No More House Hunting!!!
Posted by Brian
Wow, never thought I'd actually say it: We bought a house! It's located in Markham at Woodbine and Major Mack, about 5 minutes away from my in-laws, and just a few minutes from our friends Jean and Aimee. Closing date is mid-August (!!), so we'll have time to get things gradually moved in between then and when we plan on moving in for good (around the Sept. 1st weekend). Painting is on our list of things to do and we're going to pick out paints very soon!
Before I get to pictures, here's a quick description: 9' ceiling on the main floor, hardwood almost everywhere (if not everywhere), 2 car garage, fireplace in the family room, dining area, living room, all open concept kitchen, appliances including fridge, dishwasher, stove (with flat-top burners), washer/dryer, unfinished basement, oak staircase, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms.
Pictures!
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- Front of the house
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- Family/Dining Area
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- From the Family Room
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- Kitchen
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- Living Room
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- Dining Area
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- Bedroom
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- Bathroom
We'll be visiting the house again on Sunday to have another look. I'll bring my camera along with me to get better photos. Leave comments if you want a photo taken of something! 
Update: New House Offer?
Posted by Brian
Basically, no. Nadia changed her mind on the kitchen so we're not going to pursue it any longer. We're still looking for a place to put an offer on, and will see one or two more houses tomorrow.
New House Offer?
Posted by Brian
The last place we put an offer on was 323 Bur Oak (a few posts ago), and we found out that it's been sold on condition. The condition lasts a week, we don't know why or what the condition is, but we expect it to go through without a problem. We are now looking at another house that is close by to that one, though not quite as nice (or, luckily, as expensive). I won't list the address here because it is not publicly listed, though I will post photos. Because it has been 17 days on the market, we see no problem waiting to make sure 323 Bur Oak actually does get sold, at which point we will make an offer on this one. It has 3 bathrooms, an unfinished basement with washer/dryer, a nicely built deck outside between the house and the 1 car garage (with parking space beside it), 9' cieling on the main floor, pot lights in the family room, central air, all kitchen appliances (these would need to be replaced as they are quite old), all electric light fixtures, etc. etc.
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- Front of the house.
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- Living Room
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- Living Room
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- Kitchen.
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- Staircase to the 2nd floor.
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- Master bedroom.
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- Spare bedroom.
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- The outside deck.
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- The view.
Recovery, Ubuntu, and more houses…
Posted by Brian
It's the fourth day (third full day) of recovery from getting my wisdom teeth out, and still eating mush foods. I just had two chocolate puddings for breakfast and to be honest, I'm getting a little sick of them. My diet includes mashed potatoes, congee, pudding, and ice cream milkshakes. What's keeping me from eating more solid foods are the stitches in my mouth - they rub against my cheek and cut the ever living crap out of it. It's not a complete breakfast without drinking a little bit of your own blood. Anyway, the stitches are supposed to dissolve in about 3 more days. Hopefully it's before that!
While sitting here being extremely bored, I decided to give my Ubuntu OS another try. For those not familiar with it, it's a free alternative to Windows XP/Vista (despite Best Buy selling it for $20). Now I'll admit, it's quite intimidating, even for me. The one thing it has going for it though is it's community of developers and of general users. If you ever run into a problem, chances are that someone has posted it online and someone else has posted a solution. I'm currently writing this from my Ubuntu installation, and everything is working perfectly with only one exception: If I want to play a game like Call of Duty 4, I have to go back to my Windows XP installation. Ubuntu just doesn't handle Windows games 100% (though there are some games that, when run with a program like WINE, can be run without any problems in Ubuntu).
Taking into consideration that one fallback, I'm still extremely pleased with how it's running. The desktop effects are very nice and smooth, and it supports my dual monitor setup quite well. Skype even has a nice little client for Linux users, so I've been using that as well.
In about 5 minutes I'll be out the door with Nadia to look at five more houses. I'll post back with our favorite(s)!
Update for 323 Bur Oak
Posted by Brian
The outlook is bleak for now - someone has a (much) higher bid in, but there's no way to know how much higher. There is one slim chance left for us though: Apparently the bidders are demanding that the basement gets surveyed (for what reason, I have no idea), and the sellers have no way of doing so (again, for what reason I have no idea). If the bidders don't budge on that, they may drop the entire offer, leaving us with the house!
Not sure how great of a chance that is, but everything else has been weird as of late, so why not this? Regardless, I don't think there's much of a chance for this house falling into our laps. We will be continuing the house hunt later this week, I am sure. I'll post updates when there's something to post!
Cheers.
323 Bur Oak Avenue
Posted by Brian
For the past couple of weeks, we've been doing some house hunting. We've actually put down a few offers on a few places, and well, long story short, we didn't get them. Our latest offer (our fourth) is on a house we would absolutely love, and I've included some pictures of it below.
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- Front of the house
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- Dining/Living Area
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- Dining/Living Area
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- Kitchen
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- Kitchen/Dining Table
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- Family Room
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- Master Bedroom
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- Ensuite of Master Bedroom
We really hope we get this place, but based on our past experiences we aren't counting any chickens... It's got 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, unfinished basement with frontloading washer/dryer, all kitchen appliances (makes Nadia happy with the KitchenAid refridgerator), and a bunch of other things. It's an end unit townhouse and its in a great location. Minutes from Nadia's parents and cousins Kin and Ian (with little Maelynne and Sierra too!).
We'll find out tonight! I'll post an update when we do...