Breakable Crate

So, as I mentioned at the end of the last post, S and I had been searching MLS, attending a few open houses, and then cruising some neighborhoods. I have to admit, I was a bit down after seeing those awful basements and also realizing that buying a house in Dundas or Westdale just wasn't going to happen on this go-round (simply due to price). Anyway, Aeromove put us in touch with a realtor from Burlington, and she gave us a call, got all the details: price range, features we wanted (two bath, like I said), a non-scary basement. She knew we weren't terribly fond of the mountain, and that I didn't want to be really far away from work.

The realtor setup our search for us, and we got the regular updates. Alas, most of the houses that came up were on the mountain! Undeterred, we selected the interesting non-mountain houses, and waited for the earliest opportunity to physically walk in some of these houses. We noticed that the houses that we were being sent didn't include any houses east of downtown, but we were seeing these in our own MLS searches. So, S asked our realtor if we could see some houses in the St. Clair area.

We ended up doing a 5-house tour in this area in one afternoon. All of the houses were old, but in various states of (dis)repair. The first house we saw was by far the best of the lot: in good condition, spacious, nice floors, etc. After those initial tours we liked that one house, but wanted to see some other houses in different areas.

But then! Something happened that changed all of that. We found out that on the next Friday, other buyers would be making an offer on that first house. We were torn: we really liked it, but we hadn't had time to look at much else. What to do? We made a quick decision to have a go at making a counter offer to try and get it. If we lost, we'd have more opportunity to look around. If we won, we'd get a nice house. After a strange, low-stakes bidding war, we ended up getting the house for the asking price.

If there was one downside to the whole affair it was that we found out during the home inspection that there was some old wiring in the home, the kind that insurers don't like. We ended up signing off on the house instead of trying to cut a deal with the owners to take some money off the deal, because we didn't know better. It wasn't a deal-breaker, just kind of a bummer.

For those wondering, Aeromove worked pretty good. Never having done this before, I don't know how using an Aeromove realtor affects how they interact with the buyer; if they want to do less for you because they have to pay for some Aeroplan miles. It certainly will limit your choice in realtors, but that wasn't a problem for us. We got the points after we told Aeromove that the deal had closed successfully and we now owned the house.

As promised, a post about buying a House in Hamilton.

The discussion to move had been happening for quite a few months. There was back and forth about location and type of housing: Guelph or Hamilton? Apartment or House? For S, the important thing was that it wasn't a 1-bedroom, and not a condo. Oh, preferably two bathrooms. Beyond that, almost anything goes.

Economically, it made much more sense to live in Hamilton. The homes are more affordable, and since I have to do most of the daily commuting, there would be a savings on gas, as well. We were sad to leave Guelph, but on our meager salaries/stipends, it was very difficult to justify that cost.

So, we started gradually, on our own, just browsing the MLS.  We figured we were limited to the low $200K range, so that's where we focused our search.

Unfortunately, that also limits where in Hamilton we could live. Ideally, we would look in Westdale or Dundas, nice areas near the University. But the reality is that houses in those areas don't go on the market in that range. So, while we crossed our fingers, hoping that something would magically appear, we turned our eyes to different areas. There's the mountain, which isn't really a mountain, but the top part of hill. Reasonably affordable. There's also downtown and the surrounding area. Also fairly cheap and plentiful.

But! and this is a big But! The houses we starting look at in those areas (in our range) were just disasters. Particularly the basements. Ugh, just thinking about them makes me cringe. Basements always hide the dirty laundry, so to speak. Water damage, cracked floors, dirt, and other manner of bad things. I have to admit, I wasn't really taken with the area on the mountain we drove through, either. Kind of drab and sprawling.

It became clear that we needed an agent. But how to choose? Well, we took an easy way out, and contacted Aeromove - Aeroplan's service for hooking you up with an agent. You use one of theirs, and they give you a few thousand Aeroplan points. Fair deal.

<to be continued>

From: http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/2009/04/another-racy-vintage-ad-for-rice-.html

I'm sitting in an expensive hotel room in Denver, Colorado. It's 5:30 here time, but 7:30 my time, so I'm ready to eat, and also pretty tired. I've been having these out-of-character allergies lately, the kind that makes my nose and eyes itchy and water, and there's nothing I can do about it ('cept Benadryl). I think I need medical attention for it.

I understand that you get dehydrated quickly at this altitude. I also understand you get drunker quicker.

I watched Julie & Julia on the flight over, and it was pretty good, and made me want to cook something French. Also to write a blog post. However, I felt like the movie left me hanging with some of the questions raised about the connection between the two protagonists. I also thought the offering of butter to the Food Gods was a bit over the top, even if it was true.

I think I'll blog about the new house next time.

my love for this video is well known. I put it here as a reminder to me to watch it again.

Unknowns:

• What is the name of that dance?
• What kind of mouth-tuba is that?
• Why does a man come onto the screen and blow onto a pane of glass?
• How can it be called "Czech Roll'd" when it is clearly a pleasure to watch?

