Beyond apartment people, share me your experience

[TomcoPDR]

Any Beyonders care to share their apartment living experience?

Raised here for over 2 decades, but always lived in suburban soccer mom communities. :(

Though I love single house dwellings, private garage/driveways. But as we age, our values of convenience change through out our lives (freedom from home maintenance, location of where apartments usually built)

Open topic, open interpretation of what you feel an "apartment" is defined. (even if you're living in a condo, townhouse, etc...)

For myself, I'm wondering if someone within the age group between 25-38 yo could answer these questions

- Big apartment complex (over 200+ units)
- Newer builds 2005+
- Examples: London @ Heritage, The Guardian, Arriva, Sasso, Vertro, those ones above NorthHill mall, etc...
- Do you like the lifestyle an apartment offers? (open answer)
- Would you (did you) purposely look for apartments with pools, guest rooms, gyms? (downside is condo fee special assessment maintenance)
- Is it common for others to steal YOUR reserved underground parking stalls? (i.e. you're titled 2 stalls, only have 1 vehicle)
- For those who's lived in a single house in Cgy but switched to apartment life now; what's the hardest adjustment during the transition? (for me, I can picture myself getting annoyed with the elevator, the wait time in elevators, forgetting something once you get to underground)
-Pros and Cons in your own words


Thanks for the answers (I've tried searching for this topic for 30 mins before starting this new thread, sorry if repeat)

[A790]

- Do you like the lifestyle an apartment offers? (open answer)

No, it becomes a PITA quickly. No garage to work on car/whatever, elevators (waiting for them to show up), pain in the ass when you have groceries/furniture/whatever to take to your unit.

- Would you (did you) purposely look for apartments with pools, guest rooms, gyms? (downside is condo fee special assessment maintenance)

Not a priority for me but nice to have.

- Is it common for others to steal YOUR reserved underground parking stalls? (i.e. you're titled 2 stalls, only have 1 vehicle)

Only happened to me once.

- For those who's lived in a single house in Cgy but switched to apartment life now; what's the hardest adjustment during the transition? (for me, I can picture myself getting annoyed with the elevator, the wait time in elevators, forgetting something once you get to underground)

Noise. You'll hear your neighbours. Influenced by sound deadening, but there is always noise...

[jwslam]

I figured out what I wanted in the span of 2 months once I decided I already missed my goal of leaving home by 25 so I had to do it by 26.

My buddies and I looked at a lot of the new builds coming up downtown. They're still pretty mind-set on those. They were a while down the road from possession so I moved onto existing. Quite quickly I realized I don't want to work where I play and play where I work, so I moved away from the DT core area.

Then I realized there's a lot of things that an apartment/condo doesn't provide me that I wanted within my budget: garage for car stuffs; stair separation between living/bedroom space; waiting for that darn elevator, esp. if one is under maintenance; an outdoor hosting space.

So I moved onto townhomes. After finally stepping foot into a few, I went with a full sized house. I may as well do the mowing/shoveling while I have the physical ability to right? And I have the freedom to do stuff like build my own firepit. And I feel like the land will provide more appreciation down the road when I move again.

My possession date is June. Darn excited =)

[TomcoPDR]

Nice posts A790 and jwslam.

Soooooo, so far single dwelling still kicks ass?

Anyone else love apartments over single dwelling I guess? (I've never done it, so just kinda got the grass greener feel for me)

[jwslam]

Turn this into a poll thread?

[A790]

Originally posted by TomcoPDR
Nice posts A790 and jwslam.

Soooooo, so far single dwelling still kicks ass?

Anyone else love apartments over single dwelling I guess? (I've never done it, so just kinda got the grass greener feel for me)
I have a townhouse, and while it has some disadvantages (namely, occasionally I hear my neighbours), it's probably the best blend of apartment/detached lifestyle.

