RIGHTSIZING FOR A LIFESTYLE
Couple’s condo means they can travel and still have a cosy place to hang their hats
The travel bug: Once you catch it, there is no turning back.
Just ask Amanda and Adrian Goldsmith. He’s 37 and she’s 38, and they’ve been together for almost 18 years, working hard to create the life of their dreams. But recently they’ve taken some time out of their busy schedule to enjoy the pleasures of travel.
“We’ve travelled coast to coast in Canada, but had never really been out of the country together,” says Adrian, who works as an installer for Telus.
But a trip to New York City in June of this year sparked an epiphany.
“We realized that we love travel and want to do more of it. But it’s expensive, so we started looking at ways to cut our expenses,” says Adrian.
A few conversations later, the couple realized the logical choice was to ditch their big house in Walden and move into a lock-andleave style condominium, cutting their monthly mortgage costs significantly.
Within a week of their return, they began the house hunt.
“Although we liked Walden, we started looking in the north because most of our friends and family live there,” says Amanda.
The couple toured a selection of condominiums in multiple areas, but neither were overly enamoured with any of the designs.
A bit of artful digging brought them to Mark 101, a collection of 206 condominiums spread over a trio of four-storey buildings in the northwest community of Sage Hill.
“We were checking out the condos across the street and then we saw the sign and we thought let’s go in and take a look. As soon as we stepped through the door, we were impressed,” says Amanda.
The couple mulled it over for a week or two.
“But it was really a no-brainer,” says Adrian.
Dianne Bidinost, area sales manager for Shane Multi-Family — the builder behind the project — says the architecture has that “wow factor.”
“It’s really a traditional exterior finish with an abundance of stone detailing. There is just so much curb appeal,” she says.
The project’s attractiveness, along with its innovative interior designs, has earned Mark 101 numerous accolades, including several BILD Calgary Region Awards.
The couple purchased a twobedroom, two-bathroom home that offers 947 square feet of living space.
The home is in the second of the three buildings and is the one that stood out at the BILD awards, earning three Best New Multifamily Design awards for the A-1 and A-2 two-bedroom plans, and Best Apartment Style for the B-2 one-bedroom plan.
But the accolade that really kicks it out of the park, says Bidinost, is that of 2017 Multi-Family Builder of the Year.
“This is literally our first multifamily development. So that speaks volumes,” she says.
Moving from a single family home into a condo is a considerable rightsize move for the couple, whose four-bedroom single-family home is over twice that size.
“Downsizing has been a little bit tough, but now that we have decided what we want to keep and what we are getting rid of, it’s a little bit easier,” says Amanda.
She adds that in terms of space, it will be an easy move.
“We don’t even use half of the house that we are in right now. We were joking as we were making this decision that we have 2,200 square feet, but we really only live in about 800 square feet of it. It’s just that we have a lot of stuff,” says Adrian.
Storage — and lots of it — is one of the features that really sold the couple on Mark 101.
“In all of the other condos that we looked at, there was no storage for anything. It was even tough to know where to put your brooms. But Shane Homes has really created a condo with the feel of a home, which really appealed to us,” says Amanda.
Adrian and Amanda enjoy cooking together and spending time relaxing at home, so good use of space was also important.
“The kitchen layout is great. It’s obviously condo-sized, but we are not giving up anything that we have now in our kitchen in a house. There is a decent-sized pantry and lots of cupboard space,” says Adrian.
The couple takes possession of their new home in October and couldn’t be happier. They’ve already
mapped out a trip to the Dominican Republic and a romantic sojourn to Italy and Greece.
“The next chapter in our life is starting. We’ve definitely made the right decision,” says Adrian.