I love where I live. I love everything about it. It’s where I grew up, where I went to school, where I got my first job and my first boyfriend. It’s where I first got my heart broken and where I got my career started. It’s where I met my husband and where we bought our home… it’s where we had our son and continue to enjoy him. Sure, I’ve lived some other places, but North Vancouver is where I want to raise my family and grow old.

I don’t want to leave.

North Vancouver is arguably one of the nicest places to live anywhere. Canada already ranks relatively high for world livability standards, but the temperate climate of the West Coast makes the Vancouver area an absolutely wonderful place to live and work. However, North Vancouver – this little piece of heaven right on the North edge of the Burrard Inlet – is not only beautiful but almost magical.

It’s so perfectly situated between the North Shore Mountains and the ocean with streams running through and parks interspursed all throughout. I don’t know if it’s the combination of the temperature, humidity, precipitation or what-have-you, but the winters almost always bring loads of snow on the local mountains without ever dropping a flake on the roads beneath them. In spring we can ski in the morning, golf in the afternoon and cruise for dinner.

I love it so much I’m making it my long-term goal to build a community around it.

The only thing that challenges me on my will to stay here is the price of real estate. Our small 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom (~800 sq ft) apartment is worth roughly $300K right now (and that’s after the recent drops, I hope). The smallest and oldest of detached houses go for well over half a million dollars. A modest, though decent, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house (if you can find one – most are bigger than that) can be found for $750-800K.

I don’t mind my apartment, but it’s a bit small for three of us and I don’t think an apartment without any yard or play space is really ideal for raising a child. We spend a good deal of time at my mother in law’s house nearby because she has a nice yard where our son can play.  It’s hard thinking about leaving to find more space for our money. I’m torn every day between staying where I love and moving somewhere I could have an extra bedroom, an extra bathroom and in-suite laundry for what we pay here, plus a yard. A boy needs a yard, I think.

At the same time, I think a family needs its members in close proximity.

Moving farther away would take away from our quality time together by adding in a commute. I can’t see time together in the car being all that quality. As a full time working mom, I already feel I have very little time with my son while he’s in daycare 9 hours a day, I can’t cope with the thought of spending another 2 hours a day commuting. I mean, he’s only awake for 13 hours… that would leave me with only 2 waking hours a day with him, and those two hours would have to include breakfast, dinner, bath etc. No time for any fun whatsoever.

Moving farther away would also mean a lesser relationship between my son and my mother in law, and they love each other to death. I didn’t have a relationship with my grandparents; 3 of 4 had passed before I was born and the other was in England and died when I was 5 or so. I want desperately for my son to have that relationship that I missed out on.

I guess I just have to hope that somehow we’ll manage one day to swing a larger place or that I’ll one day be at peace with the thought that I’ve cheated my son out of a better childhood for my own wants. I just can’t really consider moving away unless it’s a last resort.

Living somewhere else would be like wearing someone else’s underwear.