No shoveling/mowing/exterior maintenance, garage, plenty of space. Not too shabby :)

[TomcoPDR]

Originally posted by A790

I have a townhouse, and while it has some disadvantages (namely, occasionally I hear my neighbours), it's probably the best blend of apartment/detached lifestyle.

No shoveling/mowing/exterior maintenance, garage, plenty of space. Not too shabby :)

So maybe look into a double garage with driveway townhouse for now (complex deals with maintenance), before stepping to apartment lifestyle?

Some of you Calgarians living in these new apartments seem to have such carefree, chill out baller lifestyle. :bigpimp:

[D88]

Biggest problem for me these days is having space to work on my car. Otherwise apartment living is easy.

Try to go for a unit with en suite washer/dryer.

Living too high up is a pain in the ass because you are always waiting too long for the elevator.

It's better to live closer to the ground (for me, 12 floors or less) at a height where you can easily take the stairs if need be.

People stealing my parking stall hasn't been a problem yet. I have under ground parking but I would imagine that parking above ground would create more opportunities for others to take your spot.

Lastly, you're at the mercy of your neighbours. They can be awesome or complete shitheads. It's really just a luck of the draw. I suppose the same can be said for living in a house but it's more dire in apartment living since you're in such close proximity to one another.

[dannie]

Although I've not lived in any of the really big condo complexes in the city, I've lived in other version of it. Heres the pros/cons from what I experienced. Keep in mind, I'm ridiculously busy. I am rarely home. So that plays a factor into wmy pros and cons.

12 Unit Complex:

This one was a 3 story unit and the apartment was in the middle level. The people above us were good. I rarely heard them, they rarely heard us. The unit downstairs though, had the audacity to stop me one morning and tell me that the sound of the toilet flushing was too loud. They asked that we not flush the toilet between 10pm-7am. Ya..... no.

The elevator was ridiculously slow and it was always quicker to just take the stairs.

The smell of the neighbors food cooking when I came home was either epic or terrible (depending on what they were cooking).

I had two stalls at this unit. One was titled/underground and the other was assigned/above ground. The titled one, I never had any issues with anyone parking in the stall. The above ground, people were always randomly parking there.

Having someone shovel, mow etc is awesome. It amazed me how much time it freed up.

Single Family House:

The single family house was great for a handful of reasons.

You never smelled your neighbors food unless they are BBQ'ing
Your own garage to park/putter around in
Decent space to hang out in the yard

The bad side?

Maintenance - including mowing/shovelling etc

Even though you may want to crank some music, if its too loud, your neighbors will be by very quickly to ask you turn it down

Im not a fan of being friends with my neighbors. In the area I was in, it was a big ol' friendly neighborhood. I'd rather go home, close the door and not have to worry about offending someone by not saying hi.

The biggest issue is that I am not a putzer. With a house, you are always putzing around with something. The time I spend at home, I prefer to come home to something worryfree.

If you have a bunch of people over and they park on the street.. it can cause a major issue with neighbors. People seem to think that the area in front of their house is THEIR space. God forbid someone park in front of their house.

Townhouse (end unit):

This one was hugely dependant on who my neighbors were. The first set that were sharing the party wall, we awful. Loud, obnoxious and constantly an annoyance. The second family, were fantastic.

The good side was that the lawn/snow was taken care of

There was an attached garage with a driveway, so no issues with parking at all and it still gave you somewhere to put all your stuff

There was a large gated yard so it felt as though it was private, yet was still maintained by the condo corp

The bad:

Smells again. If the neighbor didn't take out their trash and had it in the garage, it stank up your garage.

Neighbors in townhouses are generally comprised by older men/women. They watch you like hawks. Do something wrong, they will run to the board. Run your car too long? They come to your door to ask you to turn it off. It's good in some ways because they keep an eye out for your place.

Garbage garages are an issue in every complex, whether apartment or townhouse. Its always a mess and people will always throw their garbage in the bin closest to the door even if its overflowing.

No listening to anything loud, because the neighbors sharing the wall tend to not appreciate it.

