100 Posts: Highlights

Well, I've made it to 100 posts and I'd like to thank you all for your comments and emails.  This blog has been great motivation for us to get our bums in gear and tackle the projects on our list but it's also nice (seriously, it makes me blush) to know that I'm not "talking" to thin air.

I wanted to commemorate this milestone with a special post.  Young House Love (one of my favourite blogs) posts a monthly wrap-up each month, assigning yearbook-style titles to their posts.

Most Popular: This would have to be my first Craigslist Score post.  I was talking about scoring these vintage chairs (below) and then covering the nasty seats in cowhide and Apartment Therapy asked readers to brag about their favourite DIY projects.  I linked to the post and my readership shot through the roof.  It showed me the real power of a popular blog.  It's been months and each week I still have people who find my blog through that link!

Criagslist word of caution: This could also be called my "SCARIEST" post in a way because I recently had an unsettling interaction with someone from Craigslist.  Now, I'm still a fan of the site and I think it's very useful but it's important to remember that (just like in the non-cyber world) most people are great but a few ... aren't so wonderful. 

I won't go into details but basically, I was going to purchase an end table and the seller had arranged to drop it off.  I got a funny feeling about the interaction (I ALWAYS listen to my intuition) and I cancelled the deal.  Anyway, the guy kind of freaked out at me and physically threatened me.  Dude HATES real estate agents with a capital "H"!  He had my address (he was supposed to deliver it) and he made it clear that he had access to lots of information about me.  Needless to say, I was a little shaken and I called the police to report it.  We're fine and we're not exactly easy targets... Remember, the house is booby-trapped due to my zombie paranoia. ;)  Still, I wanted to pass on the warning to all of you!

Now back to the post.  Where were we?  Oh yes... Most Popular= Craigslist Score.

Most Colourful:  Until we paint the house, this will have to be my paint chip blocks which add a nice pop of colour and give me something to play with while I'm on the phone.  Some of my friends tease me over the "annoying craftiness" of this post but I'll just ignore them and play with my blocks ... ;)

Happiest Puppy:  You could also probably call this "Happiest Taylor and Corey" since it's the day we brought Barkley to his our new/old house!  We had promised him a backyard for his 7th birthday but the first week in the house was filled with renovations so he had to stay with his grandma.  Bringing him home made this house finally feel real to us!

Biggest Flop:  Which of my posts have the least views?  There are a few I could choose from.  You guys weren't big fans of all the real estate-y posts I wrote in the beginning... At all!  Not that I can blame you, to most people those posts are probably only interesting if you're looking to buy or sell in the near future.  Still, I think I heard crickets after I wrote some of those.  More recently, you weren't so interested in my post speculating about a possible casino in Toronto.  Message received: I'll stay away from the news!

Update: The casino idea was shot down almost unanimously.  Who else is thrilled?

Most Difficult To Write: This would have to be the post about some of the corruption at the condo.  It has seriously left a scar and, although I'm immensely proud of how I was able to initiate so much positive change, the first few months there robbed me of the excitement people are supposed to feel after purchasing their first home.  I've only just begun to tell the story but you'll see what I mean in the weeks to come.  It still makes me angry that the people responsible face no consequences but it was our dream to leave and buy a house... and we did!

Favourite DIY:  While I love our new headboard and some of the other projects, we've been completing in the new/old house, I think my personal favourite is the simple baby blanket I made while we were at the condo.  The blanket itself was nothing special... but the recipient is!

Surprise Viral: Perhaps it shouldn't be THAT surprising but 11 Apps to Help You Find the Perfect Home... and 5 More for After you Move: still gets daily hits.  I thought it was a fun post but I think it's one of my few SEO friendly posts so I think it gets tons of search traffic.

Most Controversial: For some reason, those of you who know me really seem to hate my toilet-sink idea.  Some of you are even preemptively boycotting the sink positive washroom!  Or worse... I'll spare the details but one person swore they would do the opposite of boycotting the washroom!  I'm not 100% sure what that means but YUCK!  Seriously, this post has come up in conversation with clients, over dinner with friends... and none of you seem to think it's a good idea.  Well now, my stubborn personality makes me want a sink positive even more!  We'll see what happens since that room's not on the list yet but I'm thinking I want at least one of these!

Most Personal: This would definitely be my "like letter" to Corey for Valentine's Day.  We're not huge lovey-dovey-sappy-gushy people (yes, that's a technical term) and this post embarrassed us both!  I do love how fabulously young I look in the picture (taken the summer we first met by our talented friend, Michael Budd) though.

Most Likely To Be Linked Back To Multiple Times:  The winner for this category would have to be the "before" pictures of our new/old house!  We've already made so many changes and we're hoping to be posting some awesome "before and after" pictures in the future!

