Percolator

School Daze

2010-09-03T18:33:52Z

As the first day of school approaches, what is worrying me most? Is it the new routine of getting kids onto a school bus every morning -- and if we miss it then then having to drive them? The trauma of plunging them back into the world of full-on Français, or in Adèle's case, the brand new world of full-on Français? Homework? General anxiety about school?

No.

It's how on earth we're going to adjust to a 6:50am wake time for 3 kids and (ahem) a Mom who for the last 2 months have had the sleep schedules of Keith Richards.

Select Confidence

2010-09-02T16:16:26Z

Campbell's baseball abilities are pretty noteworthy, especially for a kid who really just shows up on the day of the game and plays. He has an arm like a slingshot, and a good bat too.

What he doesn't have is much knowledge of the game, as his House League coach is a fountain of positivity but a dry well of actual game coaching. In House this isn't much of an issue as half the kids can't even catch, let alone figure out who the cut-off man is. However, the Select Team coach has noticed Campbell playing, and asked if he'd come out for a game when they were short of players. Finally last night, all the stars aligned and a very nervous Campbell showed up to play.

Poor him. He's not confident in new situations at the best of times, and joining a team of Select players he didn't know is not his idea of a good time. He only did it because I gently but firmly pushed him to do it, telling him he was more than capable and it would be more fun to play with good players. My secret agenda is that his success in sports bolsters his fragile self-confidence and this was an opportunity for him to see he could succeed at things when he tried. So off we went.

The first thing I noticed is that in the warm-up, his basic skills are on par with the Select players and he caught and threw with good energy. But during the game he struggled to know what to do, and it was made worse by his aforementioned lack of confidence. He just shrinks into himself in these situations.

For example, he was playing left field, and at one point the coach called to him to make sure he was "covering third" as there was a steal coming up. He didn't have a clue what that meant (it just means come in closer to third so if the catch is missed he's there to pick it up) and so he just did nothing. Oy.

As a parent, it's hard to know how involved to get but in this case, Carol and I had planned a night out, unfortunately, so we had to leave early (the coach brought him home). Apparently things didn't go a lot better after that. He struck out twice and, after fielding a ball, froze as he didn't know where to throw it. He was pretty depressed about it afterwards, and said he thought they would have won if it weren't for him.

Ouch. This is where being a parent is easy and hard at the same time. Easy because you just encourage him like crazy and tell him that the coach was happy and had even said that next year he was a lock for the Select Team (it's made up of two birth years) if he tried out. Hard because you just somehow want to make it easier for your kids. Should I spend more time teaching him about baseball like I do with hockey? Or just not put him in those situations?

With Campbell it's hard to know what he'll take away from this. Hopefully, he'll realize that it didn't kill him, that he can play at that level, and especially, that his Dad can still be trusted when he says, "Come on buddy, you can do it!"

Resistance is futile, muggle boy

2010-08-30T19:01:09Z

A few weeks ago, our long-time nanny Elke brought over the first Harry Potter book to read to the boys as a bedtime story. However, led by Leighton, they vociferously rejected the choice. "We don't like stories about magic and stuff like that," proclaimed a certain red-headed boy, holding the line against books of questionable merit sitting alongside his "Captain Underpants" collection.

One night I somehow convinced them to let me read the first chapter aloud at bedtime. It went well (and it's a pleasure to read), but Leighton still held firm: Tomorrow night we'd go back to our regular reading.

Campbell, however, was not so sure and asked if I'd read the second chapter the next night. I said I'd read the second chapter to Campbell and then read something else to Leighton afterwards. I was about halfway through it when Leighton joined us to listen.

Then the next night he confessed that he'd read forward a few pages into Chapter 3... And he hasn't put it down since.

In fact, as of last night, he's at Chapter 13 and his passion for it has even superseded the hitherto unassailable Nintendo DS.

Does this mean he's changed his mind and likes Harry Potter? "No", says Leighton emphatically, "I don't like Harry Potter, I just really love reading."

Sure kid. And you can stop aaaaaanytime you like...

