I’m an urbanite. And so is my wife. But we’re a special type of urbanite. A downtown Vancouver urbanite. And that means that normal urban is not enough. We also highly value (have got used to and don’t want to give up) easy access to the water, access to great parks and views of forested mountains and snow capped peaks. I know, we’re spoilt and we realize it. ‘Cursed’ is another word I use. Nowhere else is ever going to be good enough. Apart from that we are yearning for another place. Namely a home with more space for our growing family. Two adults and two kids are going to grow out of our two bedroom rented apartment fairly fast.

Where to move to? We have considered many places in Metro Vancouver. In all of them we have found downtown refugees, like we’ll become one day, who moved out looking for space, but also wanted to keep some elements of what they had before. Central and Lower Lonsdale, Steveston, Commercial Drive, ‘East Van’… And now we have ‘found’ Port Moody. Port Moody? That’s like, 45 minutes away from downtown. Or an hour in rush hour.

But it has water access, is close to the mountains (closer than the downtown peninsula is) and is very walkable. Suter Brook and Newport Village is no no substitute for Robson and Denman street’s, but they are little pockets of urbanism and more is coming. The Evergreen Line will guarantee that.

So we have found a townhouse and we are moving this summer. In all our time in Canada we have always lived in downtown Vancouver. This is the beginning of our next (urban) adventure.