Dirtiest:  Obviously this would be our trip to the dump!  So many of you contacted me with your own dumpy tales that I felt like we were standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity... atop a giant heap of garbage!  Seriously, I have been a recycling fiend ever since I got back from the dump.  I think people should consider taking their kids to teach them about waste!  Teacher friends: would this be an appropriate class trip?  Great idea, right???  Okay, I'm just kidding... sort of. 

What was that?  Was that the sound of all my parent friends simultaneously revoking my babysitting privileges?  I thought so.

Most Likely To Make Me Cry:  Okay, I already cried... after my mom called me to tell her that my Mother's Day post had made her cry.  Okay, we're both such softies but we can't help it!

 

So that's my first hundred posts in a nutshell.  Hope you enjoyed the recap!

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Peonies with History

I love peonies!  They're my favourite flower, not just for the scent or the fact that they come in so many different colours, but because they're just so full and over the top!  I grew up living in the same house from the time I was 9 months old, until I found a place of my own and we always had a patch of peonies at the side of the house. 

Update: My BFF expressed concern (she was just teasing) that I may have developed a penchant weird things, like the strange painting or my crazy alien plants.  I just want to point out that peonies are pretty mainstream so yes, I like "normal" things too!

My mother never brought them into the house because of all the ants (ants LOVE peonies even more than I do) and I always admired their full petals (like a ballerina's tutu) and their cream colour with just the slightest hint of pink at the edges.  Still, I had no idea that they were actually "more than just pretty flowers" until my mother sold the house and purchased a townhouse with a balcony but no yard.  She was so sad that she wouldn't be able to take any of her peonies (they wouldn't last the winter in pots) and she explained that they had bee transplanted from her grandfather's house.

I know that for people who have raised families in a home or lived there for a long time, leaving behind a piece of their history is one of the most difficult aspects of moving.  I know that the previous owner of our new/old house was very sad to leave behind his "story" in our house. 

My mother is still living in her townhouse but now that I have a house, I thought I'd see if I could recover this little piece of family history.  I called the woman who bought my mother's house and introduced myself.  I explained about my great-grandfather's peonies and she told me to come by and take a look.  She couldn't remember seeing any flowers matching my description but peonies only bloom for about a week so we thought it was worth a try and she said that if there were still there, I could take a clump for my own garden.

I stopped by the house over the weekend, on my way to meet a client but, it looks like the peonies are gone.  Oh well, it would have been wonderful to have found my great-grandfather's peonies, but I have decided to start my own peony tradition and plant these lovely flowers in my own yard.

I'm always surprised when people at nurseries and garden centres don't know what peonies are.  I always describe them to people as looking like larger, fuller carnations... Or maybe a cross between a rose and a carnation.  While they are all very beautiful, my favourites are the double blooms in unusual colours. 

Here are a few pretty pictures from around the web to give you an idea of what they're like... And, let's be honest, who doesn't enjoy some eye candy on a weekday morning?:

I love these peach blooms from Apartment Therapy!

The colour of these peonies from Daily Pleasures is very similar to my great-grandfather's flowers.

I love the green accents in this arrangement from the International Home and Garden Show.

While these peonies on Cultivate are single blooms, I love the rich colour!

A pretty arrangement from Back Yard Diva.

This photo from What a Bloom just looks like peony heaven!

And here's a bloom from the peonies I planted in my own garden.  I planted one white and one deep red.  I'm hoping to add more plants (in different colours) next year but I think this is the only bloom I'll get this year.

 

Do you have a plant that holds a special meaning or place in your heart?  What is it?

 

Have you ever moved and left behind a piece of your personal or family history?

 

By the way, this is my 99th post!  I'll do something a little special for the 100th post to mark the milestone!

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Animal Magnetism

So... Who knows a good recipe involving squirrel?  ... Just kidding!  You guys know we're HUGE animal lovers and would never eat something so cute and curious.  But we do need to talk about the squirrels.  Again!

Two squirrel posts in one week is totally uncool, I know.  But they've been waking us up with their scratching at our window and our patience is wearing thin.  This morning sounded like a full out assault on our bedroom window! 

Does anyone know of any HUMANE ways to get rid of these critters?  At least the raccoons and skunks seem to stay away due to Barkley but the squirrels are bold enough to tease him.  I'm beginning to think we should just embrace the situation and keep them as pets.

How would they look in squirrel size versions of one of Barkley's coats?

 

 

Creepy?  I thought so.

Corey thinks they have a nest somewhere in our yard.  Still, I can't get too mad at the little rascals because they're so darn cute chilling on our porch.

They were all cuddled up there like a cute interracial squirrel couple.  They're actually kind of growing on me...

And then there's our other animal, Barkley.  He hated the fireworks on the weekend and now every time we want him to go outside, he looks at us as if to say, "What kind of sucker do you think I am?  There's NO way I'm going out there with all those fireworks!"

