3 posts tagged “house”

Last night I officially started the process of buying a house, and oddly it's really not that exciting, but I figured I needed to write about it, if for no other reason than I'm not writing enough these days.

Ours isn't built yet but this is what it will look like outside.

We started looking at these places back in February and instantly felt they were prefect.  They're condo's which means all the outside maintenance is already handled, and they include a separate suite that comes with a 2nd fridge and stove ready to rent out as an additional income source, so right there half my mortgage payment can be handled by a renter.  In a nutshell that means that I can have a three bedroom place for only a couple hundred a-month more than what I'm paying for my one-bedroom apartment, so not impacting our high-rolling lifestyle too much. 

The stairs going up are to a computer loft - which will be where I spend 98% of my time

Interestingly the property developer is a long time family friend and the realtor is his son, I used to go over to their place as a kid and hang out, but I've not been in contact with the family since before high school, so the talks up to this point are often interrupted by periodic sessions of reminiscence.  Tash and I really like our realtor, he's young and has a sense of humor along with being very knowledgable and professional.  Plus he's kinda the new kid on the block in the Realty scene here in town because most of his work prior to this year was down south in Vancouver which was a way more competitive market.  He really wants to shake things up around here, and being that Tash helps run a Love boutique in a conservative farm town, we can relate to doing a little shaking up. 

These are OUR appliances, the rental suite gets white set, I like how these guys roll

So after Tash and I saw these condo's and loved them, we talked to the banks which approved us for a mortgage so easily that we were left with the distinct impression that they were peeved we waited so long.  But we decided to look about before making any commitments so we made arrangements to look at other houses that were being listed so to do our due diligence.  Also we liked hanging out with our realtor and making jokes about people's tacky decorating.  And when else are you going to be able to kick people out of their homes to make fun of their tacky decorating I ask?

(Don't look at me like that!  When you walk into a home that someone is trying to sell for $200,000 and it smells like marijuana and cat piss it's much better form to make jokes and walk out in disgust, than just walk out in disgust.)

But alas the property viewing stage came to an end and a sneaky property manager-type was snapping up all the condo's that were just finished, but we had a shot at ones that were still being built due to be done next fall.  There were simply no places on the market that even came close to the economic sense and appeal these ones have so we jumped on them and got things signed last night.  That doesn't mean the place is ours yet, there's a lot that can happen between now and this fall, but I intend to complete the sale, and things look keen.

A few days back a friend of ours gave us a tip on a house that was selling for $65,000 and I get the news from Tash.  The first question out of my mouth of course was "What's wrong with it?", because in this town you can't buy a scrap heap on a square foot marsh for less than a quarter million it seems like.  Lots in this town sell for $65,000.  Last year we did a walk through on a house worth $89,000 and it was unlivable.  Like piss-on-the floor til the boards rot out from under you kinda unlivable.  Knock it over and start again.  So when something gets released for $65,000 in our town and it actually has 4 walls on it I'll check it out, apparently some work has already been done on the inside.  

I was just reading a very interesting article about MDMA (Extacy) getting approved in the US to be used in studies for people suffering from Post Traumatic Stress and severe anxiety disorders... and I couldn't help but think; "Wow, someone thinks a recreational drug might make people happy..."

Wierd huh.

I was reminded of an episode of House where the good doctor perscribes cigarettes for some disorder de-jour in the clinic. I don't recall it being stress related in the show, but weeks later my GF's mother went into the doctor because her anxiety was causing physical backlash and panic attacks and her doctor "recommended" that she "consider" taking up smoking again.  (She had quit 8 months prior.)  Her husband and daughters have noticed a significant difference, but I shall remain silent.  (Cue various mother-in-law jokes.)

All this sort of makes me wonder why the government ties doctor's hands when it comes to doing reserch studies with certain drugs?  Most of the drugs they perscribe are potentially addictive with dangerous side-effects anyways, but somehow if they're being used on the street they're automatically bad drugs and have no medicinal purposes whatsoever... or maybe there's some idea circling around in politician's brains that by allowing these drugs to be used medicinally that people will be taking their scrips to some shady character on a street corner.

The part of me that thinks I have an idea of how the world works knows that most of this is to do with the fact that pharmaceutical companies have more to do with this than anything.  After all drug companies contribute far more to election campaigns than a bunch of sick people in an activist group.  But there's a shift now... the Bush administration has thus-far not been known for it's liberal stance on health-care... so why such a bold move now?  I think part of it lies in the popular shift of public opinion... one of the top rated TV shows in the country has a protagonist who is addicted to opiates and is *gasp* ... a doctor!  Don't let your kids watch that!  It'll corrupt them for sure!!!

Maybe it allready has.