The Coffee House

[cgw]

I know I got very very lucky, not only finding the house that worked for me and that I could afford, but also with my timing (for once in my life .) Found the house at the end of May 2020 after it had been on the market for just a few days. Made an offer immediately and went into contract in June and was still able to negotiate to come in under the asking price. Closed in August. If I had been just a couple of months later, there's no way I would have been able to negotiate, and it's possible I might have been in a bidding war. In fact, the market here (NYC area) was already starting to go crazy; everyone was trying to get out of the city because of COVID and so many people were just throwing any amount of money at a house - often unseen! - to make sure they had a place to go. It happened all so fast as it started to sink in that COVID was just getting worse and NYC was being hit the hardest at that time. I think the only reason I was still able to negotiate was because it's a small house - 1K sq ft - and in the outer suburbs, and people were still looking for larger houses closer to the city. If I were looking to buy my house today, I wouldn't be able to afford it.

Sounds like about 95% of our experience! We had finally moved on from academic/professional ronin life and wanted out of the Toronto area, mainly to be closer to a then 90 yr-old FIL an hour away. Found the house in 10/2019, gave 'em their asking $ and did the preliminaries that day. Bad timing for them, coupled with a looong 1/20 close meant slack interest and no competing offers. Nicely reno'd mid-century bungalow, great yard and deck, walk-to shopping and a 5-min drive to the old boy's place--the "family ruin" I talk about here.
Problems...Fudged disclosure of possible asbestos in the attic insulation. A common problem here thanks to a 1970s federal rebate program for insulation upgrades. Vermiculite used was sometimes sourced from mines later confirmed to be contaminated. Long story short, our patient lawyer put the owner's arm in a sling and got the full-hazmat clean-up plus new upgrade insulation put on his tab.
Moved in late 1/20--a month before all the fun started. Work went remote in mid-March and here still sit with only occasional trips into Toronto for meetings. No chance of finding a place comparable now, especially once the stampede to distant 'burbs and small towns began. Happy with the new reality. Just
wish I could walk to the liquor store...

 

[limr]

They call and mail here all the time. Like I’m just sitting around and will get the letter and say - oh yes I should sell for under market value , why didn’t that occur to me?


To clarify - we (the collective US) are Yanks. The Yankees are a terribly bad baseball team from the Bronx, NY.

Sorry, you misspelled the name of the terrible baseball team - it's spelled "Red Sox." You're welcome.

(Sorry, I am actually a Mets fan, but I am contractually obligated to reciprocate the trash talk )

Also, be careful about calling anyone from the South a "Yankee."

 

[snowbear]

We were getting the cfalls to sell. Actually, they were looking for my father (deceased, same name). I had a standard answer that ususally shuit them up - "$12 million; the price goes up in 10 seconds ..."

 

[jeffashman]

I get similar calls for the last house we owned and sold, and for a house that I've never owned, which is quite strange. I get offers from Open Door for my current house, but below market. My standard response it to tack $200K onto the current market value. If a buyer ever bites on that, yeah, I can let go of this place for that overmarket price.

 

[limr]

Sounds like about 95% of our experience! We had finally moved on from academic/professional ronin life and wanted out of the Toronto area, mainly to be closer to a then 90 yr-old FIL an hour away. Found the house in 10/2019, gave 'em their asking $ and did the preliminaries that day. Bad timing for them, coupled with a looong 1/20 close meant slack interest and no competing offers. Nicely reno'd mid-century bungalow, great yard and deck, walk-to shopping and a 5-min drive to the old boy's place--the "family ruin" I talk about here.
Problems...Fudged disclosure of possible asbestos in the attic insulation. A common problem here thanks to a 1970s federal rebate program for insulation upgrades. Vermiculite used was sometimes sourced from mines later confirmed to be contaminated. Long story short, our patient lawyer put the owner's arm in a sling and got the full-hazmat clean-up plus new upgrade insulation put on his tab.
Moved in late 1/20--a month before all the fun started. Work went remote in mid-March and here still sit with only occasional trips into Toronto for meetings. No chance of finding a place comparable now, especially once the stampede to distant 'burbs and small towns began. Happy with the new reality. Just
wish I could walk to the liquor store...

Mine had been owned by a woman with a grown daughter who lived in California and a husband who had died two or three years earlier. She'd had the house on the market soon after he died, and had a buyer who wanted a bunch of work done. She had a new roof put in and got all new windows. They had also had a small oil leak and had to do a bunch of remediation and get a brand new oil tank, and they sprang for a really good one with safeguards against future leaks. Then the buyer backed out. She had it off the market for a little while, then COVID hit and she was retiring so she wanted to get out of Dodge and go live with her daughter. Worked perfectly for me as I got a house with repairs already done from someone who would be out of the house a few weeks before the expected closing.

Our only real surprise was that she had apparently half-assed a patch on the bedroom wall under the window that had clearly had water damage from the leak in the old roof. When I cut through the drywall to re-do the patch properly, I realized that mold had started to grow on the inside of the drywall. We ended up replacing half the wall.

