again tonight, so I'll take some pictures if I can.

A few things we've noticed over the last week or so...that other people looking to rent might like to know...Especially if you're moving to Toronto...

1. Many landlords require you to get tenant's insurance which will be another cost on top of your rent. It's only about $20 a month, but that's still money out of your pocket.
2. Rogers are crooks. We already knew that, but since we've been looking at cable prices, and realizing that there's no alternative to go to, we just shake our heads in disbelief. 
3. There's always ways out of your lease (this is thanks to Michelle's knowledge). We were worried about signing a year long lease, since the condo will probably be done before then (although who knows...), but there are so many ways that you can break the agreement (legally!) that you shouldn't have to worry. Whether it be subletting, or giving enough notice, we're not worried.
4. Zipcar is cheaper than Autoshare. Autoshare has a LOT more cars in the city, but their signup costs are more expensive and their membership fees are higher. If you have a Zipcar lot near you, go with them.

That's probably it for now...but there'll be much more to come....I'll keep you all posted...whether you like it or not :)

Cheers

So last week, we decided to go with an alternative to Rogers Cable in my household - something significantly cheaper, but with all of the same perks, and we're pretty happy with it. However, while we were switching over, there were 3-4 days of blackout...meaning, no cable whatsoever.

If this has ever happened to you, you know that you go through a bit of a cycle of adaptation - the first day, you're okay with it, you feel free - like you have all the time in the world to do things you were otherwise distracted from doing. The second day, you start to get a little antsy, and you maybe forget that you don't have cable; you get home and turn on the TV expecting to watch some mindless sitcoms, or at the very least, the news...and all you get is nothing...the blue screen with "No Signal". In the days of digital, there's no more static or fuzz, with that annoying "Cshhhhhh" noise radiating out of the small speakers on your tube tv.

This new, slightly less annoying
screen has replace...

...this old annoying, yet slightly
comforting static.

 After that, you try and find solutions, and that's exactly what I did...in Netflix.

About a year ago, I tried Netflix - whenever you sign up you get a free trial, for a month. That's more than enough time to see what their selection is, and if you'll actually watch anything. At the time, I knew a couple of days in that I would be cancelling after the first month - with the lack of selection in the Canadian catalogue, coupled with my beginnings on icefilms.info, it just wasn't something I needed to pay for. I'll be honest, if there had been a decent selection of even TV shows, I would have considered staying.

Fast forward a year....Megavideo is shut down, and a lot of other online file hosting sites are tucking their tails between their legs, and it's becoming a little harder to find a movie out there on the 'net. Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe in pirating and love going to the movies - hell, I even buy DVD's when they make themselves worth buying; I just can't justify paying for things like TV shows, or older movies that I know I won't ever watch more than once. Blockbuster video used to save me on that front...but...well...we all know how that went down...

A common sight, only a year ago...

So, here we are, in 2012 - my cable down, and me hearing a lot of good things about the improvements to Canada's Netflix catalogue...so I gave it a go.

The selection? Better - definitely better, we've added some new releases (and by that, I mean the last year), and some pretty popular TV shows...Dexter, Community, etc .but still nothing that I really was dying to watch. I was on the fence with paying for it at the end of my free trial, so I thought - there MUST be a way for me to access the American stuff.

As Canadians, we've always been told that a lot of the titles aren't available here yet, due to copyright, etc etc. yadda yadda yadda...so it's this huge mystery. But, with a quick Google search and finding unblock-us.com, and some quick changes to my PS3 proxy setting (this mainly means that I'm fooling Netflix into thinking that I'm accessing Netflix from a US connection), and I opened myself up to all of the American content.

Success - the American Netflix - from my home in Canada.

Some details - the service on unblock-us.com that allows you to do this, is 6 bucks a month to use - and on top of the $8 that Netflix charges, I'll be paying 14 a month should I continue after my free trial. Now for my thoughts and decision...

The American Netflix? Definitely better than Canada, but not crazy good. It didn't blow me away, and to be honest, I still haven't even decided if I'm going to keep it or not. The newest release was like X-Men: First Class, and Rango - which aren't new releases by any means, so if you're looking for movies - this is a TERRIBLE replacement for rentals. However, if you look at things like documentaries, older movies, and TV shows especially, there's a really good selection.

With all seasons of "The Office", "How I Met your Mother", "X Files", "Eastbound and Down", "Breaking Bad" to name a few - I was pretty impressed...or maybe I was jaded by not having cable lol Really though, it impressed me enough to give it until the end of the month to make a decision - if I'm still going to be renting movies, then using itunes, or Sony's movie store on the PS3 might be a better idea. For the 14 dollars I'd be spending to keep netflix, I could rent 3 new releases a month, and that'd only be the ones that I can't find to download elsewhere. Sure Netflix is the morally sound choice, but until they start making it worth our whiles, nobody will start paying to access movie content.

The reason illegal music downloads have started to subside, is because the music services like iTunes make the experience EASY, and worthwhile - you get deals on songs, and albums. Whereas on netflix, you can't even get movies until they've been out for 8-12 months....

The jury is still out, but it's not looking good....I'd suggest you try it out...but don't expect it to live up to the hype.