Project 595 August 30th

2010-08-30T15:59:26Z

Tthe architects came over the other night with some proposals of how we could rework the main floor. Overall, they were decent, although as Carol said, "Not as outside the box as I expected." For me, I was more concerned that there basic omissions like no proposed back exit for to the garden and they forgot to take our giant box in the kitchen that houses the second floor vents into account.

They also suggested that we take out the front stairs, which is a cool but unaffordable idea right now. So the question then becomes, does the rest of the layout still work if you still have the stairs in there?

Which makes me think that they are not fully in the zone yet.

Still, this is definitely an iterative process, especially with our Lilliputian budget being a factor. So the trick will be pushing them to think a little deeper in terms of what we have to work with. Here's basically what they proposed (my drawing, not their actual plan).

View larger image

On a more pedestrian note, I knocked a few things off the list this weekend. We ordered a new washer and drIer, but only the washer has shown up. (Sigh.) So I hooked that up and tried out it. It's an LG, very nice, super quiet, incredibly efficient and with nifty computer controls (yes I know Dad, just one more expensive repair later, but no one makes mechanical controls anymore it appears). It works wonderfully and spins the clothes so well that they take less time in the old energy-sucking dryer as well.

On a side note, I noticed when were moving that the EnergyStar sticker on the Delaware fridge said 147Kw. I wondered how that compared to our newer fridge at Crawford. I was surprised to see the number on the new one was 677Kw -- until I realized that was the annual consumption, whereas the 147Kw is monthly -- or 1764 annually! Eek! I will say, the old fridge gives off more heat than a furnace and never seems to stop running. I look forward to replacing it asap.

But I digress. I finally got Adèle's room painted, with new sockets and switches all installed (and found out the hard way that not all of the plugs in her room are on the circuit I turned off). I still need to put in her ceiling fan ,but that makes all three kids' rooms done for the most part now. Hooray!

That said, it's surprisingly slow work, mostly because the trim is a weird brown stain that takes 3 coats to cover properly. I'm going to have to rethink my priming strategy I think.

The Move is Made

2010-07-03T14:42:21Z

Whew. That was a long day. On July 30th we did the move, and have survived to tell the tale!

The movers (Angel Movers "Making your move a heavenly experience" which may be a slight overstatement even though they were great) arrived 8am and the look on their face as they saw our 3 story Toronto house -- plus two sets of stairs to the curb -- told us that this was going to be a long day. Luckily, it was a gorgeous day and not too hot so at least we had that going for us.

We were a little stressed about the timing actually, as the buyers have proven to be quite difficult -- first asking if they could move up the closing date by 3 weeks (!), then making a fuss about the central vac system not being operational (which is a whole other story). We had this fear that they would show up at noon on the dot and insist on moving in or us paying them or something.

Anyway, we packed the kids off to various locations and got to work. As the movers started getting boxes out, I loaded up odd-shaped or fragile things into the car to just drive up myself. Hooray for only moving 2km! There were three of them, and by around noon is was clear that they would have done well to have brought a 4th body with them, as getting the big stuff like the couch down from the 3rd floor was probably half an hour for 2 of them alone. I continued to load up the car and expanded my mandate to take other stuff as well just to try and save time.

By about 3:30pm, it was clear that in fact they weren't going to get everything in the truck. So luckily our neighbour let us put some stuff in their garage so I could come back and get it while the movers unloaded at the new house.

Carol and I did our last pass through the house, and ur lovely neighbour Catherine came by with a bottle of champagne to say goodbye. We'll miss them. We got her to take a picture of Carol and I sitting on the floor in the empty living room, just as we did 12 years ago when we bought it. Yup, a lot has changed since then, if nothing else the size of truck required to move in vs move out.

We locked up the house, dropped the key through the front door, gave the porch a little pat to say goodbye, and headed up to our new house on Delaware. The load in was much faster as so much of the stuff was simply going through the garage door and into the basement. The poor movers looked absolutely wiped by this time, although they kept fighting the good fight. One of them, a young Russian guy, came with me to get the last items from the garage, then I went and picked up Leighton and Adele, and then we all had pizza for dinner.

The movers left around 6pm, a long day for sure, but we were now officially in our bright, big new home!

Next up: finding out where the heck everything is packed away to.