Parking can be a massive issue with visitor parking/stalls etc


Warehouse:

So far for me, this has been the absolute best choice. If you can find it, make it happen. No neighbor issues, no smells issues, the building hires a contractor to clear snow, roof top terrace for outdoor space..... I could go on and on.

The only negatives that I've had is that being downtown, you get a handful of homeless cruising the alley. I've never had any issues with it, but some people might not like it. One day a year my community shuts down for a festival, so parking becomes an issue if I leave before the shut down.


____________________________________

Both the house and the townhouse were in the area of my office. You know what I do for a living, so im sure you understand the amount of crazies I deal with daily. Living and working in the same community became frustrating. I couldn't run errands without someone stopping me and asking questions. Another poster mentioned they didn't like working and living in the same area. I could not agree more. So be careful about where you choose to live.

[Cos]

.

[tch7]

Originally posted by A790

I have a townhouse, and while it has some disadvantages (namely, occasionally I hear my neighbours), it's probably the best blend of apartment/detached lifestyle.

No shoveling/mowing/exterior maintenance, garage, plenty of space. Not too shabby :)
I concur. It was as close to apartment living as I was willing to go. Spent enough time in hotels to know that I never want people living above me, which is probably the biggest factor for me.

I do somewhat miss the exterior maintenance stuff though, and it also means I never see my neighbours since there's not much reason to be outside except for a few days in the summer. I've lived in my place for over a year now and I still don't know exactly who/what is living on the one side of my place.

Overall I'm pretty happy with townhouse life. I'd still prefer to have a small detached house, but there are none in my price range in the neighbourhoods I'd want to call home.

[TomcoPDR]

Great answers. (Dannie has been to so many places that's so cool. So much insight)

As for neighbours noise, ok what about in concrete highrises. (Arriva, guardian type of solid builds). I would think those would be quiet

[BigMass]

from experience, the most important factors are

1) well managed building (maintenance, funds, etc)
2) location
3) sound insulation between units

investors on new high-rises offering tons of small units at low prices, maybe without parking etc are like flies on shit. Avoid that because you will end up with a building of nothing but rental units. Living surrounded by renters is a big difference than being surrounded by owners. Investors do what they can to keep condo fees low, ignore maintenance issues and see the unit as a quick buck, not as a "home"

Look out for building restrictions. 18+ building is always nice for obvious reasons.

Always look at surroundings. Are you on the 5th floor of a building where across the street is a 4 floor building with huge HVAC fans ontop of it that make constant noise so you cant even keep your window open

Are you near a nightclub or place that thumps loud bass until 2am every night (no amount of sound insulation will protect you from douchebag bass)

The last thing I would ever look at or care about when looking for a condo is meaningless shit like appliances, countertops, paint, cabinets etc. Condos are small and are easy to renovate and do what you want with them. Fixing shitty neighbors, poor sound insulation, bad location and crappy management is almost impossible.

[rob the knob]

apartment is good for security especially if you travel a lot. you lock your door and don't worry about anything. with house or townhouse, more worry and especially with a house you need someone to check in on things.

[jwslam]

Originally posted by tch7
I've lived in my place for over a year now and I still don't know exactly who/what is living on the one side of my place.
Am I crazy to think it's normal for people to go knock and say hi?
:nut:

[tch7]

Originally posted by jwslam

Am I crazy to think it's normal for people to go knock and say hi?
:nut:
Yes. Yes you are.

The only people that show up unannounced at a front door either want to take your money or brainwash you. The only exception to this I can think of during my lifetime was when I had a stalker, and I don't know what he wanted.

[revelations]

Originally posted by jwslam

Am I crazy to think it's normal for people to go knock and say hi?
:nut:

No, the wife did it even with the rental place we are in temporarily.

We have some nice neighbours and just a good sense to have a knowledge of whos in the neighbourbood.

