It just makes it so much easier to relax tomorrow night and get ready for another week of work, that’s all. And happy thanksgiving to you Monday weirdos too!
The CanaDoper Café (2012 edition of The great, ongoing Canadian current events and politics thread.)
Sadly, I was unable to get to Waterton. But I can go in the future–the “open 24/7/365” place will always be there.
However, on the plus side, I got out for what might well be my final game of golf for the season. It was fun! I hit some great shots (and some clunkers, as always), but I had a great time. If I can get another round in before the local courses close, that would be a bonus; but if today’s was my last round of the year–well, I’m happy.
[quote=“Spoons, post:1880, topic:608014”]
I’m thinking it’s some sort of spy code./QUOTE]
The turkey flew at midnight !
We had roast beast for Thankssomething. (Seriously, this was Thankssomething weekend, next weekend is my first weekend off since July so guess what, I am celebrating by slaving over a hot stove all day to make turkey. Dr Drake, are you and the Mr in? )
At 1pm the roast was way too bloody to consider serving, so I sliced it in half and walked to the store to get tomatoes. We had to eat by 2 pm for stepdaughter to leave for work at 3. I return to find my hubby had turned up the heat to broil. We had well done shoe leather.
But it was still pretty tasty because I made the gravy. Mmmm roast beast gravy. Going to have the rest tonight making homemade poutine. I have white cheddar cheese curds…
Spent the first part of the weekend with my in-laws. My nephew is 16 months old and such a blast to play with! He loves climbing the stairs and kicking soccer balls around!
Then I spent the other half of the weekend with my family. My sister, her husband, my husband and I went to see a Sherbrooke Phoénix game. It was awesome - they lost, but got their first point of the season (as of Sunday, they are 0-7-1, but hey it’s their inaugural season and they scored half as many goals Sunday as they have all season, so go Phoénix!). Fantastic major junior hockey for 15$ - hard to beat! The game was followed up with a nice turkey supper at my parent’s place, and turkey sandwiches yesterday.
We might buy a house…if we can get the seller to lower his price. We are thinking of offering about 7% lower than asking and see what he comes back with. He’s already made an offer somewhere and according to the agent is “ripe to negotiate”. We love the house, though it only has 2 bedrooms and is kind of small. It’s cozy and well finished and the basement could easily have a third bedroom, but we’d have to spend money on finishing it. We’ll see if we go through with it or not…it’s crazy and scary right now!
I also still haven’t bought a car. That will likely happen before my husband goes on a business trip at the end of the month. We’ll see. I’ve just been lazy about it 
Nice update. You’ve been MIA since you started working. Glad to see you back occasionally.
Sounds like housing prices are dropping since the new federal mortgage regulations were introduced, what a few months ago?
Stick to your guns about pricing. Rumour has it that we’ve reached a peak and are falling at this point.
Buy yourself one of these. You will never have under or over cooked meat again. For less than $20 it pays for itself the first time you don’t burn your dinner. It has an alarm when it hits the set temperature.
(Hint: buy two with a couple of extra probes. Works in your oven or bbq. I used mine in my smoker).
You need one of these for steaks and other items that you want a quick reading on.
I have been kind of busy, and less prone to sitting down at the computer for long stretches of time. I read a lot more on my phone now, but it’s more annoying to post, so I mostly lurk! There seems to be so much going on, and I’m still learning so much at work, it can be downright exhausting, though I really enjoy it. I’m beginning to get assigned “real” projects; things with long-term development and significant impact. I’ve only been there 4 months, so I’m kind of proud of myself!
Our biggest question about house pricing isn’t so much about what we can afford, but what we want to afford. Those are possibly two very different numbers! Neither one of us has the slightest clue what we are doing either, which makes everything more stressful. We have a great support system, but most of them seem to be going for the emotional side rather than rational and saying things like “just buy it!”
We haven’t seen prices begin to fall much, yet, though I feel it’s coming. Fact is there isn’t that much on the market right now, since Moving Day is basically July 1 and many people plan for that. We don’t yet know if our landlord will even let us break our lease - that’s the next thing I have to do, but I’m too tired to compose such an email now. The bubble didn’t get quite as big in Montreal as elsewhere…apparently…so it’s not expected to contract quite as much as in other cities, but prices are still pretty ridiculous.
I am currently enjoying the hell out of the album “Trampled Sun” by Kyng. If you like rock with a bit of a classic rock influence to it, give it a listen. This has nothing to do with anything whatsoever in this thread, but it’s making me happy now and I want to share 
::hums “bleed easy” on her way to bed::
Yes! After many years of trying to own bigger and bigger houses in order to accommodate the clutter and relatives, I now live in a 900sq’ apartment. We dumped all the ‘stuff’ (crap?) to move here, realizing that it was who you lived with that mattered, not what you lived in or the junk you accumulate.
What we should have done is to buy or build the smallest house that we could live in, based upon what we really needed, and spent the money on things that we wanted (a larger workshop for me and for my wife a larger yard for a garden).
