New neighborhood, new streets to explore.
I had to brave Metrotown on a weekend to pick up a red shirt for Ultimate. Metrotown is a gigantic mall. The Directory doesn't make a whole lot if sense so there are these kids on roller skates (roller skates!) who cruise the mall and help point you in the right direction. They're decked out in full safety gear, which has the added benefit of making them easy to spot.
By this point I've been to Metrotown enough I know where the important stores are: Chapters, which is the book store, and the sports store whose name escapes me at the moment. Quick trip.
I walked home from the Skytrain station. Beautiful sunny day. And warm. In typical Chicago spring fashion, I was dressed in too many layers. It may look 60 degrees out but really be 40.
Shedding a layer I noticed that when a house has a flight of stairs leading to the front door, it has a well defined lower level, or basement. In Vancouver that usually means finished basements, if not actual rooms or space to rent. If there was not a flight of stairs leading to the front door, then the upstairs was well defined. Windows, often a deck or patio.
Thinking back over house hunting, the houses we linked did not have stairs leading up to the front door. Those that did turned out to not be that nice or well kept.
Coincidence? Perhaps. Curious? Certainly.