158 FAIRVIEW ROAD - $295,000

THE ESSENTIALS

A really pretty Hillendale bungalow with a finished basement, an old garage, a lovely yard, and even a goddamn pear tree.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Cheri and I talked about it (it’s what we do) and we both said we’d be more than happy to live at 158 Fairview Road. We’d consider that a really positive turn of events.

And that’s not quite always the case, this meeting of the minds.  We think in remarkably similar ways, we really do, but I think I lean slightly more towards the intensely modern than Cheri does, and she doesn’t need the coffee shop on the corner the way I do. She’s more evolved in her needs, maybe, more at peace with herself, and less dependent than I am on the mod cons, that’s how it feels. 

But we both like Fairway Road a lot. The sense of unlimited space here is so very rare in the city proper, and so close to the surface, and the intensely low-rise vibe affects everything, even the sky, which feels immense, like something trucked in over a few weeks from the prairies.  

It’s a bungalow with the bright living room open to the funky kitchen. The idea, we think, is to move in and immediately invite your friends over. Have them making guacamole where you can see them. There will be others in the basement perhaps, making music, or catching up on sleep in a room that is definitely not a bedroom but just might qualify as a cave, so dark and so quiet is that tucked-away space (not far from the second bathroom, a proper bedroom, and the re-done laundry).

But come on, back upstairs with you. There’s a dining room off that bright living room, and mighty fine it is too, but it’s another bedroom if you need one, and the master is way off down at the end of the hall, nice and quiet, with a walk-in closet opposite, and a decadent bathroom with mile-off walls.

 It’s a home to get away to, if that makes sense, a place to retreat to, a haven; we do believe that. And it’s convenient to both the west-end shops and the downtown core, to good schools and the highway, the train station. You hop in your car or, better still, you get on your bike, and head up to Loblaws for their stupid potato wedges and their brilliant pineapples (says my daughter, at my shoulder as I write this) and their more-than-decent selection of IPAs.

The shopping done with, I’d just hang out on the porch, wave to the distant neighbours with my headphones on, or maybe carve something brilliant in the workshop out back, a hardwood sculpture that might well outlast me (that old dream of immortality). There are options galore, that’s the point. And there’s a mighty fine home too, one that could well be yours.

The virtual tour is right here. And the MLS® details are here. The plan is to review any offers on Thursday morning (March 14), so you’d be best to move smartly.