Yer always moving...
We've been in the same house since February 1987 ....
What Shaunna said: owning yer own home will allow that. Renting can be a much different proposition.... unless you're in public housing. My sister has been in the same Housing Commission house since 1984, but there's often a ten year or more waiting list and the areas aren't always the best... as in they become ghettos with oodles of single mothers and sexual tension, with everybody screwing everybody, resulting in neighbourhood issues and frequent visits by the police. Where my sister lives is good now, but it wasn't so great in the early days when she first moved in.
Besides, we'd never have gotten such a nice place under public housing, which is why we continue to rent privately. Apart from the long public housing waiting lists, we generally get better housing options in better areas of our own choosing. With public housing, though you can list three preferences, you pretty much have to take what they first offer and where. Nope, that's not a lottery I ever want to play again.... was in public housing in the late 70's/early 80's. Let's just say it wasn't a pleasant experience.... in either house/area.
As for the previous place, we could have stayed there for several more years [probably until I turned up my toes] but we needed somewhere bigger and more convenient when we took in Louise, Shaunna's niece, who has Parkinson's Disease and is so much better accommodated here in the downstairs granny flat, where she has her privacy and independence, but all the support she needs just a cooey away.
Not only that, the previous landlord let the place fall into such a state of disrepair, taking rent every week but not wanting to spend a cent on the joint. The agent did her best to help us, but when I complained about a way too bouncy floor, my son [who works in the building industry] went under the house and discovered a block was missing from the top of a stump under the kitchen. It was determined that the whole place needed re-stumping, as well as other things, and that was our cue to vacate forthwith.
