Home Expenses

Tire Storage the Business

by bigcajunman on April 10, 2013

So in the fall I wrote a slightly off colour piece Do You Store Your Tires, where I bragged about my wife’s rack (the tire storage rack that I include in this post, because I am very proud of it), but after retrieving my tires from my mechanic I learned something more interesting about the ever growing business of “storing our stuff” (to quote the Late George Carlin from Brain Droppings).

A very Nice Rack

Someone at my mechanic’s shop pointed out that they stored over 1600 sets of tires this past winter, and I thought, “WOW! That is a lot of stuff!”.

That is more than 6400 tires stored somewhere (actually it was being stored in a set of storage containers (a big (but not huge) place to keep your stuff) beside his property. I guess if you have the space, storing your customers tires is a service that is in high demand, but I was just floored by how many tires that was.

Will I be storing my tires next winter? I am hoping I don’t because I plan on putting a shed on my property where I can store that kind of stuff (tires, lawnmower, snow blower, bikes, etc.,), because I have a lot of stuff . Is it cheaper for me to store my own stuff, or to pay someone to keep my stuff somewhere else (where I might have to call to go look at my stuff)? I don’t know, but I don’t feel safe leaving my stuff somewhere else, I like having my stuff close by, to make sure no one is fooling with my stuff.

Every time I turn around when I am driving in a rural area there is yet another “store your crap here” business popping up, so storing your stuff must be a growing business. Where I live in Ottawa storage is a booming business where folks store their stuff, their RV’s (which are places with wheels to store stuff, which then need to be stored when you aren’t using them), and other stuff.

At the end of it all, Mr. Carlin had it right when he said, “A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.”, do you store your stuff, or do you not have enough stuff to worry about it?

Some crazy folks get rid of their stuff, but what if they needed it later? I like my stuff, but I am not sure I like paying to store it, maybe I just need a bigger house to put my stuff in?

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Things to Look For When Browsing for a New House

by bigcajunman on November 28, 2012

It’s been a while since Mrs. C8j and I purchased the Big Cajun Estate (actually about 13 years ago now), but I noticed that many folks are talking about what to look for in a house when you are out buying a house, so I’d like to pass on a few of the things that I (or friends of mine) learned while looking for the “house of their dreams“, or maybe just the “house of their reality“.

Being On the Level is Important

One of My Favorite Albums - Status Quo - On The Level

Mrs. C8j and I were looking at a very nice house one time, and the visit was going well until I walked into one of the bedrooms. I had been having a few late nights, so I suddenly felt off kilter, like I was about to fall over, so I sat down on the bed. Mrs. C8j wandered in and had this odd look on her face and said, “What is with the floor?”.

I stood up and realize that the floor actually sloped into one of the corners and that “off kilter” sensation I had, was the floor itself not being level.

Bring a level with you to a house viewing and start checking if walls are actually vertical and if the floors are level, you may be surprised what you find.

Look for a Flush of Success

Plumbing is really important in your house (anyone who says otherwise hasn’t had to snake out a backed up toilet) so the old trick of flushing toilets and seeing if the water pressure drops is a great tip, but I find if you simply wander around the house constantly turning on and off taps and flushing toilets you will annoy the vendors to no end (or at least their sales rep). Also look for water stains behind toilets and if you are in the basement see if you can see under bathroom floors to see if there have been any “floods” in the house.

Model Home Sounds Nice Doesn’t It?

Never buy the Model Home, I have written about this before, but seriously, this house was slapped up quickly and may not even be to code.

Bluffing Works in Poker and House Buying As Well

Definately NOT the Big Cajun Estate

More than once, I have made off-handed comments to my wife while looking at a house, which I thought were innocuous, but which has caused an outpouring of information from the vendor. This won’t work with real professionals who know how to sell, but if you are dealing with folks who are “doing it themselves”, sometimes an innocent sounding comment can give you a lot of information.

An example might be a comment like “What is that smell?”, when you walk into the basement, if the vendor replies quickly with “What smell, I don’t smell anything, there are no smells here, not an odor to be smelled!”, and get very nervous, you should pursue this a lot more. If the vendor sniffs with you and shrugs their shoulders, then maybe there isn’t anything to worry about, but who knows?

Notice What is On the Walls

Mrs. C8j and I looked at a house once, and in the master bedroom, was a large framed photo, of a buxom woman, topless in the middle of a tropical lagoon setting, smiling at the camera. Mrs. C8j didn’t really notice, but let me tell you, I didn’t miss it. I smiled knowingly, and as we were finishing our viewing, the home owners came home and I was surprised to see that the buxom model in the picture was in fact one of the homeowners.

As we left Mrs. C8j asked me why I had that goofy grin on my face, so I explained what I had seen. To this day she claims I am making this story up. Yes, this story has nothing to do with buying a house, just a funny story I like to tell, but we also didn’t buy that house.

Photographic Memory

I don’t remember details much (even less as I grow older), but if you can convince the vendor, bring a video camera and tape your visit, so you can go back over the house later. We still have the video from when we had the house inspection done on the Big Cajun Estate, and noticed lots of things that were different, nothing big, so no point in calling the lawyers, however, good to know in case something bigger had happened. You may not be able to convince your vendor to allow you to videotape, but the vendor may also have a video they will give you of the house, either way, good to have a video of a possible future home.

