Houses

[Dave R]

My last house was forclosed on because we couldn't sell it. My ex-wife wouldn't adjust the listing or come down in price. She was greedy and lost everything. It was a nice house, but the market in that area always sucked.

Too bad, that was a nice house. The garage was a good size, the basement was too small and it needed an outbuilding though. Hmm, easy to tell where my priorities are.

I am currently looking at land. Even crap land is overpriced here. $25k for 3 acres of crappy marshy land that butts up next to the interstate? WTF??

It's the same up here, the guy next to me is trying to sell his 14 acres of nothing special swampish land with a creek (it borders on being unuseable) for $65K. I laughed at him and offered $15K (he paid $8K back in '89), he seemed insulted. It's been for sale of over 2 years now.

All in all, I think I'd rather be living in the boat next to Will though, as long as the slip rental is reasonable.

 

[Bent Bolt]

It's quite the opposite up here at the moment.

Where I'm living in Manitoba the market has doubled in the past ten years and thats low compared to other parts of Canada.

I'm glad I bought my house almost 10 years ago. I couldn't afford to buy it now.

++++ 1

Here as well, housing market is on fire although it has softened somewhat since the summer. Bought my house in 2000 for $125,000. Now is worth about $350,000 +/-. I couldn't and wouldn't pay that much for my house. Like 2manyfords says, housing market in Canada is rising daily.

 

[Will]

...my buddy..went out and spent 500k on a 4000sqft new build bout 40 miles away...he is makes $20hr and cant afford McDonalds. [ QUOTE]

So on $20 an hour he can afford a half-million dollar house? I can't see him getting approved for more than $200,000.

Here's my shanty boat plan. An outboard for manuevering and short faster runs. A big one-cylinder Lister diesel direct coupled for long trips. Capable of meandering anywhere in the world provided you follow the weather sailboats can't. Built from yellow pine and AB exterior plywood with marine grade screws and epoxy. I'm building a Saint Pierre dory now but once it's done, I'll clear a spot somewhere and start on this.

 

[odie1969]

Here's my shanty boat plan. An outboard for manuevering and short faster runs. A big one-cylinder Lister diesel direct coupled for long trips. Capable of meandering anywhere in the world provided you follow the weather sailboats can't. Built from yellow pine and AB exterior plywood with marine grade screws and epoxy. I'm building a Saint Pierre dory now but once it's done, I'll clear a spot somewhere and start on this.

As a friend of my dads once told me when I helped him move his 25' sailboat that he was working on for 20+ years. "theres boat builders and sailer but it seems that you can never be both." and then my dad followed it up with "A boat is just a hole in the water to throw money in to." so needles to say I stick to my kayak nothing to breakdown on and like my truck if I roll i just roll it back over and keep going.

 

[Will]

What's it say about him that he spent 20+ years working on a boat? I'm not into old world craftsmanship. I build strong simple and cheap. And I don't like sailboats--too complicated. And an enormous amount of people are both. It's a matter of having a plan rather than thrashing about and getting discouraged.

I've got several kayaks, and I built one too. I enjoy using the boats I build.

 

[Dave R]

...my buddy..went out and spent 500k on a 4000sqft new build bout 40 miles away...he is makes $20hr and cant afford McDonalds.

So on $20 an hour he can afford a half-million dollar house? I can't see him getting approved for more than $200,000.

Even if he could get approved, It would be extremely, umm, foolish to commit to such a loan. Must be one of those sub-prime loans that he'll deault on in two years.

What was it that P.T.Barnum said?

 

[snake]

That boat idea isn't really so bad. No yard to cut. No property taxes. Get tired of the slip you've rented, move on. Fish whenever you want.

One problem: No garage...

 

[v-8power]

Last year a guy i work with was house shopping. The realtor showed them this house, he told the lady he needed to use the restroom. He didnt bother to tell her he had to crap.
She said go ahead, he filled the crapper and then it would not flush. The water was turned off. He told her it wouldnt flush, she said yea i know the water is off, we'll flush it later.

I would love to have seen the look on her face when she went in there afterwards.

 

[Will]

One problem: No garage...

Most of my mechanical work will involve a second class lever. That and spraying WD40 on my folding bike.

 

[Simple_serf]

Most of my mechanical work will involve a second class lever. That and spraying WD40 on my folding bike.

Nice.

I want to build a off grid cabin to live in. I have experience building shacks and storage buildings. Main problem right now is getting the land, second problem is sorting out all of the code BS when I find a section I like. Alot of places want you to have electricity, a deep well, and a septic. I want to try to live without too much electricity (mainy using the solar power system I currently have designed and use), I want to use a shallow well and rainwater collection, using the grey water for irrigation, and use a composting toilet instead of a septic. around here a damn septic costs between $6000 to over $20000, depending on the land, whereas I can get a composting toilet system for under $2000.

Everybody tells me I'm nuts.

 

[Will]

I've seen those composting toilets and thought about it for an outhouse type of deal.