(Photos to come.)

Project 595: D-Day Minus One!

2010-06-24T18:21:16Z

So tomorrow is the day when we get possession of the Delaware house, so Carol and I go up to the lawyer's office today to sign the papers that will release hundreds of thousands of dollars into the account of the seller.

Eek!

Our bank (ScotiaBank at College have been great) has arranged bridge financing to cover us for the five days until our buyer releases hundreds of thousands of dollars into our account, but until then the main goal is to get serious on the major packing items like kitchen, garage and basement.

The garage is truly unholy, but my plan is to simply throw most of it into the back of the car and take it up myself rather than try and pack it for the movers.

Then on Friday evening, the real estate Gods willing, we'll go over with the kids, some treats and maybe a picnic, and have a little celebration in the large and empty living room. I think the hockey mini sticks may be required too.

PROJECT 595

2010-06-18T16:56:26Z

Let the fun begin! I'm going to do my best to document the process of moving to our new house, and especially the renovation process, right here under the Project 595 monicker.

Yeah, like CNN, I have a logo for everything.

First up: Meeting the architects and discovering how much money is really no money at all.

Summer already?

2010-06-18T16:41:59Z

Wow, it's been awhile. Most of my posts about work have been moved over to my work-based blog, so if you liked that stuff then check it out.

On the other hand, if you like family news or especially stupid stuff of no professional or intellectual significance, this is the place my friends. This is the place.

To wit, writing legend William Faulkner. It's not easy to dress well in the summer for men, but nothing's worse than a poor effort.

Me and Iggy

2010-05-18T17:58:05Z

I had the pleasure of working with Calgary Flames' captain Jarome Iginla recently. He's a wonderful guy, and you appreciate it all the more when you see what a force of aggressive nature he is playing hockey.

Here's a shot of us going over his script, and I'm really taken aback seeing our bodies side by side like that.

I mean, if it wasn't for his lack of hair, we'd be hard to tell apart.

And... SOLD!

2010-05-15T02:50:39Z

Whew. That was a white knuckle ride I must say. But the house sold on Monday afternoon without too much fuss.

We started with our agent warning us that the market sentiment in TO had really shifted in the last 3 weeks; not many bidding wars, buyers playing wait and see, avoiding multiple offer situations, and lots of houses going for asking or less. So we were pretty nervous about what the two offers were, although grateful there was at least two so we had some competition.

The initial offers came in at almost exactly the same, about 10k over asking, so our agent said to their agents, "Look, knowing what we know about how buyers are feeling, let's not prolong this. Just tell them to come back with their best offer and we'll wrap this up." I was nervous that someone would just walk away, but they both came back with more -- and one with quite a lot more. Best of all, they were "clean offers" -- ie no house inspections or conditions -- which keeps things simple.

So our final price was right about what we'd originally been hoping for. This gives us enough left over to renovate the new place with a kitchen and an opening to the back garden... At least, we hope it does.

So overall, we feel fortunate to get what we were hoping for, plus a pre-HST closing date (June 30th) which saves us a lot on taxes. And it sounds like we got in just under the wire, or at least, on the wire, according to an article in today's Globe and Mail.

Alright, who wants to help paint sometime around June 26th?

Housing Report May 5th

2010-05-06T16:27:44Z

"I've have knots in my stomach from this house."

So said Carol this morning, as we wait to see how this house thing plays out. It's been a roller coaster ride for us all, but especially her, as every new development seems to bring new worry. I mean, she's a fundamentally balanced person, but it's stressful for sure.

In response, I've been trying a new approach which is to be like a farmer about this: We've tilled the soil, planted the crop and now all we can do is see what the weather brings. I've had some mixed success with this approach but it's all I got.

The latest news on Tuesday was that a house down the street also went on the market same day as our; a highly renovated place that looks really nice in the photos. They are asking $749k for it, which Carol took as bad news for us. It looked like a much nicer place and would put a ceiling on what we could get. My view was that it was good news, as it set a higher benchmark for prices on the street. And the beautiful decor aside, I know that house and it's not that great. Thinner than ours, at the bottom of the street on not such stable ground, and only so-so curb appeal...