Which House Did I Buy?

If you buy a house, or a town house, make sure you bought the house you want (and not another house accidentally). A dear friend bought his first town home, after seeing 3 different homes in the same housing complex, but it was only on the day he moved in that he realized that he hadn’t bought the house he thought he had. Saying on move in day, “I don’t think this is the house I bought” is a little late to notice your error. Before you sign anything make sure you are buying the house you want.

Who do You Work For?

I always have an issue if you end up using the same agent as the vendor for your purchase. Who is your agent really working for? I am sure most agents would “poo poo” my concerns, but I am a naturally untrusting person, this just seems wrong to me.

Hopefully your purchase will go smoothly, but remember to be thorough in your due diligence before buying.

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Do You Store Your Tires

by bigcajunman on November 27, 2012

My mechanic who installs my snow tires offers a service to store tires for $12.50 a tire per season (so about $50 plus tax for the winter). We store my wife’s tires, since they are on rims, however we don’t store the tires for my car (they aren’t on rims). My car’s tires are loose and tend to take up some space in my garage, and has been one of the reasons why my car would not fit into our garage (a double car garage).

Mrs. C8j noticed that Canadian Tire had a “Black Friday” (yeh right) sale on a wall mounted tire rack for $56 (around), and I had been dithering about how this was going to be the year we try to fit my car into the garage (my wife’s van fits with little work), so it seemed like this past weekend we were going to try to fit both cars into our garage.

Saturday was the day, thus we spent a good amount of time, throwing things out and then playing garage Tetris, but thanks to mounting my tires on the wall, and some judicious destruction, and decluttering, my car actually fits into the garage.

A very Nice Rack

The interesting part of all of this is that the cost of the rack is about the same cost as we paid for my wife to have her tires stored. So in some ways this rack paid for itself, if I had stored my tires (and as you can see from the picture, I actually have other stuff that I can stuff into the rack).

At the end of it we continue to play garage Tetris, to see what the optimal set up for the cars and the snowblower is, but Mrs. C8j also points out that maybe we need a backyard shed to store the remaining stuff (others might say, just have less stuff).

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On Line Jewelry at Costco ?

by bigcajunman on October 3, 2012

My wife and I were out treating ourselves to a lavish Costco Lunch (best lunch for less than $5 around) a few days ago, and afterwards we wandered around their showroom, and noticed that in the Jewelry section they were advertising a new ring that you could get from them. It looked quite nice, but that is not what caught my eye, the price tag of $79,999.99 is what really caught my eye.

For this I could buy a house!

This sale item alone caused my wife to have no end of discussions on:

Who would buy their engagement ring at Costco? I think that was an initial shock thing, since I bought my wife’s rings at People’s jewelers, what is the difference? The nice thing about Costco is you have a warranty and such, so why not buy your ring at Costco was the conclusion we had.
That is one hell of a lot of money to spend on an engagement ring in our opinion. When my fiance could be walking around with a down payment on a $750,000 house on her finger, I must scratch my head on that. How much would you have to pay in insurance for something like that? Where would you wear it? This of course has nothing to do with the good folks at Costco, just a cranky old man wondering about the younger generation.
I asked the young lady at check out (I thought jokingly) if she had sold many of the $79K rings, and she replied, “A few, you’d be surprised”. She then said it was more interesting when someone returns a big-ticket item like that (I believe she said she had a $24,000 refund a few weeks back). I believe I had to pick my jaw up from the floor.
Do they have these things on site, for you to take home, or is it ordered specially and delivered to your home? Who delivers that kind of stuff (since you can order it on-line as well)? Brinks?
What’s with the extra 99 cents on the price? Seriously, you needed to go that close to $80K?
Oh and with HST total cost is $90399.99, so another $11K in tax on this baby. That’s a good used car, isn’t it?

It did make our visit to Costco that much more fun, because then looking at the Chocolate Milk, Cheese and a Remote Control Car seem so cheap in comparison.

Am I just being a crotchety old man on this one?

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Replace Old Windows?

by bigcajunman on September 13, 2012

This week I continued replacing the old wood windows that came originally with my house and as I found out last year, none of the windows in my house (Model Home Version 0.1 for our area) were very well insulated (if at all), which in itself suggests the “investment” in new windows will be a good choice, however, if we ignore the shoddy workmanship of the builders of my house, the question arises, does it make sense to replace old windows in a house?

In my case, I think it is an easy yes:

If your windows look like this, replace them!

Aesthetically the old windows were not very pretty, and would be a sticking point should we want to sell this house. Many house buyers would see the old windows as they walked into the house and would dismiss the house off-hand, without even looking closely at the rest of the house (which isn’t in great shape in other ways, but that is for another story).
The continued up keep of old wooden windows is an investment in time and labour I was not willing to continue with (well Mrs. C8j did the painting and upkeep, but I am pretty sure she agrees with my evaluation).
The fact that the new windows are an upgrade in performance ( for keeping out sunlight, and heat) will help with cooling the house in the summer (the lack of insulation in the old windows make this point even higher in importance), and keep in the house in the winter.

I am not going to do the math on when the windows will “pay for themselves”, because I view those claims as a bit trite, the windows needed replacing, and I don’t think, in this case, it is a frivolous home expenditure. Still have more money to drop into the remaining windows, but for now, this needed to be done as well.

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