May 04, 2017 | Andrea Cox

Together in Walden

With the purchase of a three bedroom townhome in Walden, a young Calgary couple embarks upon their new life together

On a warm spring day in March, Kristen Lee and Joshua Gregory, both 22, grabbed some coffee to go and set out on a day of touring show homes. They just want to see what was available and enjoy the day, but when they came upon a three bedroom townhome design at Walden Place by Cardel Lifestyles in the southeast community of Walden, they were sold.

At the time, they were both living at home with their parents and had excellent jobs. Kristen is a chemist and Joshua works for a security company, so they had a decent nest egg saved up. They mulled it over for a bit, and a week later, at the beginning of April, they signed the papers and put down their deposit.

CREB®Now: What attracted you to the southeast area of Walden?

Kristen Lee: I live with my parents in Beddington in the north, but I work in the southeast and Josh lives in the south, so we were looking at homes mainly in the south areas of the city. We wanted to tour the area of Legacy and as we were driving, the signs for Walden popped up, so we thought let's check it out.

Josh really liked the idea of being in a new community and I really like the area of Walden. It's close to the shopping district in Shawnessy and to the major routes. It's easy for me to get to work and there is a new commercial site being developed right behind our new home with coffee shops and grocery stores, so it will be really convenient.

It's easy for me to get to work and there is a new commercial site being developed right behind our new home with coffee shops and grocery stores, so it will be really convenient.

CREB®Now: What sold you on the Walden Place project?

Kristen Lee: We only looked at about five show homes, but I knew that this was the place for us because of the two-car garage. That's what really sold me. Originally, I wanted to own a house and the land but that was out of our price range, so we started looking at townhomes.

But most of them had a single garage and some had a tandem-style garage, which I did not like at all. So when we checked out Walden Place and it has a two-car double garage, I thought, this is great. And Josh really liked having the laundry room upstairs and the eating bar at the island – those two things were important to him. Oh, and I liked the layout of the great room – so many of the homes that we saw had such a weird layout, it was like I was thinking, where do you put the TV? It was also a great price.

CREB®Now: Have you thought about the interior finishes and furniture?

Kristen Lee: I'm pretty excited and yet at the same time possession isn't for another eight months, so it is still far away and I don't think that it has fully sunk in yet that we just bought a house. We did choose our finishes. Josh really wanted a black kitchen sink and we really worked around that for our colours, so the countertops are light grey quartz with ribbons of black and darker grey, and we chose the darker stain for the cabinets and flooring.

Plus, I am quite thrilled to start looking for furniture. Because both Josh and I live with our parents, we need to buy everything and shopping for it all is going to be so much fun.

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