[J-D]

Detached > Townhouse > Apartment

I'm going to have to settle for one of the latter for my first place - but if my friends experiences are accurate I can just tell it's going to be a shit show.

[finboy]

The gf and I just went through this decision for a new place to rent, we wanted to stay walking distance to downtown so we asked friends in all scenarios for their opinions. For us, condos/apartments don't work (I like to work on my car, and have lots of guitars/amps), and price wise it wasn't much more to find a smaller house.

Utilities are going to be more expensive as you are likely going to find an older house, neighbours can still be crazy, and there may be more work to do, but I can't imagine living in a high rise, elevators but me enough when I have to go to work.

[Mar]

- Moved into an apartment at $750 rent. A couple of months later the rent was $2500 per month.
- The lock inside the door handle snapped off and it took me 20 minutes of explaining to the foreigner landlord that it wasn't my key that snapped off in the lock, it was the lock that broke inside the handle.
- Paid for a locksmith, couldn't get my money back from the landlord until I eventually just shorted him on the monthly rent.
- My car alarm paged me one night and I found a guy sitting in the driver seat of my car with a screwdriver.

Take your pick of any of these. Do you want them to happen to you? Don't live in an apartment.

[msommers]

Originally posted by Mar
- Moved into an apartment at $750 rent. A couple of months later the rent was $2500 per month.
- The lock inside the door handle snapped off and it took me 20 minutes of explaining to the foreigner landlord that it wasn't my key that snapped off in the lock, it was the lock that broke inside the handle.
- Paid for a locksmith, couldn't get my money back from the landlord until I eventually just shorted him on the monthly rent.
- My car alarm paged me one night and I found a guy sitting in the driver seat of my car with a screwdriver.

Take your pick of any of these. Do you want them to happen to you? Don't live in an apartment.

Your rent went from $750 initially, and then tripled in 3 months? Yeah that's fucking believable.

I live in an apartment building with a very high ownership rate. It's alright, parking space between cars isn't very big which is annoying. What I really want? To be able to crank my music when I feel like it. I also wish I bought a top floor place.

The location is awesome though and to get a detached home in my community which has been equivalently updated as mine is now, I would be looking at triple my current mortgage at minimum (ie: not happening). Fortunately I can still use the parent's garage when I need to but the extra storage space would be handy.

For me to get a detached home, I'd be looking into the boonies which isn't something I wanted. I'm confident I can unload my place or rent it out ease covering the condo fees/mortgage in the future, so I'll build some equity now and the next purchase will likely be detached. Your first place isn't the one you end up spending your life in, but you gotta start somewhere.

[TomcoPDR]

Originally posted by Mar
- Moved into an apartment at $750 rent. A couple of months later the rent was $2500 per month.
- The lock inside the door handle snapped off and it took me 20 minutes of explaining to the foreigner landlord that it wasn't my key that snapped off in the lock, it was the lock that broke inside the handle.
- Paid for a locksmith, couldn't get my money back from the landlord until I eventually just shorted him on the monthly rent.
- My car alarm paged me one night and I found a guy sitting in the driver seat of my car with a screwdriver.

Take your pick of any of these. Do you want them to happen to you? Don't live in an apartment.

How the hell did rent triple over that short in time? (When did u start $750, and what time was $2500) that's robbery.

[Mar]

Originally posted by TomcoPDR


How the hell did rent triple over that short in time? (When did u start $750, and what time was $2500) that's robbery. They wanted people to leave and that was the only legal way to do it. Residents were outraged and eventually forced the management company (Gateway) to pony up $500 per person for moving expenses.

It was the building on the southwest corner of 19 Avenue and 4 Street, across from the Chinese food place. Once they got everyone out the renovated it and sold the suites instead of renting them.

I wish I had kept the notice letter for proof.

