Second Storey

 In my condo eras, after a few house experiences, I learned about the floor hierarchy. "What floor are you on" became a determining social factor. Every unit in condos is pretty much alike with some having more " furniture margins" ie. square feet, than others. All of the new condo towers boast white on white, marbled or stoned, you might say, decor and have floor to ceiling windows and no room for a set of drawers in the bedrooms.They all have steel electric apps and a bar with stools being the only allowable curves present. Bathrooms of course, are the highlight after the walk-in closet that is never big enough but has a lot of shoe shelves. The bathtub has become more important than the couch. I like being clean, thus a walk-in shower pleases me. Who has time for a bathtub and who wants to loll in a gradually cooling warmish soup of cast off skin cells? Oh yes, there is a balconey to put your bike on, which is illegal according to the bylaws. Your tower life barbecue is a rarely used and is for appearances, an essential piece. Vegans hate them. "Don't send me your dead meat smoke!" Electric ones make little smoke anyway, because condo "barbecueing" is much the same as frying on a kitchen stove. With similar results. But you must have one that actually looks like a real barbecue. It's a requirement. Of course, no one smokes cigarettes on the little deck,  because law demands smokers be seven feet away from a building. On a condo, that's death unless you live on the first floor.I don't live in a tower, but I have visited them on invitation. It's hard to say, "wow" because the new ones, regardless of price,  all look alike and are decorated alike and truth-be-told, mostly all have the same sorts of people in them. Today, you cannot be unique; you must go along, to get along. I live in a old, old building that is only three storeys high. There are about two dozen owners of it, unlike the thousand or more  in a tower. Owning this property, however, is a struggle. It's age costs in repairs and replacements.  Living on the second storey, I am in a sandwich, you might say, but it is very comfy. I don't get the same cold as those up and down from me, in winter,. In summer, I am insulated, again , by my dear neighbours. The view above me, which you pay up to hundreds more for, sees the ocean as a little silver paper strip way far off.  But the best part is, that, in this old place, our windows and balconies don't look directly into someone else's windows and balconies as happens with clustered tower life. The property, a corner lot, has large trees and balled up shrubs the "gardeners" tend to do, and actual grass that our blower man loves to play with at top volume. It's heaven until the levies for such as a new heat pump, come along. Old buildings like old people, begin to fall apart and some owners who complain, in a self-owned place, don't realize that condo ownership is yup, owning the whole property and paying for it much as having a house. There is no landlord to complain to. It's yours, Baby, all yours. Our lowrise, didn't opt for professional management.  We opted to run our home place, ourselves. If you don't like something here, you talk about it, and the resident volunteers who actually want to do something about it, make the fix as best they can. Those elected are called The Council and they are volunteers. It's not an easy job and there is no pay. The new towers meet the need for living space as our populations grow. They may offend the eye but it does meet the need. A long storey.