“Paying rent downtown is much as a mortgage payment,” says Lyndsey Gallant. And she’d know: Before becoming a first-time homeowner this fall, she spent 10 years renting in the middle of the action on Barrington Street. “I realized I’d rather put my money into something that I can get back. It’s an investment, and it’s yours.” It took near perfection to get her off the peninsula after a decade of walkable, downtown living, but after eyeing real estate on-and-off for a couple of years, a condo won her over.
The Condo
A brand new two-bedroom, two-bathroom in Bedford West.
The neighbourhood
“You don’t really need to live in the city to have access to a gym, the grocery store, coffee shops,” says Gallant, whose new home is a a two-minute drive from the mini-city that is Larry Uteck Boulevard, and short drive from downtown. “It’s 15 minutes. In any other city, that’s in the city. In Toronto, that’s still downtown.”
Wishlist
“If I was going to buy somewhere new I wanted it to have everything,” says Gallant, who was able to cross AC, a second bedroom, modern design, green space and a spacious bathroom off her must-have list. “This building also has an amazing gym, it’s all windows overlooking the basin, and I have a whole walking trail behind me.”
Design inspiration
“I used Pinterest, a lot,” says Gallant of her vision for the blank slate that was her new condo. Keeping colours basic—grey throughout, with pops of navy and Tiffany blue in her bathrooms—and tying in wood, leather and metal accents, she aimed for a “modern rustic” look, which interior decorator Elizabeth Carter helped her bring to life. “You can imagine something in the space but until you measure everything it’s hard to know,” says Gallant. “I was picking out stuff that was way too big for the space and she helped me with that.”