Re: Take a moment to breath Sunday
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 8:01 pm
Morning was getting ready for church, church, church meeting, then a quick lunch.
It was a sunny day so we decided to drive down to the Seaway. We were going to go on Wednesday when it will be well above freezing, but it is also supposed to be raining that day so we decided to take advantage of a sunny day for a drive.
The primary purpose of the trip was to check out the model suite of a condo building we've watched being built across from the fish & chip place. It will be opening this year (a year late) and we are hoping that some of the owners might be buying as an investment and interested in renting. So we wanted to see what they had to offer.
First, the price was unbelievable, from 1.75 to 2x the price of our house for 1000 to 1600 square feet. If we wanted the penthouse, that's 3x the price of our house. Plus $25K for each parking spot. Then the condo fees (about $700/month), property taxes (didn't ask) and another $45 per month for the parking spot 'security and maintenance' fee. Plus you pay for hot water, heat, and electricity. It is supposed to be a 'smart' building but she couldn't tell us what that meant.
It is also smaller than it looks from the outside because the first 6 floors are all commercial space (plus an aquarium/museum of the Seaway on the first floor.) In total, there are only 85 units, and they are 80% sold. On the bright side, one owner is looking to rent his unit and the selling corporation will be willing to rent unsold units in order to get them occupied. Of course, those units will be coming up this year not next. But it is a start, although I can't figure out how the unit could be rented to us for anything close to what we are willing to pay, or the going rate down there. In this town, a 3 bedroom place goes for up to $1500/month but that would barely cover condo fees and taxes, let alone the cost of the mortgage. And the largest units are only 2 bedroom plus a den.
The most eye opening part of the day was how small 1600 square feet is when you don't have a basement or garage for storage. That blew me away as I tried to place my furniture in it. Originally, I was thinking 1000 square feet was what we'd probably end up with. But even with 1600, we'll be giving up/putting into storage way more than I thought because, even using the second bedroom for the office (because there are guest suites to rent for visitors), we'd only get 1/3 of the living room, part of the office, the dining table and one other DR piece and our bedroom set into the place. None of the extra desks, the family room furniture, nor any of the furniture my dad built for me, would fit.
The layout was poor so I would never consider buying one of these units but I could live with renting one. Although having to stand to the side of the oven to gain access to it (because the island is across from the oven and there's no room for me to bend over an open oven door) seemed wrong. I've seen so many cool 'small space' videos and articles, I can't believe the island was fixed in place. Dd's friends' house has a movable island, plus their couch is on locking wheels, so they can completely rework their great room into several variations, depending on how the room is being used. Dinner for 17 people was a breeze, all of us at one table, yet after dinner the table(s) were folded away, the island moved back into place and the couch slid out so we could sit around the living room and chat. That's what I'm looking for in an apartment - flexibility.
This place had interesting architectural design, but it meant no flexibility in the use of the space.
Anyway, the day was a success, if only in letting me know how little room we'll be getting. Dh had already had the idea of taping off the rooms in our existing house once we know where we are going and putting our furniture into the space we will have. We'll be doing that and more, in prep.
After we viewed the model apartment, we drove around town, writing down the addresses and names of buildings with river views. Then we had our fish and chips, parked overlooking the water. That was very nice, even if it was dark. Finally, we stopped in at Wally world for milk. Then headed home.
On the way home, we started planning. There's nothing in the town that gives me a bad feeling so we'll continue to plan to move there, stepping up a search for the place next fall. Secondly, I will empty our basement spare bedroom and move everything of ds's into it (he still has stuff stored here.) When he moves home, everything he brings is to fit into that space. I'll have cleared out of the room by middle of March, giving him time to go through his stuff here before adding to it with his stuff from his current place.
Next up, I'll empty out my creative room so we can use that for storage of furniture we think we might keep but are trying to live without. The basement tv room will be turned into a 'for sale' room and I'll put stuff for sale in there. As it fills up, I'll hold 'garage sales' and sell off things. I'll be able to easily price stuff and handle sales no matter the weather because it will be in the house (but the route to that room from the garage doesn't lead through other rooms of the house.) The big joy is I won't have to keep hauling things out to the garage and then back into the house each time I have a sale. I plan on 3 - 4 sales this year and another 2 next year. Plus offering things on Craig's list. I'll freecycle out the stuff that doesn't sell next year. No point not trying to get money for them now.
So we have a plan.
I'm exhausted now from all the planning (plus sore from hiking yesterday.) But I'll stay up and watch Downton Abbey while doing kitchen chores.
