I love hardwood floors. Over the years, we've converted every roon in our house to hardwood floors except the lving room and one bathroom.

 

They're MUCH easier to keep clean, and hold a lot less dust then carpet. A nice feature in this extremely dry climate. Plus my Roomba finds it easier to clean them well then he does with carpet.

 

Four years ago this coming August, we had hardwood floors installed in our bedroom and office. We spent the better part of a week sleeping in the living room on an air mattress with our two dogs. What a pain in the ass! Then we..........flew to Calgary and did Calgary, Banff, and Jasper. We had a great time.

 

I'm about to rip out old hardwood to replace with new.. Anyone done this themselves?

 

Housing is still overpriced. Many more foreclosures still to come. When prices fall another 15-20% it will be more reasonable for people to buy.

But then I've only been saying housing is overpriced since 2002 and people just look at me like I'm standing on my head and talking Chinese backwards.

 

A couple days ago my +1 and I were checking out a couple houses for her and her husband. I was standing in the foyer of a $1.3M house, roughly 2300sqft, and the real estate agent was talking about the struggle he and his wife had to pay for their first house at a price of $14,500 in the same geographical neighborhood we were standing, but a smaller house.

2010 - $565 / sqft
1940 - $11 / sqft

That's just one (pricier) neighborhood, but it's an example of how prices have gone up, in many cases more than tripling in the past decade alone.

 

This....

Wife and I recently bought a new townhome(november) and I didnt want to even screw around with that variable crap. Just tell me what my payment is forever and I can deal with that. Luckily we were able to lock in at 5% flat for the 30 year loan.

The whole uncertainty of the variable just didnt sit well with me...I dont like not knowing what I'm going to pay...

 

[QUOTE=MikeyCB,May 27 2010, 03:05 PM]

The "condo fees" (or maintenance fees, or HOA fees, as sometimes referred to) are $358/month.

 

Maybe this is another difference between Canada and the US, as I have seen a number of condos for sale that include heat and/or electricity in the monthly condo fees. It's certainly not the case with all of them, but I wouldn't say it's especially rare either, at least in this area.

 

Rugby, very good points all-around - thanks for the comments! We are definitely looking into all of those items, and will include things like pending litigation. I wouldn't have thought of that.

Shareall is right in many cases, the Condo Fees can cover additional things like heating if it is provided by a central system and shared by all units (hot water, for example).

I've even some some places where an agreement has been made with the communications provider to include a base internet and cable package with each unit. Anything over and above basic is paid for by the individuals though. Electricity to units is one thing I've NEVER seen included in HOAs/Condo Fees, which makes sense.