Christmassy Activities



Since my Christmas tree is up now, I've been inspired to do more Christmassing things.  This morning I got the kids into nice clothes and took them to see Santa.  As we were entering the mall I noticed that Jadzia had somehow managed to get pomegranate juice on her dress, even though I had fed them while they were still in their undies and pull-ups.  You can't see the stain in the picture, right guys?

Santa asked William and Jadzia what they wanted for Christmas.  William replied that he wanted Criss Cross Crash, his Hot Wheels toy request of the week.  Jadzia, who I was surprised answered the question at all, replied "Doggies!"  I only hope she doesn't mean a real one.

Jadzia started flipping out as soon as the candy canes ran out, but I'd promised William that we would stop at the Bulk Barn and get ingredients for a grahm cracker house.  Unwilling to accept the convention of purchasing candy before you eat it, Jadzia had a meltdown in the middle of the store.  I quickly grabbed the grahm crackers and icing mix, while William chose several candies for decoration.

After getting home and eating lunch, I was all gung ho to start the house construction.  I built Jadzia's house (minus the decorations) while William attempted to spread icing on one cracker.  William announced that he didn't want to build houses anymore and left the table.  He returned when I offered to build his house so he could decorate it. By the time I was done, Jadzia had calapsed her house and I had to rebuild it for her.  I showed William how to put icing on a candy so it would stick, but he refused to try it himself and instead instructed me on which candies to put where.  In between following William's commands, I arranged peanut M&Ms on Jadzia's house vaguely in the shape of a Christmas tree, and tried to stick on the gummy worms faster than she was eating them.

Here are the results of our efforts:

Our House, in the middle of what will soon be our street

Well no sooner had our offer been rejected for that other house when Basha sent us another listing. It's a bit more expensive, but still "in our price range" and holy Laforge is it ever gorgeous. If you look closely at the pic, you'll note the fancy bay windows and the über-expensive-looking front door. Well the inside's even nicer, all done up in a sort of rustic look (in a good way, not in an "it's so old an falling apart it's rustic" way). Someone poured their heart into decorating this place, someone with far more time, money, and decorating skills than I. Plus, there's an above-ground pool (or, more accurately, a mound of snow in the shape of a pool).

So we put an offer in. (Our second time bidding on a house in two days). And, this time, we won! Let the poverty begin!

So close and yet, so houseless

Our realestate agent/friend of the family, Basha (Barbara to non-Polish people) has been sending us Burlington listings "in our price range". (By "in our price range" I mean that we'd be incredibly house-poor and have to give up some luxuries, but would have enough to scrape together enough money to own the house in 40 years). So yesterday we got sent a listing of a cute, 3-bedroom, one-floor semi at a ridiculously low price, well, ridiculously low for Burlington anyway.

We immediately arranged to see it and were surprised to find that, despite it's reasonable price, the house was not falling apart at the seams (although the several of the doors on the main level had what might have been fist holes in them, and the basement was a half-way done construction project). There were also fun features like a ramp leading up to the front door (very stroller friendly) and a My-Big-Fat-Greek-Weddingish proximity to my parents' house.

Right away we made an offer. Even though the house had only been listed for a day (it didn't even have a for sale sign up yet), five other people had already looked at the place and there was one other offer already on the table. So we sat down with our agent and made our offer as juicy as possible, offering a few thousand over asking price, letting the seller keep all their appliances, and even omitting any conditions about selling our place first (though we left enough time in the closing to offset that).

So Basha went off with her boxing gloves on and came back with the news that they wanted us to close the deal way earlier, like April. This being March, we couldn't be sure that we could sell our place in time, so instead we tried throwing another couple thousand at them (hey, it's the bank's money anyway right?) But, alas, these people were apparently in a huge hurry to get rid of their house and they didn't bite. So now we're stuck in our condo until another miracle listing comes along and someone else is moving into our house!

House Browsing

Every once in a while, my husband and I amuse ourselves by pretending that we can afford a house. Not just any house, mind you, I have standards:

1) The house must have at least one more bedroom than we have now. Moving into a place that is the same size as our condo just seems redundant. Also, William will one day need a sibling and that kid will want her or his own bedroom. (hypothetical children are so demanding!)

2) The house must be in Burlington. Sure, I know we can afford a house in Nunavut for six bucks and change, but then I'd have to learn a whole new city. I have such a bad sense of direction that even a quaint inuit village would be intimidating for me to navigate. I'll stick to the place I've lived since I was six, thank you very much. The housing is more, but both my parents and inlaws live here, so we'll save a bundle on babysitters.

3) The house must be just slightly less expensive than the cheapest house in Burlington. And without condo fees.

We've been eyeballing a few properties and even went to the bank this afternoon for a reality check/mortgage consultation. If we buy a house/any deals fall through, I'll post more details, but I'm pretty sure it's a bad carma to tell the entire internet which houses you're looking at. You have to pretend you're not really interested or they'll jack up the price. (I guess, but what do I know about buying and selling realestate? The only place I ever bought was off of my alzeimerish grandmother. Plus I always, always, lose at monopoly).

Just for fun, I looked up the most expensive house listed in Burlington. They're asking 8.5 million, but perhaps we can lowball them?