[cam_wmh]

Do you like the lifestyle an apartment offers?
Very much so. I live in one of the best social communities in town; Mission.
Car is parked safely, hardwood/granite, all that yuppy shit & I can see the downtown skyline while in bed, aaaaaaaaand I never use my stove:rofl:.
While I can walk to work in 20, or drive in 10, I still have a home office to work from a couple times a week. Only on the 2nd floor, so secure, yet almost always take the stairs unless its after hockey from the parkade LOL.

Would you (did you) purposely look for apartments with pools, guest rooms, gyms?
No. Waste of money. They're rarely ever used by the tenants/owners. That is square footage that is not contributing towards condo fees.

Is it common for others to steal YOUR reserved underground parking stalls? Never. Neighbouring stalls a few down have double deep parking. Mine is long enough for a good sized truck. Can park a motorcycle in front of my car, as a few other guys are doing. Condo board is ok with it too.

Pros and Cons in your own words
While in uni, I did the commute from the folks place. Never again will I do that. 1.5 to 2 hours of optimal daily productive time squandered. I tried to give myself all the excuses; use it to read, relax, enjoy the drive. If I had an event after work, (hockey/soccer/volunteer), I'd either have to stay late at work, or I double my commute time. Nadda. No way. The lifestyle opportunity cost was just too much of a sacrifice for me.

I think one of the most important pieces of advice I can give, is perform your due diligence. Empirical history of the building, including of course, the condo docs. Talk to the owners there. One of the first things I noticed touring the parkade, is everyone has a newer vehicle than I do. As I did my due, I identified those on the board, and their trades --- professionals -- lawyers/engineers etc; exactly who I want on the board. Not bored geriatrics. Rented vs Owned tenancy, as a proportion. Ours is very low, and that was very attractive to me. That piece actually was the deciding factor for me.

And for when I want to work on my car, I have access to a huge one, with lifts & tools. *Edit, that's not in the condo, that's family's.

Con.
A new neighbor moved in, and she has one of those little dogs. For the first few weeks it barked alot. She's right across the hall, and i did hear it a couple times as I got up in the morning. I felt, hey the dog is in a new environment so it's just getting used to things. While I certainly had the right to complain, I'm a dog guy so I just let it be.. Turns out at our AGM last week, the barking was brought up to the owner, and dog shut up immediately.


Hope this helps
-Cam

[msommers]

Wow is that even legal?! :thumbsdow

[Hallowed_point]

I've had good and bad experiences living in apartments/condos. My newest condo (built 2001 ish) has been a dream compared to living at mayfair place and the shithole apartment on 58 Ave across from chinook. :barf:

Old places - Smelling stinky ethic food and cigarette/reefer 24 hours a day due to improper ventilation in the building. Dealing with scummy white trash people yelling and partying at all hours. Parking outside beside a dumpster with a nicer car with homeless folks rummaging for bottles. No elevator or unreliable elevators. The pool and sauna at mayfair were nice features. Especially when you know how to sneak in after hours ;)

New place - Quiet, underground parking, free car wash, proper ventilation (can't smell neighbors food/smoke etc) higher quality tenants. Cons - only one elevator which made moving in tough (only allowed to use it for one hour to move 2 people in.) Some older retired folks with too much time on their hands making false statements to the manager about our dog "barking all day non stop." The lifestyle is great for us though, just enough space and the location is awesome. Quiet, yet right beside Glenmore. Can't ask for much more.

[cam_wmh]

I think the shittiest condo I lived in was the Boardwalk tower at the end of 26th ave, right in the corner of the Elbow river. I rented then. Underground parking back then was too expensive (i think $200/month), so I parked above ground. Militant geese were often lingering near my car.:rofl:

Just an old building, ethnic food smells, but the concrete walls restricted sounds quite well. Didn't have in-suite laundry. Last time I dealt with that.

Oh, and the 2005 floods flooded the parkade and electrical etc; Moved out the following year.

[shakalaka]

I am not sure what others have said so far but I can give you my experience and general advise about living in apartments. I live my entire life in suburbs and quiet areas. When I moved to Edmonton for articling I ended up buying an apartment in a building called the Quest. As far as I can tell as of right now, it's pretty much the best/newest building in downtown.

