“We actually lived with my mom for close to two years when we were saving to buy,” she says, adding while the experience was a positive one – with her mother even giving up her master bedroom – getting into a home of their own was one of the couple’s happiest moments.

Virginia’s eyes light up us as she recalls the first trip to their neighbourhood of a couple of months, and being won over by the charm of the front verandahs. Armed with a certain budget and a down payment squirreled away thanks to time spent bunking with family, an area in the northeast the two had considered became a distant memory during the first drive down south. “We just got a good vibe when we drove into New Brighton,” says Virginia.

Despite falling for with the Carma community for its architecture, proximity to shops and walking paths meandering throughout, their home plan wasn’t exactly love at first sight. “We saw the show home and I didn’t like the plan at first. Then it grew on us after going through a couple more times,” says Graham.

Living in an older home had not only proved a tight squeeze, it also taught gave the couple insight into what they wanted – and what they could do without. “The house we were living in was 30 years old, so we realized during the first year the upkeep that was involved. And we just didn’t want to have workers in there all the time fixing things,” she says.

Virginia, who makes her living as an artist, was over the moon while making selections for her first home. While Graham says he “only had a say on the colours for the outside,” (for which he selected a striking blue), Virginia says she adored being up to her neck in swatches for everything past the threshold of the home decidedly different from their first address together – Graham’s bachelor “pad.”

While the sound and sights of trains might send some buyers chugging off in the opposite direction, that the railroad tracks came close enough to his former digs (which the couple shared prior to moving in with mom), to shake the whole place – literally. “I liked it because I could sit on my balcony and watch the trains go by,” says the self-professed train fanatic. “For me having the balcony and the trains right there was perfect.”

Virginia was not as on board with the location of the pair’s former condo. “(The train) would just about rattle the teeth out of your head,” she recalls. “Plus I really hated how long it took to get groceries upstairs. I didn’t like that fact that it took forever to load the groceries and that it just felt like you were living in expensive apartment.”

While Virginia says their new home is “as basic as it gets” the 1,300 square-foot, open-concept two-storey is as much space as the couple needs – almost. The pair has designs, with the help of Virginia’s carpenter dad, to complete the basement for two key uses – a studio for Virginia and a model train room for Graham.

“I have never had one, so it will be a great experience for me. It will take a while to build, but that’s okay with me because it’s a hobby as well. And Gin needs her studio.” Though scarcely in the new place long enough to unpack, they have added some personal touches – such as new leather furniture that shows off Graham’s masculine side, and a collection of antique cameras flanking the eating nook and living room that are distinctly Virginia.

Die-hard hockey fan Graham came home to a décor surprise from work one day to find his bathroom suited up in his favourite team’s paraphernalia – right down to a hand-made shower curtain donning Flames colours, mini hockey sticks and hand towels sporting the words “Iggy” and “Kipper.” “I started collecting the stuff about six months before. It was so fun to do for him — when he came home he could see the red goal light reflecting off the door,” explains Virginia.

In light of the way the market has gone, the pair is relieved to have taken the plunge to home ownership when they did last July. Starting to look last May, their homebuying journey was a relatively quick one. “Once they dug the whole, the wheels just started flying,” says Graham, adding their salespeople at Heartland Homes made the big step considerably less daunting.

“They were really good about everything. They even let us flip the patio doors and the window around because it made more sense for us,” says Virginia.

Other than watching playoff hockey, what’s on the horizon for this new homeowning couple? “I can’t wait to get out there and enjoy my porch,” says Virginia, adding she’s anxious to dig into the yard with some a little help from her mom and sister, who just happen to be landscape architects.

And Graham is more than happy with trading in his view of trains for the couple’s own first home together, complete with a backyard – from which he can still hear the sporadic train whistle off in the distance. “It’s the most beautiful, haunting sound. It’s far away but you can still hear it at night,” says Virginia.  NL