April 21, 2013 – A lone dandelion at the end of our driveway just waiting for the right breeze to spread its seeds and bring bright yellow flowers to a lawn near you.
We spent another day driving around the North Shore looking at townhouses. We came across two that were of interest. One will sell fast, of that we are sure since it backs onto a school and is in a great location. I’m sure that will be snapped up instantly be some young family. Another had a kitchen to die for and a strange room off the underground parking that could easily house the motorcycles and do double duty as a workshop. But that already has an offer on it, although it was a wonderful little fourteen unit complex that we have decide to keep one eye on since it was really great. We went through a unit that was probably only ten feet wide, but vey long – strange, and to keep an open mind we went to look at a gorgeous townhouse on leasehold land. As lovely as it was, we just can’t get past the leasehold part, so that was a no. For a lark we also printed off some listings for houses without any real expectations. Several were just awful, new roofs required, no garages, horrible neighbourhoods, etc. But then one popped out at us.
It’s well over what we decided we wanted to invest, but…..
It was confusing to find since there was no sign on the lawn. We looked at it from the street, did a huh, and drove off to look at some open houses.
The skies opened and hail and heavy rain poured down on us, the temperature plummeted from 8C to 3C and snow fell on the local hills. The agent was late for the first opening, and when we looked at it, we decided it was..OK. We drove off to see a few others and as I was flipping through sheets I’d printed something caught my eye, the agent we’d met at the first open house was the same listing agent for the house up in Pemberton Heights. So we drove back to the first place to ask her about it and if it was still on the market.
Yes, still on the market, and the owners are apparently pretty firm on the price.
Off to the pub to talk about what we’d seen this weekend and see if we are any closer to a decision. We started to do a bit of number crunching and sent an email to the bank to ask a question about the credit line/mortgage we are approved for and it’s flexibility. We will have to wait to hear back on that, but in the meantime we think that it may not be such a terrible stretch to reach something like this house. We aren’t terribly interested in having a tenant, but it does have a full suite in the basement and it looks quite nice from the photos. A University student for a few years would help out and then it could be turned into something else.
Maybe.
We didn’t think we wanted a house. We gave our agent a resounding NO when originally asked. But maybe we aren’t so sure anymore…
We aren’t sure if we are getting closer to a decision and launching to a new and hopefully long term home, or if we are considering something silly. If we do go this direction, a new boat may be that much farther off… or maybe we forget the sailboat for awhile and think about a different power boat instead.
A co-worker said to me the other day – “Wow, for the price range you are looking in, out where I live, you could buy a mansion” Yeah, welcome to the North Shore where a fortune buys you a small hovel built in 1951, on the edge of the freeway.
But it looks like a pretty little hovel. And it has a new two car garage in the back. And it faces South.
So many things to consider….
16 comments
I never thought you guys would even consider a house. Do you have a listing number so I can go snoop?
Off to catch an early morning float plane to the Island, I’ll dig it up tonight when I get to a hotel.
No, I didn’t think so either, but it’s a neighbourhood we love, just above us. It will prbably sell before we get our ducks in a row anyway. But the listing is MLS V996468
It’s very cute!
Yes, but seriously, for that amount of money it should be more than cute, don’t you think?
Hello? North Vancouver! What do you expect? 🙂
Sigh, I know….