Living in an apartment is obviously a lot different than a house. Of course there are issues with working on your cars. I have an underground parking spot but you can't exactly use that to do any elaborate work on your car. Not that I do that anyway, so it isn't an issue. I hate the fact that the dust collects on the vehicles parked underground like crazy! Other than that there is plenty of space in my parking spot that I can easily park my car and bike. In the winter I had no problems parking my Escalade either, the only pain was having to back it up in the spot. I have never had issues with anyone stealing my spot. Only when I first bought the place, but the condo people put a note on the car and ever since then it has never happened again. Here are some pictures of my parking spot for reference;

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/karanaujla/Mobile%20Uploads/20140329_133001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/karanaujla/Mobile%20Uploads/20140329_133051.jpg

The car was freshly washed so it's fine, but you can see what I mean by dust collecting by looking at the bike!

Buying groceries and other things is a pain in the ass you gotta take them up the elevators and what not. My building is quite well built so there are no noise issues or anything, but compared to a house there still is less privacy of course. Say if you leave the apartment you gotta be dressed semi-appropriately cause you could run into several other people.

The fact that you got to pay for condo fee every month is ridiculous and they keep increasing at every year. My building has no swimming pool or gym, which i didn't want, so the fee is reasonable, however it still keeps going up all the time.

The best thing about the apartment lifestyle is the lack of maintenance for me. No grass to cut, no snow to shovel and it being small there is not that much to clean. But this may not be applicable to everyone as I am fairly lazy when it comes to this stuff. Another thing I love is that I can walk everywhere. I walk to work which is 15 mins from here and I don't have to drive and worry about parking and all that.

All in all, I don't mind lifestyle right now, when I have no kids etc. Even for a young couple, it's not a bad place to live in. However, after getting married and having kids, I will most likely move out of the apartment lifestyle. Especially cause I don't particularly care about living in downtown. That opinion might be different if I lived in Calgary downtown vs the shitty Edmonton downtown, but I doubt it.

[S-FLY]

Do you like the lifestyle an apartment offers?
Absolutely. When I first moved to Calgary I lived in a house in McKenzie and took the "express" bus to work downtown Monday-Friday. It was only an "express" when traffic wasn't a nightmare. If there's an accident on Deerfoot, I'd leave work at 5pm and maybe be walking in the door at 6:30pm.

After that, I bought an old condo as my first place. Wood construction built in 1912, no balcony and outdoor parking. That place was a huge mistake.

Then I rented a 1980's apartment on a busy street. It was better because it was concrete and had underground parking and a balcony. But it didn't have AC and faced the busy side (12th avenue). It was noisey, all the time.

Then bought a place in Keynote. It was fantastic! New concrete construction, underground parking, AC, balcony, gym, sunterra grocery store, a bar/restaurant that makes breakfast to go for $7, starbucks and RBC! Location was great for Flames games, Stampede grounds and the Ctrain.

I needed more space so I ended up buying a 2 bedroom in Keynote 2 where I currently reside. Love the amenities. In the meantime, I sold my 1 bedroom in Keynote and rented an apartment in Mission while I waited for my 2 bedroom to be built. I loved Mission. So close to everything and had that chic, trendy, laid back vibe while still being downtown.

Fast forward, now in Keynote 2 and nothing to complain about. There's a wine store in the base of Tower 1 that just opened. I hope a dry cleaner moves into the commercial space in Tower 2.

Now, on days when leaving the core is an issue, it takes me 15 minutes to walk to my condo in Keynote. I often pass people stuck in traffic and think to myself "I don't miss those days". 15 minutes door to door and I'm ready to make dinner... if I make dinner. Most days I just grab something quick at Sunterra or something to put on the BBQ.

Would you (did you) purposely look for apartments with pools, guest rooms, gyms?