Eventually, we convinced him to come outside and enjoy the weather.  He stood by the door the entire time.  Finally, Corey decided to carry him to the back of the yard to show him everything was okay:

What a baby!  He's tough as nails when he hears a loud noise but he's totally Corey's baby!

So do any of you know of a good way to let neighbourhood squirrels know that your house is NOT the party house?

Update: Our neighbours told Corey that the previous owner of our house fed the squirrels.  Now I'm feeling a little guilty because our house was a known source of food and now it isn't.  Somebody talk me out of feeding them before my neighbours start to hate me!

How about a good way to calm your dog when there are fireworks outside?  We have just over a month until Canada Day...

Another Update:  When I left for work yesterday, there were four, yes FOUR squirrels waiting for me in the morning.  I'm worried about how thin they are because it's nesting season but I don't want to feed them.  They obviously think our house is a food source.  Any ideas of a kind way to get rid of them?

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Condo Survival : Part 1

This post is purely for me and it will be a bit of a departure from my typical format.  Feel free not to read but I need to get this out while I still remember it.

 

INTRO

I honestly can't believe I'm writing this post.  I told myself I wouldn't write about the condo until I was "over it" and I believe that has finally happened.  Living in the condo was a huge learning experience and, while some happy life events occurred while we lived there, overall it was a stressful and unhappy experience.  It now feels very far away but it was just such a bizarre living experience that I need to write it down.

I know I make it sound like something truly traumatic happened in the condo.  Let me state that there was no actual tragedy but I still shudder a little when I think about it.  It was really just a loss of innocence about the condo market and about people in general.  I know it's taboo to say this as a real estate agent but my first home ownership experience was a real eye-opener and, if I could go back in time, I would do so many things differently.

Now, let me just state that I think most condos are great ownership opportunities.  I really do!  They are (in general) more affordable than houses and some of the amenities I've seen just take my breath away!  My story is just of one condo.  I'm sure there are other "bad" condos but I believe they are the rare exception rather than the rule.  I also want to say that my agent, lawyer and home inspector all did their best for us and gave us good advice with the information they were given.  Luckily, this experience has taught me a few "warning signs" to identify condos which may be problematic, so that I can help my own clients to avoid repeating my mistake.  The other good news is that even "bad" condos are often curable.  I was proud that the work I did on the board meant that my own buyers were moving into a very different (much improved) building.

THE SEARCH

How did I end up in this situation in the first place?  Well, before my days in real estate, I had a regular 9-5 job and Corey was still in school.  I had become tired of renting and I really wanted a house in Toronto's Junction neighbourhood.  This was just before prices exploded there so (if I stretched my budget) I could afford a detached house there that would have required a bit of work. 

At that time, Corey and I hadn't lived together yet and he felt that fixing up a house would be quite a bit of responsibility for someone just finishing university.  We looked at condos in trendy areas but they all seemed small to me and I wanted a place that required some work so that we could inject our own personality and add some value.  I felt it would be foolish not to use Corey's talents to renovate and I didn't want to pay for renovations done by someone else.

We almost settled on a 2-Storey condo unit (which felt like a house) and was located in the Danforth neighbourhood.  It was big and old and needed some work and we were beginning to think that it could be "home"... until we spotted some pretty scary mould.  We prudently backed away and didn't look back.

There was another "near purchase" of a cute condo unit in South Riverdale.  Unfortunately, it only had one bathroom and the kitchen was TINY!  Everything else was perfect though, so we actually contemplated making an offer there but I got cold feet so we kept looking.  Our real estate agent was very patient!

We had set a minimum price when we searched for homes because I didn't want to see listings for parking spaces or storage lockers.  One day, Corey forgot to plug in the minimum price... which is how he found our condo.

It was huge and old and the kitchen needed to be gutted... basically perfect for me!  I posted a few pictures below.  I still longed for a house but Corey and I had agreed that he just wasn't ready and I had already passed on my cute little Junction house with low ceilings (and a shower that Corey couldn't fully stand up in) that morning.  I was feeling a little defeated but I couldn't argue with the space... or the price.  I agreed to purchase it on the condition that we could "gut it" and upgrade once Corey was finished school the next year.  We promised one another that it would only be one more summer until we were in a house... We certainly didn't expect it to take three!

Corey says he remembers me whispering under my breath as I was signing the agreement of purchase and sale that I didn't really want to buy the condo.  I remember feeling that if I couldn't have a house, I wanted something that felt really temporary.  I always listen to my instincts now.

MOVING IN

As a responsible buyer, I had a home inspection and asked my lawyer to review the status certificate.  The home inspection didn't show anything unexpected and my lawyer confirmed that there was money in the reserve fund and that, while the maintenance fees were high, they were all inclusive and not bad if you considered the square footage of the unit.  The deal went firm. 

