Had the home inspection yesterday, and it's a go! We're officially changing houses. Same city, same phone number, bigger house. Shorter drive to work, but no car pool. Hopefully better school. Closer to school, definitely walking distance. Closer to the better pool, same distance to library and park. (Different library and park, less walking.) In a crescent, so no traffic. Not on a hill. (Just enough of a hill for good drainage, not enough to affect bicycling.) Hubby will drive by a place doing real meals for busy people, as opposed to fast-food. Grocery store and deli right by school. We saw almost 40 houses, put an offer on one but withdrew it when $2000 of brickwork turned into $6000 immediately ($8000 to redo enough that it doesn't look like a patch), and who knows when other side will need it -- basically a bad batch of bricks. End result of that one: out $500 for the home inspection. This one, though, passed with "typical for house of its age" colours. We'll have to spend about $3000 regular maintenance before we'd expected. The shower wall is likely to fail catastrophically, so that's moved from "in two years to make it look better" to "now". Same with repainting the window trim. The wood stove is absolutely not to be used (and clean out the old ashes, so if there is a fire the insurance company won't say we were using it). We get the keys April 20, expecting another week or two before we move in. We got it for a good price. Old shag carpet and kitchen cupboards. So much nicer that way; we get to choose our own colours, rather than paying full price for colours we don't like. Current house, eeps. Still another week or two of work before we can put it on the market. Mostly clearing out the junk of 13 years, but a few cosmetic things. And a few hundred discretionary; will a sticky faucet turn them off if they like the rest of it? I'm not sure who has my old address. Email me if you want the new one. Wheee!!!! Cricket Sandy Schoen

Congratulations I also want to move house. I've discovered how high the chances are of my daughter being shunted into the extremely poor secondary school in a few years time, rather than the two rather good secondary schools that are also nearby, simply because of distance.

We've been known to have kids bussed past the closer school, theory being that if they're already on a bus a longer trip is still cheaper than turning walkers into bussers. Hoping muchly that the Hanlon Expressway is a large enough boundary that they'll keep walking to WestWood rather than be moved to Willow. The high schools? We've got three in the city, each one drawing from so many diverse neighbourhoods that I gave up trying to figure it out. The tech school is actually incredibly good, not just a "bird school"; it's got programs with local industries and you have to attend the academic half of each class to use the equipment. The others'll probably shift reputation twice before the kids get there. (My high school was rated very highly when I started, and five years later I was told the universities still rated it highly (frosh from there got same marks at uni as at school, average frosh dropped 10%), but it also had quite a drug problem (that I'd been totally unaware of. I'd known you could probably get drugs there if you wanted, but that it was considered more of of a problem there than at other schools?))

Congrats!

Congratulations Cricket!

Ditto. Nice move!

I would love to move to a narrow boat and travel the canals of Britain but not only I can't afford it but I don't think I can go through the locks by myself.

The office I work in is right next to a canal basin, and the same boats are moored there regularly (including one called Spectre). It looks a particularly cold way to live in the winter, when there's ice all around and, during the thaws, you can hear the ice squeaking against the boats' hulls. I rather fancy the idea during the summer though.

I'd like to move to a mansion by the bank and wave as you both go by!

I would love a little place in the countryside, with large fires that i can light in winter but given how things are that wont happen and I will probably try to move to Australia.

I hear there are some interesting people in Australia.

You heard right matey! and OMG FB!! dont even jest with me! Get your boys Down Under ASAP!! Your man knows what Im talking about! BTW, has the whole "how the bloody hell are ya?" Aussie ad campaign furore died down in Britain yet?

Lol yep thats died down and the ad is playing quite happily

Congrats on finding a nice house. I inherited the family birdbox and have no intention of leaving. its got big rooms, a big garden (which could be developed though I have no intention of doing so) and is in a very nice area I thought of running away from home and beccoming a beachcomber

Ah home

Yay! Though I have to admit, I like apartments. No maintenance. My idea of upgrade would be an apartment with washer/dryer connections. ^_^

Originally posted by meridianday The office I work in is right next to a canal basin, and the same boats are moored there regularly (including one called Spectre). It looks a particularly cold way to live in the winter, when there's ice all around and, during the thaws, you can hear the ice squeaking against the boats' hulls. I rather fancy the idea during the summer though.

Sorry, did you say a narrow boat called Spectre. Is this they new secret base which won't be a secret for long and gets blown up by G-force at the last minute.

Originally posted by Firebird Lol yep thats died down and the ad is playing quite happily

Ad, what ad.

The australia tourism ad. Where they say "so where the bloody hell are you?"

Never seen it, ind you, too busy playing on my Xbox 360 as there ain't much on to watch on telly.

Congratulations Cricket! I remember it wasn't too long ago that you were re-doing your floors.

Well, the house is ours. Double mortgage until we sell this one, what fun. Former owner was a home handyman who didn't know what he was doing, and I don't know how he talked the professionals into doing some of the stuff, unless he was pretty brave. Things like adding a few extra lights to a circuit (easy) and upsizing the breaker to compensate (not easy, and stupid, seeing as the wire for that circuit was sized for the smaller breaker). Dryer and air conditioner on the same circuit -- installing A/C isn't a simple job, so a professional did that one. Gonna get an electrician to go over the whole house and tell us what's not up to code. What's not safe vs just inconvenient. Pipes in shower leak? replace only the 3 sqft of tile you need to, and ignore that the wallboard behind the tiles to the side is getting non-wallish. Tub's only got a few years left in it, so we'll replace tub and wall together, before the kids start splashing around. Kitchen fawcett loose? Go under the counter and tie the pipes together with nylon string. That one, not sure whether to replace countertop now, or wait till we can redo more of the kitchen. We like the style of the cupboards, but need more of them. We knew most of this when we bought it, and it was a good price. If new, would be worth 25% more than we got it for, but it's still a lot of work. Not to mention cleaning and painting. Seriously, how many people empty and sanitize their dry goods' cupboards more than every few years? But there's something about other people's dirt... So, you won't see a lot of me for a bit. Cheers! Cricket

Thanks for the update. Be looking for ya down the line, then well know that all is going well and good in the organizing of the new place.

No, I haven't been abducted by aliens Although I could maybe use the holiday. (aka house update, blatantly posted in several places at once) The paint is taking three or more coats, previous wiring done by a pyromaniac (the same one who installed the fireplace insert), windows by same person (would be lots and lots of oxygen for said fire), and they must have had money to burn because they replaced the same $400 part of the 1977 furnace (read "1/3 of the heat it generates goes out the flue") every two years for over a decade. So, all is well, just busy. Cheers! Cricket

When I visted my parents for the April Bank Holiday, they were repainting the dining room, lounge, downstairs toilet and the bedrooms. It was only the lounge that had to be done I think and then they would have to lay down some new carpet.