No. But they are nice to have. My tower has a 15 person hot tub that I've used once in the 8 months I've lived there.

Is it common for others to steal YOUR reserved underground parking stalls?

No, never, but when I moved in I accidentally took someone elses spot for a couple days. I thought it was mine, but mine was around the corner. (Sorry about that!).

Pros and Cons in your own words

Pros: Commute time. You need to be in that downtown mindset. Where you're willing to sacrifice space for convenience. If you're a young professional, it's perfect. Work, gym, social life, repeat. I only put 8000km/year on my car and fill it once every 2 weeks. I don't drive much... because, you don't need to. Even if you do, there's always a car2go near by. No maintenance. If you want to leave for a couple weeks, just lock the door and go.

Cons: I'd love to have a garage to work on my car and a little bit more space.


Overall, if you're looking for an apartment or apartment style condo, your best bet is to find a new construction in the area you want to live in. New construction buildings have FAR better sound deadening and faster elevators than the old ones.

[Mar]

Another downside to a condo downtown is you can't go anywhere between 4pm-6pm. It'll take you 40 minutes to get out of downtown. On the flip side, if you work outside downtown, getting home during rush hour is easy, everyone else is going the opposite way.

[bjstare]

Originally posted by Mar
Another downside to a condo downtown is you can't go anywhere between 4pm-6pm. It'll take you 40 minutes to get out of downtown. On the flip side, if you work outside downtown, getting home during rush hour is easy, everyone else is going the opposite way.

I currently live on 18ave and 9st SW, and literally not once has it EVER taken me close to 40 min to get out of downtown. Even if I'm going to visit my parents, who live North of dt and I go straight through it, or out 14st.

I used to have a detached home inner city NW, sold that when I got a divorce, and moved into an apt.

Pros for the apt:
- walking distance to work, tons of food, lots of shopping, coffee shops, nightlife etc etc etc
- no maintenance to worry about, just call the landlord
- miniscule utility bills in comparison to my house

Cons:
- Paying rent is for suckers
- Sharing a building with 100 other people. I find that the noise transmitted through walls isn't that bad. It's the noise from the neighbours above us that's brutal.
- Parking sucks. Street parking is for suckers, and according to MaskedBandit, underground shared parking is one of the highest risk areas for break ins.

I just bought an infill just north of DT and can't wait to get back to that area.

[pheoxs]

I just want an empty bay of a warehouse where I can set up a 2 post lift and a small bachelor pad ... how hard is that to ask :(

That being said my experiences are summed up basically the same as others. Noise is the biggest thing, if you have good neighbours you'll probably be fine, if you get one bad neighbour they can drive you nuts. Parking can be a problem as well if you entertain. Typically we never had issues with people taking our spots or theft (though a number of vehicles were broken into in the underground parking more frequently than you'd expect) it was the street parking for guests that was a pain.

Lots of residents had too many vehicles and parked on the street, as a result it wasn't uncommon to have to park 1-2 blocks away in the residential area before you'd find space.

[Nitron88]

My personal feedback from owning all three.

Apartment- maintenance free outside of your living space but you question how well your condo fees are being used.
Groceries huge pain in the ass as others have mentioned esp since I have a penthouse suite. So hauling garbage to garbage room also sucks. I love the privacy though maybe just due to how mine is situated.

Townhouse - Got a double garage and full drive pad so its like a single family attached home with shared walls. Awesome for working on car and parking. Same issues with hauling garbage to garbage room. Condo fees, how well they are used? Can occasionally hear neighbours but I got awesome neighbours that are like friends so can just call them and say stfu lol.

Single Family - Most maintenance of them all but can hire and help out teenie boppers by employing them for snow and lawn work throughout the year. You determine your usage of the 'condo fees' or not use any at all. Work on car in garage, no pain of groceries. If you got kids and no health issues, this is the best. Don't bother with semi detached or lane homes if you can afford the attached home.