Little boxes made of ticky-tacky

our house, in the middle of our street

Four years ago, the development in which our townhome stands was an empty field. Now, however, there are rows and rows of "little boxes on a hillside." There are single-family detached dwellings, terrace homes (condos), and many, many townhouses (in rows of two, four, five, or six, just to mix it up). Technically, they're not "all the same"; there are different designs to choose from, for example, Manhattan, Park Place, Fifth Avenue, Empire, Ellington, Gershwin, Helmsley, Royalton, Dundas, Hathaway, Piccadilly, and so forth. The concept and popularity of townhouses as they exist in Ottawa are, I sense, foreign to people back home who don't really understand until they experience the region for themselves. We own our own townhome (well, technically the bank owns it: can you say "mortgage"?), and although Minto (the developer/builder) lays sod (hurray for instant grass!), plants initial trees (our neighbors got one, we didn't), and paves driveways (we trust they'll get around to ours eventually) as part of the deal, unlike with condos or terrace homes, the rest will be up to us. That is, we'll be responsible for the usual upkeep and maintenance--mowing the lawn, for instance.

In fact, we purchased a new lawn mower from Canadian Tire last weekend. Some of you may remember that the last time we owned a townhouse in Ottawa, we'd purchased a gas-powered push mower courtesy of Mom & Dad C. and Ukrainian Tire points. Upon our move back to Manitoba, we sold it to Volody, 'cause--let's be realistic--there's only so and so much one can fit into an 890-sq.-ft. apartment when downsizing from an approx. 1900-sq.-ft. townhouse. Volody needed a lawn mower, we needed money: it was a win/win situation. [Blatant aside: Who else thinks lawn mower should be spelled as a compound word? It's not, according to my Cdn Gage & Oxford dictionaries--and Merriam-Webster Online, for what it's worth.] Anyway, this time we decided that since we have a yard about half the size of our last one, we could go with an environmentally friendly model. I took it for a spin yesterday afternoon, and I am truly impressed. Relatively little noise, no pollution (unless you count the grass clippings), and finally there's a mower that can move as quickly as I'd like it to. I calculate it took me all of 12 minutes to finish the front and back yards. I went outside at 3:00pm, came in at 3:14pm, and it probably took me a minute each to move it out of the garage and around back via the neighbors' throughway, and back again.

And for all of you that feel sorry for us for having such a small plot of land to call our own, don't. After all, we've got all that greenspace nearby. Also, Minto has leveled and seeded a soccer-field- or baseball-diamond-shaped parcel of land not even a block away, and erected a sign that boldly proclaims "Minto - Park." It's just down the road from "Minto - School." That would be St. Emily's Catholic Elementary, a "state-of-the-art school with a bold blue, green and taupe colour scheme" (www2.ottawacatholicschools.ca/emi/pdf.php?doc=3197). How do you grow a community? How germane. (with a nod to Robert Kroetsch)

More pics next time...