Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



You are here: Home / 2007 / Archives for July 2007

Archives for July 2007

I wonder what our house is worth

by

I’m starting to think that I should call our real estate broker and get our house appraised!

Every week we receive a few promo flyers from the various real estate agents or companies that work in our area and the prices of houses around here have just gone up and up since we purchased our home in June of 2001.

One of the real estate flyers we got today is for an open house for a detached home less than a block away from my house. I know exactly which house it is, and even though it’s detached (small walkway between houses – which means no driveway, no garage etc) there’s no way that this house is any bigger than my own. In fact it might even be smaller.

Plus, we have a shared driveway. This house doesn’t even have a driveway! We’d have to share our drive with our neighbor if she had a car with maybe one of us parking on the street every second week or something, but at least we have a driveway and space between our houses!

Take a wild guess how much the asking price is?

$499,000! Uh huh. Really.

We bought our house 6 years ago for less than 200,000 and at that time it was a steal because the rest of the houses in the neighborhood were going at $250,000 plus. The owners needed to sell the house to move into their new retirement home by a certain date. That’s why we got such a great deal on a solid house – new roof, new windows, new water pipes. There was nothing we had to do to fix up the house.

So I figure our semi-detached house would go for about $400,000 – perhaps even without or reno complete!

Not that we are planning on moving anytime soon. I mean, if we moved we’d more than likely end up purchasing a house about the same size in the $400,000 + range since the market is high right now. We’d gain, but the new house would be expensive.

Still it’d be nice to get our home appraised just to see what it would be worth on todays real estate market. Unless a prospective buyer hates yard work of any kind I’m sure our landscaped front and backyard gardens would help set the price a bit higher too.

Have you ever had your home appraised just for the heck of it to see what it would be worth if you decided to sell?





So many phone calls!

by

I can’t remember how long it’s been since we’ve received so many calls from family members in one day. The day isn’t even over yet! Two of my brothers have called, Chris’ cousin’s husband, his aunt and my cousin have all called.

Luckily no one’s sick or anything. They were all just calling either to say hello or update us with some news.

My brother that was visiting from Vancouver a few weeks ago, and has been traveling all over the world since that time called to say hi and to let us know that they booked an Orlando vacation rental for October. He wanted to know if we’d like to join them while they are there. So nice. Maybe we will.

My other brother that lives just outside of Toronto called to let me know that my nephew who just graduated from the Ontario College of Art is having an art show this weekend. He’s an excellent photographer and I’m definitely going to see his work because he normally doesn’t show his work to anyone! Not even his parents! Apparently he’s so good that he won two or three awards upon graduation, and his photos are being published in book with a very select few top well known photographers. He’s gotta be good!

My cousin and Chris’ cousin both just want to get together with us since it’s been a while and Chris’ aunt was calling because it’s Chris’ birthday on Sunday.

I’ll bet that we hear from Chris’ parents or his brother from Chicago this evening too since his brother is supposed to be coming North today or sometime this weekend. I’ve forgotten the dates since they’ve changed two or three times already.

I might have to leave the phone unplugged to get any work done around here!

A beautiful bloom

by

I didn’t get around to getting the photos I took yesterday off my new camera. I still have to upload the software onto the computer and figure out if I have to convert raw mode photos to jpg or if the camera will do it on it’s own when I transfer the photos.

However, I did promise that I’d post a photo from my garden and I thought you might enjoy this beautiful clematis flower. I grow this clematis on a bamboo arch at the entrance to my backyard garden. The clematis is quite large and quickly grew to cover the whole arch by the end of May.

I also grow a rose called Breath of Life on this trellis and it’s blooms are a pale peach. Picture this flower blooming at the same time as pale peach roses … lovely isn’t it?

DSC02134

Oh, did I tell you that this is large clematis? Each bloom is about five inches wide! They’re huge!

BTW if anyone loves this clematis it’s name is – clematis hybrid Seiboldiana. Also, if you enjoy this one you’ll totally fall in love with the velvet like clematis that I have a photo of on my photoblog!

A weekend get away

by

I got the prettiest postcard from a friend who’s on holiday this month. She sent me a postcard with a photo of the Massachusetts bed and breakfast that she’s staying at with her boyfriend.

I envy her. Chris and I haven’t had a holiday alone for ages! We always seem to end up staying with family – in someones house or in hotels or motels depending on where we are. We need to get away for a nice little break.

Earlier I was talking about a more exotic holiday and I said that we’d likely stay in Canada for the summer. Well, we have guests for a good part of the summer so we’ll have to stay put, but we might be able to get away for a weekend.

There’s lots of nice bed and breakfasts here in in the Niagara Falls region. We could go to wineries, do a little wine tasting and then have dinner in a nice restaurant. I think that would be nice.

Do you ever get away with your spouse just for the weekend for a quick break from every day life? I think this is something that Chris and I should try to do at least once a year if not twice a year.

That old TV show – Due South

by

I was watching an old TV show yesterday morning called Due South. It’s that TV show that was on 10 or 15 years ago about a Canadian Mountie working with a Chicago detective. Do you remember it?

I never watch the show when it was on, but it comes on a channel that I watch late at night and sometimes early in the morning so I’ve found myself watching it lately.

One of the strange things that I noticed in one of the scenes on the episode that I watched yesterday was that they had a Money Mart in the background. I thought Money Marts were only in Canada? Money Marts are the same thing as payday loan shops.

Was Due South filmed in Canada? I know a lot of shows are filmed in Canada but for some reason I always thought that one was filmed in the US. If I’m right about the Money Marts though, then it was filmed here in Canada.

Anyone know?

Meta

Search this site

Tags

blog blogs camera Canada Chris computer crohns dinner dog Family flower flowers Food friends funny garden Gardening Green Thumb Sunday Health and Fitness Health Fitness and Beauty holiday home Home and Lifestyle house husband IBD Inflammatory bowel disease Internet Music neighbors pain photo photos plants puppy Shopping sick sleep spring Toronto TV Video visit website Wordless Wednesday