It was a sunny day so we decided to drive down to the Seaway. We were going to go on Wednesday when it will be well above freezing, but it is also supposed to be raining that day so we decided to take advantage of a sunny day for a drive.
The primary purpose of the trip was to check out the model suite of a condo building we've watched being built across from the fish & chip place. It will be opening this year (a year late) and we are hoping that some of the owners might be buying as an investment and interested in renting. So we wanted to see what they had to offer.
First, the price was unbelievable, from 1.75 to 2x the price of our house for 1000 to 1600 square feet. If we wanted the penthouse, that's 3x the price of our house. Plus $25K for each parking spot. Then the condo fees (about $700/month), property taxes (didn't ask) and another $45 per month for the parking spot 'security and maintenance' fee. Plus you pay for hot water, heat, and electricity. It is supposed to be a 'smart' building but she couldn't tell us what that meant.
It is also smaller than it looks from the outside because the first 6 floors are all commercial space (plus an aquarium/museum of the Seaway on the first floor.) In total, there are only 85 units, and they are 80% sold. On the bright side, one owner is looking to rent his unit and the selling corporation will be willing to rent unsold units in order to get them occupied. Of course, those units will be coming up this year not next. But it is a start, although I can't figure out how the unit could be rented to us for anything close to what we are willing to pay, or the going rate down there. In this town, a 3 bedroom place goes for up to $1500/month but that would barely cover condo fees and taxes, let alone the cost of the mortgage. And the largest units are only 2 bedroom plus a den.
The most eye opening part of the day was how small 1600 square feet is when you don't have a basement or garage for storage. That blew me away as I tried to place my furniture in it. Originally, I was thinking 1000 square feet was what we'd probably end up with. But even with 1600, we'll be giving up/putting into storage way more than I thought because, even using the second bedroom for the office (because there are guest suites to rent for visitors), we'd only get 1/3 of the living room, part of the office, the dining table and one other DR piece and our bedroom set into the place. None of the extra desks, the family room furniture, nor any of the furniture my dad built for me, would fit.
The layout was poor so I would never consider buying one of these units but I could live with renting one. Although having to stand to the side of the oven to gain access to it (because the island is across from the oven and there's no room for me to bend over an open oven door) seemed wrong. I've seen so many cool 'small space' videos and articles, I can't believe the island was fixed in place. Dd's friends' house has a movable island, plus their couch is on locking wheels, so they can completely rework their great room into several variations, depending on how the room is being used. Dinner for 17 people was a breeze, all of us at one table, yet after dinner the table(s) were folded away, the island moved back into place and the couch slid out so we could sit around the living room and chat. That's what I'm looking for in an apartment - flexibility.
This place had interesting architectural design, but it meant no flexibility in the use of the space.
Anyway, the day was a success, if only in letting me know how little room we'll be getting. Dh had already had the idea of taping off the rooms in our existing house once we know where we are going and putting our furniture into the space we will have. We'll be doing that and more, in prep.
After we viewed the model apartment, we drove around town, writing down the addresses and names of buildings with river views. Then we had our fish and chips, parked overlooking the water. That was very nice, even if it was dark. Finally, we stopped in at Wally world for milk. Then headed home.
On the way home, we started planning. There's nothing in the town that gives me a bad feeling so we'll continue to plan to move there, stepping up a search for the place next fall. Secondly, I will empty our basement spare bedroom and move everything of ds's into it (he still has stuff stored here.) When he moves home, everything he brings is to fit into that space. I'll have cleared out of the room by middle of March, giving him time to go through his stuff here before adding to it with his stuff from his current place.
Next up, I'll empty out my creative room so we can use that for storage of furniture we think we might keep but are trying to live without. The basement tv room will be turned into a 'for sale' room and I'll put stuff for sale in there. As it fills up, I'll hold 'garage sales' and sell off things. I'll be able to easily price stuff and handle sales no matter the weather because it will be in the house (but the route to that room from the garage doesn't lead through other rooms of the house.) The big joy is I won't have to keep hauling things out to the garage and then back into the house each time I have a sale. I plan on 3 - 4 sales this year and another 2 next year. Plus offering things on Craig's list. I'll freecycle out the stuff that doesn't sell next year. No point not trying to get money for them now.
So we have a plan.
I'm exhausted now from all the planning (plus sore from hiking yesterday.) But I'll stay up and watch Downton Abbey while doing kitchen chores.
Wmart trip took up all my time tonight, plus I haven't watched LAST week's episode yet, so didn't want to tape the new one and have two piling up on me... PLUS the fact that I despise my dvd recorder, anyway, and it always seems like more trouble than it's worth to record anything.