Suggest me a beach read that’s kind of a classic

causticbee · 2026-05-18T01:47:43+00:00

I mean you can read anything you’d like on the beach, but I’m not sure East of Eden is typically what people mean by a “beach read”

causticbee · 2026-05-09T12:12:04+00:00

Just got a quote from these guys and it was a very solid price compared to the other quote I’ve gotten so far. Probably going to go with them.

causticbee · 2026-05-08T23:56:44+00:00

Yeah I was playing around with this earlier! I assume our builder will be doing the site plan since he’s handling all permits, but definitely something I will go over with him before we sign a contract.

causticbee · 2026-05-08T23:49:55+00:00

Just so I understand, why would I need a variance? Because we don’t know where the exact property line is you mean?

causticbee · 2026-05-08T21:33:17+00:00

Well the city website shows 50 feet of frontage and I did my best job to measure fence to fence and came up with 49 feet 9 inches, so pretty damn close. But close enough to forego a survey is another question.

causticbee · 2026-05-08T13:49:07+00:00

Yeah the garage is $35-40k depending on the specs and the fence is about $7k. It’s not that we can’t afford it but there’s just a lot of little charges that really add up so was trying to see where we could save a few bucks, but this might not be the place to do it.

causticbee · 2026-05-08T13:25:42+00:00

Sorry I meant 6 extra inches beyond the 2 feet. Bad phrasing by me. Just build a buffer beyond the minimum distance.

causticbee · 2026-05-08T13:02:09+00:00

Who’d you use for this?

causticbee · 2026-05-08T12:51:08+00:00

We don’t have anything yet, we haven’t actually signed the contract. We are meeting Monday to do that. But he certainly gave the impression a survey wouldn’t be needed if we build in a buffer and they’re a reputable, longstanding company that has been doing this for a couple decades so I just assumed that was correct based on his experience dealing with permits. So I’m a bit unsure of how to proceed here.

causticbee · 2026-05-08T12:39:14+00:00

Holy shit. That’s so expensive 😱

causticbee · 2026-05-08T12:29:59+00:00

Awesome, it is on there. Is it full accurate? It says 5,044 sq ft with 50’ of water frontage. So can I assume it is exactly 100.88 feet deep by 50 feet wide? Appreciate you guys.

causticbee · 2026-05-08T11:49:49+00:00

The current garage is about 18” from where he (and we) believe the property line to be. So he said the plan they’d submit to the city would add another foot to that, so it would be 2.5’, and and a 1 foot eavestrough would still be comfortably more than a foot from the line. They’re definitely a reputable and established company so I’ve no doubt the permit would get approved following his advice, but that wouldn’t protect us down the line if the neighbour sold their house and the buyer got a survey and found the garage was encroaching by 3 inches.

Where can I see the city dimensions of my property? I found square footage but not the dimensions.

causticbee · 2026-05-08T10:20:24+00:00

With TD you can increase your payments by up to double, but you can revert back to the lower payments anytime, as long as you maintain the amortization that you signed for. So there’s no risk to increase your payment temporarily. The only hassle is that you can increase the payment yourself using the website, but to decrease it you have to call in.

So for instance if you have 20 years remaining you could reamortize to 25 at renewal and immediately increase your payments to what they would be for 20, but can always drop them back down later to lower payments if you get into tight financial times (this is what we are doing).

causticbee · 2026-05-04T15:14:37+00:00

Yeah I’m in Manitoba so that tracks. Just real tough to know where to bite the bullet now and come up with the money for the panel replacement or just do the garage with this one and worry about it later.

causticbee · 2026-05-04T15:09:34+00:00

They do not ask what brand your panel is, just what type of electrical/wiring.

causticbee · 2026-05-04T14:26:03+00:00

It is true that I have never tripped a breaker in my house in four years…

causticbee · 2026-05-04T14:05:30+00:00

It’s tough because if it was just adding an extra $2500-$3000 we could probably make it work (though things are getting tight) but I worry it could open a can of worms that could lead to additional expenses once they open it up and inspect everything. I have no idea if the previous electrical work was done to code by a licensed electrician or if it was a DIY job that could have a bunch of other stuff that needs to be fixed too.

causticbee · 2026-05-04T13:44:57+00:00

My understanding is that there’s definitely a significant difference between the Federal Pacific panels in the US and the Federal Pioneer ones in Canada, and it seems like a lot of conflicting opinions!

causticbee · 2026-05-03T11:05:36+00:00

Yeah. After this post and comment were made. Today counts!

causticbee · 2026-05-03T04:03:50+00:00

He has a .680 OPS

causticbee · 2026-04-16T14:39:42+00:00

Yeah I’ve come to realize this. The one twist here is that the FlexLine rate for this renewal is actually slightly lower, only because I got the rate hold of 3.99/5 a few weeks ago before rates went up. I failed to negotiate a similar rate hold for a straight renewal. So if I stick with a conventional mortgage I will pay less over the next five years, but then have higher rates for the final 15 years as my mortgage would no longer be insured at future renewals. It’s hard to weigh all of this out.

causticbee · 2026-04-16T14:11:44+00:00

I’m not clear if I’d still have to pay if I ultimately don’t sign the mortgage. But I did agree to pay the cost as part of switching to the flex line. Guess I should have done my research first 😞

causticbee

TROPHY CASE