I should summarize that by doing so, you probably end up spending less money with the chance of losing less if prices go down. On the flip side, you don’t make as much as prices go up. But what I found really important was the monthly cost of a larger house e.g. higher mortgage, taxes, maintenance, etc. Use the money saved in expenses and invest it so that all your eggs aren’t in one basket.
I think one truth of home ownership is that your stuff expands to fill all available space - whether it’s an 800 sq. ft. apartment or a 3000 sq. ft. house. That tells me that the size of the house isn’t important - you just have to keep the reigns on your stuff (I’m still working on that - the garage seems to be accumulating at an alarming rate!).
Another truth of home ownership (and you probably know this already, mnemosyne) is to not get as big a mortgage as the bank will lend you. That seems to be the recipe to becoming “house poor” - spending every cent you earn on the mortgage and all the other costs associated with home ownership.
I don’t think the house being a little too small is a deal-breaker, especially if you have a basement and a large yard. There are options available (maybe not immediately) to give you more space if you find you need it. If you buy a house with potential in the perfect location, you can work towards making it your perfect house.
As for negotiating the price, come in at the price you feel comfortable with - I don’t think starting at 7% under asking is too low. The seller will probably return with something between your bid and asking price. I think first time buyers are afraid of insulting the seller with a lowball offer, but I wouldn’t worry about that - they’ll come back with a number, and that will tell you how eager to sell they are.
And this concludes my seminar on home buying.
Taking notes here on all the house buying stuff. I’ve been wanting to have my own place for various reasons and been looking at my options.
Mostly right now I’m in a holding pattern of saving money for a downpayment (thank goodness for first time home buying, I can pull from my RRSP) and watching what the market is doing while trying to figure out what I want and really need. I’ve been to meetings for stuff from the programs to help people buy houses through to co-housing (which, I think would be awesome for my family situation and I met some great people but the flip side is I don’t think I could afford it) and even some library information sessions.
Part of me wants to jump in feet first and torpedoes be damned but I’ve seen a friend have issues with that which makes me wary.
Never heard of them, but it sure sounds like my kind of music. I may look them up tonight.
Good luck with the house. Think of all the extra money you’ll have with no Habs games this year.
If you manage it you’ll be the first - on the planet!
Good luck with your decision, mnemosyne.
Mrs_Doom and I are just about to list our old house with an agent.
If we didn’t need the money sooner rather than later, I’d actually prefer to try to sell it myself, as I am not a big fan of the huge fee. I sold a house a few years ago on my own, and it cost me under $1000.00 for my lawyer.
The 5% or whatever a real estate agent takes for their cut really bugs me, but we are biting the bullet to (hopefully) expedite the matter (which is what I envision the purpose of an agent ultimately should be).
Ah yes, the garage. That’s the big room where I keep my snowblower, my lawn tractor, the bikes, the garbage, a broken TV, a broken washing machine, a broken dryer, the pool cover, miscellaneous gardening tools, and all the toys that my kids no longer play with.
Ever since the dump stopped taking private loads, I have no idea what to do with stuff anymore.
What’s this, now? WTF are you supposed to do with your junk?
I just yesterday took a bunch of scrap shingles, wood furniture (junk), old washer and dryer, and miscellaneous household crud to our township dump; is this a Big City thing?
Going to the dump is almost like a weekend pastime, hereabouts.
Our dump takes private loads and we have a day where you can put out big stuff. If you have a way of transporting it to Burlington, you can leave it out on my lawn.
Nevermind, I just checked and the next big garbage day isn’t until February.
If you are willing to drive some to Milton, you can use our dump. Link
They don’t check residency (my parents live in Peel and use it all the time).
That Milton dump is the cat’s ass.
Where I live, dumps tend to be clearings in which trash is dumped, people watch bears as a recreational past-time, and water bombers are used to put out the fires. Ne shitteth vous pas.
Three years ago, I took a trailer load of books to the Milton dump. I tell you, I’ve been to golf courses that are not as nice. No stench. No smoke. No gulls spewing little balls of deficate derision from overhead. No bears giving you the evil eye. Why I couldn’t even find an unpaved road, let alone a clearing in which to unload. Just recycle bins into which I was able to drop the accumulated wisdom of the western world. Now the cost, however, was a bit steep (I’ve rented rooms for less), but it was well worth it just to enjoy such luxurious surroundings for a brief time.
I highly recommend that you make a road trip to the Milton dump, for it really is the cat’s ass.
I once left a burned out floor lamp at the curb for collection.
A bag lady came knocking at my door a few days later, and asked if she could have my trash. I had forgotten about the lamp, so I figured she meant my old pimpmobile (a Fleetwood Brougham with all the options) at the curb, so I gave it to her. The last time I saw her she was blowing through a stop sign.
A few days later, the city trash collectors picked up the floor lamp, but I doubt if they had anywhere near a much fun as did the bag lady.
Petition to get rid of Rob Anders WITHOUT pension! I’ve already signed.