So, meh. Who can say? Let's see what the weather brings.

It was made worse that on the day our listing went up there was no IMMEDIATE response, and Carol started crunching numbers which showed that if we only got our asking price or a little more, by the time we'd paid off all the fees and taxes, we could maybe afford to renovate a regular coffee up to a latte in the new place. Eek.

I said that even if that were the case, we'd still be in a much bigger house -- albeit less attractive -- but anyway we still had each other and that's all that matters...

A bit quiet on the response. Heh.

I have to say, even I went to bed feeling a bit stressed about the whole thing. I love our current place and location, and although I know I'll be happy at the new place, I wondered what I'd agreed to with this whole "new house reno'd with the profits" plan that we took on with so little research.

Then two things happened: On Wednesday at the agents' open house at our place, they had all seen the "other" house, and agreed that it had some big problems around settling foundations etc. They seemed to think ours was the better property overall. So that brought a little sunshine. Then the requests for showings started... and haven't stopped. We have a bowl absolutely full of real estate agent cards, and more bookings today. Hooray, still shining.

So all good, although will it translate into a good price? Who can say? The cute house across the street had a ton of people too last week, but we haven't seen a Sold sign go up yet.

Me, I'm just watching the sky dispassionately, chewing on a straw and...

Carol has asked me to stop with the farmer thing already.

What a nice house

2010-05-04T21:08:47Z

View it bigger »

It's amazing what 3 weeks of preparation and a wide angle lens will do to your home. The listing is now up and public.

Housing Report May 3rd

2010-05-03T18:31:33Z

Whew, that was a lonnnnnnnnng weekend, but we scrambled about like crazy and at around midnight last night I had the last of the stuff either put back in the house where it belonged, or stored away where it was out of sight.

It looks very nice. I'd live there, except there's no way in hell we could afford it if weren't already in it. Funny how that works.

Here's what we did to "fluff" the house:

Painted, patched and redid the floors of the boot room and laundry area (which was basically a grotto)

Painted the baseboards throughout the house (totally trashed after years of having toy cars smashed into them)

Repainted the front porch, and straighten the wonky column (which we should have done years ago*

Patched and paint the basement ceiling where it had some water damage

Emptied out the back sunroom of years of crap and junk and turned it into a storage area that Martha would have been proud of

Painted the trim on the back of the house

Painted both back doors

Filled a storage locker with stuff that would make the place look more open and spacious

Filled a small junk truck with stuff that made the place look like a junk heap.

Then last night I cleared off the back porch, hosed everything down and put out the chairs on the back patio. Oh my God I was sore and tired. I'm still feeling it today. (My last official task was I quickly mowed the back lawn this morning.)

But with the exception of the Kid Brother studio in the basement, which is still jam packed with stuff that Carol wants for work, the place looks open, airy and just lovely. This morning the photographer came with the agent to take pictures for the listing, and Carol tells me the sign just went up.

Let the crazy real estate games begin!

* This thought applies to pretty much everything we did.

Housing Report

2010-04-30T17:39:43Z

Interesting news on the street: the first is that our neighbour Jessica who lives on the other side of our semi-detached, has sold her place! Bad news here is she seemed to be in a hurry to get out -- maybe the Smith chaos just drove her away -- and she sold it without an Open House and appeared to take the first offer. She must be one of the few people to sell a house for less than asking in Toronto.

So what does that mean for us? Well, on one hand it's easy to say our house is worth more. Her place has an oil furnace, radiator heat, no A/C, an unfinished basement and very old kitchens and bathrooms. So you could make the case that if you wanted to get it to the level of our place it would cost you 100 grand. On the other hand, from a psychological point of view, you've got to figure that people would balk at paying a huge price differential for a house that from the outside doesn't look much different.

Who knows? All I can say is that suddenly the crazy irrational Toronto housing market just doesn't seem crazy and irrational enough. Bring on the rich desperate homebuyers!

I knew it!!

2010-04-28T18:59:42Z

Here's me, writing these Porktrasher songs and trying to be inventive with chord structures and all that when all along there are only four I need to know to write the hit that will pay for our house renos. So. Much. Time. Wasted.