So we moved.
Yep.
Not that that's a huge deal, considering we both move approximately every 6 months, but this was a big move, because we bought our first place together!! Woohoo!!
Yep. 306 - 1240 Quayside Drive, New Westminster British Columbia Canada V3M 6H1 (love my 6 hot unicorns... makes sense to us... or to me anyway)
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| Jax helping Sid put on his moving dress. |
We started looking with Rich the realtor in January, pretty much right after we got back from Cuba, and it took us until about the middle of April to finally find a place after much hand-wringing and some stressing and bidding/making an offer on another place (and having that offer accepted! only to us finding out that there was a pending lawsuit against the builder and that the garage was leaking profusely... so we backed out of that one) and, yeah, then we found this place - in the tony Tiffany Shores no less - but it was in rough rough shape. like, blech. the carpets were black with filth, the walls too, the blinds, the appliances were all circa 1980, the wallpaper peeling, and most disconcerning was the old lady who liked to do puzzles sitting in the middle of the living room and pretty much refusing to move.
But we managed to see past all that, because A) about a month earlier we saw an identical suite in the same building only on the second floor. and that sucker was $289,000, and the one we ended up with was a floor higher, with a view(ish) of the river and trees, and was being offered for $249,000! The one we didn't buy we thought was overpriced for a one-bedroom and it faced the street with an unhidden balcony (not good for 4 kitty fur babies masquerading as 2 kitty boys according to the strata bylaws) but it had new laminate flooring and was all done up nicely and staged with snazzy new appliances (although it was a bit dark because it was lower down, and not south facing, and the trees in front of the building kinda blocked the sunlight)
and B) upon further review, everything that was horrible and disgusting about the new place was all cosmetic - there were no walls to bang out and no electrical wires hanging out or holes in the floor or anything like that. Even someone with no tools could throw on a coat of paint and rip out some carpet and all that stuff that only required labour, and not actual skill... right?!
so we talked it over while Richie and Jack Klinkhammer (the other realtor who Rich loved talking to) waited, and we decide to lowball em with a $240,000 bid. Jacquie was all for bidding the asking price cause she didn't want to insult them (because really, it was a fair asking price) but Richie talked us into asking $240,000... so we did.
They came back at $243,000 - and since we were already preapproved by Allan our friendly neighbourhood mortgage broker for $300,000 - we accepted, contingent on us reading the minutes and having an inspection, and that was that!
We took over the place on May 15th - and luckily I had a job that allowed me to run around and go to the bank and mortgage broker and realtor's office and read minutes and all that stuff! And then on May 15th we waited while the weird old lady attempted to move... one hour, two hour three hours late... but eventually she was gone (we felt kinda bad because it was a foreclosure situation and it was apparent she wasn't pleased about going... but I did end up running into her in the hall and she was kinda Asbergerish, a tough gnarly traffic-sign waving working grandma who took no shit and was heading up the hill to live in her friend's basement suite and she rode a motorcycle and seemed a bit skuzzy (and considering we knew she never cleaned her apartment in 15 years, skuzzy is probably a nice description) but anyways, she wasn't so bad, and the good thing was after meeting her I felt less sorry for her... it wasn't like she was limping and pushing a walker in front of her with her 6 cats strapped to her back and white hair....
I wish I had pictures, cause right about now I'd add some of Jacquie's condemned building at 1-1020 Nicola |Street, our chicken-wired balcony, the 50 year old broken flower beds hanging from outside the windows, the vines covering the chipped and cracked stuccoed walls, the uneven steps, the 3 inches of space under the doors to let in the winter air, the no cupboard kitchen, the electrical fuse box from the 1920's, the fuses themselves that could only be purchased at one hardware store in the westend, and they'd blow if you turned on the microwave the same time you had the space heater going (which was necessary due to the single pane windows and the aforementioned drafty doors) the lack of shower, the exposed pipes and ancient radiators and cracks in the walls and crackheads in the back alley and drunk neighbours screaming in front of our window at 3am and....
yes yes jax will tell you the ceilings were nice and high, it was at least 650 sq. feet and... well the floors were original hardwood too so that was nice. Plus the location across from the firehall was good, and it was only a 7 minute walk to the Listel, all for under $1000, which was a WAY better deal than Laurenas on Nelson - although come to think of it, the doors didn't have giant spaces, the heater worked, the glass was doubled-paned etc etc.
but I digress...
I'd look to put up some pictures but if I stop to do that I get I'll stop writing and fiddling around with photo shop and I'll never get this finished!
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| Jax breaking it to Johnny that we're moving and leaving his friend Flo behind. |
but wow, that's a huge digression...
I'll finish this soon!
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