The patch was just off camera to the right of this photo, under the window. We cut the entire bottom half of the drywall - about halfway up the window - and replaced it. The second shot is the new wall, paint, and the engineered hardwood floors we put in.

 

[smoke665]

We had a good run with our house after we built...just over 8 yrs before any real maintenance came up. Now it seems there's a couple projects every year. Such are the joys of home ownership.

 

[cgw]

Mine had been owned by a woman with a grown daughter who lived in California and a husband who had died two or three years earlier. She'd had the house on the market soon after he died, and had a buyer who wanted a bunch of work done. She had a new roof put in and got all new windows. They had also had a small oil leak and had to do a bunch of remediation and get a brand new oil tank, and they sprang for a really good one with safeguards against future leaks. Then the buyer backed out. She had it off the market for a little while, then COVID hit and she was retiring so she wanted to get out of Dodge and go live with her daughter. Worked perfectly for me as I got a house with repairs already done from someone who would be out of the house a few weeks before the expected closing.

Our only real surprise was that she had apparently half-assed a patch on the bedroom wall under the window that had clearly had water damage from the leak in the old roof. When I cut through the drywall to re-do the patch properly, I realized that mold had started to grow on the inside of the drywall. We ended up replacing half the wall.

The patch was just off camera to the right of this photo, under the window. We cut the entire bottom half of the drywall - about halfway up the window - and replaced it. The second shot is the new wall, paint, and the engineered hardwood floors we put in.

View attachment 276095

View attachment 276096

Nice work! So many tales locked up in these old piles! That sort of water damage can stem from inept window installs and/or amateur repair. Roof leaks are a whole other world of pain. Guess that's why I popped for a new roof last summer. My last rental in a Toronto 'burb had drywall damage from cheap-ass windows that dripped condensation onto the sill and into the interior wall, this on an early 2000s build.
My crib now has granite-like old school plaster walls--almost sound-proof thanks to a brick exterior. Only
beef is the sonic bounce from the audio system but who listens to Miles at lease-breaking volume?
Our next adventure is the family ruin--180+ yrs old Regency whose gardens we've been rehabing since 2016. The house? Stay tuned...

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Not that I'm that old... (OK maybe I am...) but Duz laundry detergent had a washcloth in each box as a promotion. Not sure of the brand of washcloth though, but Cannon wouldn't surprise me. Back then there were very few brands to choose from, and Cannon was one of the most popular.

Update: Looks like Breeze included the washcloths. Duz would put a piece of dinnerware in each box. Thanks to Bing Copilot for the assist.

I remember seeing Breeze too, so maybe that was the source. I think I've heard of Duz brand too, but I'm not so sure about it.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

There's been a major fire in a church roughly downtown in Toronto. I think I photographed it a few years back. I've been looking for a picture, but I have not found it yet.

"Historic Toronto church devastated by fire", posted Jun 9, 2024 by "CP24" [Dundas & Gladstone area, length 4:34]
""

 

[ClintLloyd]

Went out shooting birds for the first time in a while yesterday. Put the camera on the bench on charge when I got home. Woke up this morning, grabbed my camera off the bench, turned it on and formatted the card. As soon as it formatted I remembered that I didn't transfer the images to the computer last night...

 

[smoke665]

Went out shooting birds for the first time in a while yesterday. Put the camera on the bench on charge when I got home. Woke up this morning, grabbed my camera off the bench, turned it on and formatted the card. As soon as it formatted I remembered that I didn't transfer the images to the computer last night...

Pretty sure we've all had this face at one time or another

 

[jeffashman]

My routine now is to connect the camera to the PC and use Bridge to download the photos and then delete them from the card, while the battery charges at the same time. It works very well.

 

[SquarePeg]

My routine now is to connect the camera to the PC and use Bridge to download the photos and then delete them from the card, while the battery charges at the same time. It works very well.

I take the card out and use the card reader to download to my external drive and then I put the card aside until I’m done editing and have uploaded my keepers to my cloud storage and Flickr accounts. Once that is done (sometimes months later ), I reformat and then put the card back in the card pocket of my camera bag.

I rotate the batteries into a separate charger when needed. I don’t think I’ve ever plugged any of my cameras into my laptop.

 

[MartinCrabtree]

I was looking at this place and was pleased enough to offer asking price. It is a late '90s prefab on 3 acres in the mountains. Perfect. There had been a fire and they did a quick and dirty rehab,i.e. fresh paint and flooring with some cheesy drywall repairs. They said "well someone else is interested so we're raising the asking price $5K." I picked up my helmet (riding motorcycle) and headed for the door w/o saying a word. Got home to a phone call asking "well?" Told them my original offer stands and if it's not enough oh well and hung up. Got another call a few hours later accepting my offer. Said I'll have to think about it now I found another place around the corner and hung up again. In the end I got $5k off the asking. Paid cash and been here going on two years. The garage is a wash (wet and wall cracking) which was disappointing but oh well. I refuse to be pushed around in business dealings and will walk away from any deal with shady activities.

 

[Rickbb]

Pretty sure we've all had this face at one time or another
View attachment 276119

Been there done, bought the tee shirt, more times than I can count.