English Translation [via nikokaojabg in youtube comments]

I'm driving in a Skoda 100 to camp in Orava
Because I'm in a hurry, I risk crossing Moravia
A monster prowls around there, it comes out of the swamp
It mainly eats people from Prague, and it's called Joe

Joe Swamp creeps through the bogs
Joe Swamp approaches the village
Joe Swamp is sharpening? his teeth
Joe Swamp bites and strangles
Who'dve thought that the way to deal with Joe Swamp
The only thing that works is a plane with white powder

I was driving through a village on the road to Vizovice
I met the village elder who told me over some slivovice
"Whoever brings me Joe, dead or? alive,
Shall have my daughter and half the collective farm"

Joe Swamp creeps through the bogs
Joe Swamp approaches the village
Joe Swamp is sharpening his teeth
Joe Swamp bites and strangles
Who'dve thought that the way to deal with Joe Swamp
The only thing that works is a plane with white powder

I say, "Chief, give me the plane and the powder
I'll give you Joe, no problem"
The Elder agreed, and at dawn I rose to the skies
The powder fell beautifully from the plane onto Joe

Joe Swamp is now all white
Joe Swamp escapes from the bogs
Joe Swamp has turned to stone
For Joe Swamp, this is the end
I caught Joe and now I have him, woohoo!
Cash is always? good so now I'm selling him to the zoo

In Czech after the jump.

read more...

I've lately been digging on this Edmonton-based band, Faunts. Their first album has this quiet, ambient toned-down vibe, but then they moved to a more rhythmic, electronic sound, and then to something poppier on their latest effort. The funny thing is, now that I've discovered them, they seem to not exist. All their websites are static, with no new information or tour dates. (Geek note: I discovered their music because they have a song on the Mass Effect soundtrack)

Yeah, so I don't post much. Not much is going on, and when something is, it tends to be photo documented. I work, I rent video games. Oh, I know! I sold my Wii and bought a PS3 with the proceeds. I am much happier now. You see, I can sort of watch Blu-ray rentals (sort of, because my audio receiver chokes on the crazy high-bitrate audio), and if I go to rent a game, and it's not available for the 360, I can just get the PS3 version! Brilliant!

I was just chatting with james, and he sent me links, which I will share with you here. Others are mine.

• We choose the moon. A recreation of the moon mission from back in the day. Presented by the JFK museum and LIBRARY.
• Vibram 5-fingered (toed?) shoes. Yeah, you'll look like a freak. But this is the way of the future, man. embrace it.
• Project Tuva. Bill Gates buys the video rights to Richard Feynman's physics lecture from back in the day. He calls them inspiring. They are free.
• Don't even reply. letters from an asshole. This guy responds to classified ads and acts like a dick. It's funny.
• Also funny is http://ncbirofl.blogspot.com/. Ridiculous research.
• I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts, since 2 hours of my day are in the car. I can highly recommend Spark from CBC, which I just started listening to. (and RadioLab, but I think I've talked about that already). You can google those, since I'm feeling lazy.
• I'm totally going to virgin fest if I can get tickets, since it promises to be the last show NIN plays in Canada for a long time, if ever.
• Yes, I know these aren't links anymore. I like saying 'from back in the day' when I can't be bothered to find an exact date.

DAVID KITT "No Truth in Your Eyes" Official Video, dir. Asad Raza from David Kitt on Vimeo.

After years of dreaming (and being unemployed) I finally decided to buy a digital SLR. If you know anything about the way I make (large) purchasing decisions, I hemmed and hawed for sometime. I did my homework, comparison shopped, price shopped, coupon shopped, used shopped and eventually shop shopped.

For more than a few moments I was strongly considering buying a used model (read: kijiji). The benefits were many: significant price cut, no tax, (usually) minimal use. There were plenty of sellers (in Toronto), and I was very close to sealing a deal (which fell through). But then I noticed this extremely dodgy deal: no name, no address. Just send me your money via Western Union and I'll courier you the camera. Ok, yeah, I'm going to fall for that one. And the funny thing is, every ad I looked at after that felt like it was a scam waiting to happen. So I bought it from Dell!

I know you just can't WAIT to see the photos I'll post now.

ooh, shiny.

Btw, if you want to know what a classified-ad scam might look like, here you go:

I want to tell you something in advance.You are buying this from grey market. There wil be No tax No receipt.I can't provide you my phone number, address, store name  or web address.But I am located in Mississauga  Ontario.
Pick-up is not available even for the local customers.
The kit will be shipped via Purolator and
shipping cost will depend on service you want.
Shipping cost with Purolator:
$40 Transit time 4 Days
$51 Transit time 2 Days
Payment terms are in advance and via Western union
The Reason why Western Union:
1. I don't collect people's Credit card #s and  personal information
2. No paypal because of http://www.aboutpaypal.org/buyers_using_paypal_to_scam_sellers
If you are still interested please let me know.