We began planning and packing.  I kept my rental for an extra month so that we could begin renovations before we moved in.  As my excitement to change the space began to build, I slowly pushed the thought of that little Junction house to the back of my mind.

The move was relatively uneventful, although the Superintendent was pretty mean to us.  He was a little creepy and seemed kind of slow (picture a cross between Jed Clampett, Gary Busey and Dwight Schrute) and yet he watched our entire move as if he suspected we were going to try to sneak some sort of contraband into the building.  We laughed about it over beers later but living next door to the surly super (who watched tv most days instead of cleaning and was often off-site in the middle of the day to pick up beer) turned out to be even more annoying than you'd expect.

We met one of our neighbours... well, actually I just heard her crying and SCREAMING at her moving company since she was moving in on the same day.  I felt terrible for her and picked up extra burgers for her and her daughter when we got lunch.  She returned the favour later that evening with a 6-pack of beer and we thought we had made a friend.  Little did I know that I had just met the woman who would be screaming at people constantly at all hours of the night and who would interfere with the sale of my unit by deliberately (I think) blasting weird pop music and chain smoking during my showings.  She also once called me to accuse me of reporting her to child services for having a messy unit... I told her that I had not called but would not hesitate to do so if I felt her child was actually in danger.

THE FIRST NIGHT

We spent the first weekend working but we didn't move in until the end of the month.  Before I could even go to sleep that first night, Corey had demolished the kitchen.  Literally, all our cabinets were on one of the balconies and most of the appliances were behind the dumpster.  We kept the fridge only until our new one was delivered. 

My mother came over to help clean.  This was the first time I had ever really had to clean a mess that was created by someone else and I was like:

...See, I promised more GIFs.  You'll tire of them long before I do!  I actually think they'll help me to lighten this tale.

I cried that night because everything was so dirty and the condo just didn't feel... right.  I know other buyers feel that way just because a first home is such a huge responsibility and financial obligation but I really just didn't feel great in the condo from Day 1.

MEETING THE NEIGHBOURS

While we began our renovations, we began to actually feel excited about our new home.  Corey worked on installing new flooring and we eagerly anticipated the day when we would actually get to move in. 

One morning, we were in the lobby and one of the senior citizens who lives in the building approached us.  She seemed friendly and asked if we had just moved in.  When we said we'd be moving in soon, she asked if we had purchased or if we were renting.  I told her I had purchased a unit and she walked away shaking her head and muttering "good luck..."  At the time, I hoped she was just crazy but the experience upset me after all the money and work we had already poured into the place.

The "good luck lady" later became one of my few friends in the building and she helped me change many things.

The super continued to try to bully us... like when he screamed at both of us like children for having our flooring delivered on a Saturday.  Of course, we had never been told this was unacceptable.  Or the time he threatened to report Corey for harassment for forcing an elderly resident to take one of our mirrors and leaving it at her door.  Obviously, this never happened.

Things kept getting more and more bizarre but I was determined to avoid the drama.  I received a cryptic note, which was slid under my door and urged me to call another unit owner if I wanted to "know the truth about the building."  It seemed rather ominous and, I assumed the author was a little bit...:

 

 

... So I put the note in a drawer and ignored it.  I also managed to form a truce with the super with the generous use of LCBO gift cards.  Things seemed to be improving.

 

That's all for this entry but there is so much more to write about the building.  I want to share with you how I came to be on the board and how I became president; how we discovered funds which appeared to be hidden by our property management company after we fired them; the struggles along the way; and all the crazy characters...

 

Like the group of owners who "ran" the place before I joined the board and seemed more interested in the plants outside than the budget:

 

 



I'm not trying to be mean.  That really is the closest likeness I could find!

... Or their ring leader who called me constantly to complain about my dog:

... Or the woman who walked around in a nightgown, stole toilet paper from the washrooms in the common elements and used the washroom in the lobby for her more private washroom business.  It became out of hand when I was trying to sell my unit and I tried to bring it up but she basically did this:

 



... Seriously, Can you imagine having to ask someone to stop doing the following in the lobby?:

 

Or the man who walked around in his robe and slippers and read other people's newspapers in the lobby as if it were his living room.  He also mysteriously had a master key and I once saw him sleeping in the gym when it was supposed to be closed.  He was in his underwear!



... Or the lady who would steal entire bags of my garbage right out of the dumpster outside our building.  Once, a friend of mine caught her going through someone's papers in the recycling and she claimed she had just dropped something in there by accident.  I've also seen her pouring giant pots of liquid into the bushes behind our building in the middle of the night.

 

So that's it for this chapter but there's obviously much more to say.  My time there felt like a cross between a nightmare and a hilarious comedy.  It was like every bad condo horror story all rolled into one building.

 

I was lucky to have made some friends (who decided to leave around the same time I did) and I do feel that we made a huge difference and helped many people.  I suppose there's a reason for everything, right?

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