Montreal is like the mob...

have i ever mentioned that we fell in love with this place because of the view? 

we were not even planning on staying in Montreal when we moved here. we had a list of open houses to check out over in Ottawa the next day, when we happened to notice a listing for this place, and it was just a few blocks away. what could it hurt, right?

then got we got here. 

the building is a hundred-plus years old, and you have to walk up four flights of stairs (oh, yes... there is no elevator). it was absolute love at first sight. 

this building... this neighborhood... this whole ridiculously cold city is just so damn charming!

i love old architecture. this is something i tend to blame on my mom's little brother. he is an Architectural Engineer. back when i was a youth, i used to love driving around NYC with him. he would pull over in random places, and get out of the car to point out all those tiny, inconsequential design elements of the older buildings around us. it left me with a lifelong habit of always looking up at those little structural touches. should i ever accidentally bump into you, because i was staring at the trim on a roof, or studying the design of a window casement... that is not my fault. just send him the dry cleaning bill.  

still, there is one frustrating thing about old buildings. no one seems to have anticipated that electricity would be such a hit. who knew, right? it probably took us more than a year to figure out the different combinations of appliances that could be turned on at the same time. the fallout from countless failed attempts has left us both so traumatized, that we still make a point of issuing a verbal warning before plugging anything into an outlet. most of all... it is firmly understood that you ABSOLUTELY MUST pause the washer-dryer before turning on the kettle or... well, just hope you saved whatever you were working on, because all the computers would definitely have turned off. so much fun! 

and, ridiculous as it sounds, that is part of the charm of the thing. we absolutely love this place. neither one of us has any real connection to Montreal, and we have already decided that the next time we move, it will be out of the City... which is what we were trying to do when we found this place. 

turns out, Montreal is like the mob. just when we thought we were out, it pulled us back in. so, here we will remain for now.

sure, there are zero electric outlets in the bathroom, and i still do not want to know what would happen should we ever open that old dumbwaiter door in the kitchen. but, seriously... check out that view. 

[sunset, Dec 10, 2023. edited to correct the year.]