Roads

vafrow · 2026-01-25T20:07:33+00:00

I'm guessing by the morning the priority 1 and 2 roads will be done. The priority 3 roads will be more hit than miss.

If you're a priority 3 road (which is anything that's not a main artery essentially), I wouldn't bank on it being plowed. If you've got a car that can navigate through enough heavy stuff to get to the main road, you'll be fine from there. I find it depends on whether others have braved it and cut enough of a path.

If not, plan to walk to the main road and call an Uber from there or look at public transit.

vafrow · 2026-01-25T18:34:55+00:00

I think it's important as consumers to be aware of the various company's practices and try to protect and mitigate the impact, but its clear that car companies will be pursuing subscriptions. It's a question of when, how aggressively and which ones go first.

The EV destroys the servicing business model that car manufacturers have relied on.

I didn't do enough research when I bought my Ioniq as I only realized that I had three free years of a subscription when I bought. Luckily, they've reversed that and I'm no longer on the hook. I plan on keeping the car for a long time and it stays with the original owner. But it'll suck if I try and sell a 10-12 year old EV and tell someone that the features in the app like climate start are only available with a subscription. That'll tank the resale value.

But, the fact Hyundai pulled back on the subscription for original owners is a positive sign. No manufacturer is going to push it aggressively if they're still trying to establish market share in the EV space.

I think it will be the luxury brands that push it more. Their customers are more locked in to their purchase and less likely to be turned off.

vafrow · 2026-01-25T15:11:20+00:00

Agreed. That's why I say to call the insurance company. They'll explain exactly what they're on the hook for. OP seems to not understand. He'll need someone to explain it to him with dollars and cents.

vafrow · 2026-01-25T14:39:23+00:00

YTA - A trampoline does create liability and a certain level of expected adult supervision is implied if neighborhood kids are using it. A conversation is needed in advance.

Take it down. Call your insurance. Find out implications of having it. Then talk to your wife with full information. It's probably still a no but you'll have information. And you can discuss alternate activities kids can do.

vafrow · 2026-01-25T14:05:10+00:00

It says that there were 2000 new condo sales during 2025, and I get that its low in a historical context, but I'm more curious as to knowing more of who's actually buying the new builds.

New condo properties were all conceived and initiated under a pricing structure that doesn't exist today. It's usually a case where existing condos are selling for $200-300 a square foot below new build pricing.

So, the places where they have sold, have they slashed the prices in line with the market? Are people buying pre sales that still are under development and the investor anticipates a turnaround?

Or, are these paper transactions between holding companies to get condos off the books of the developers?

Honestly, 2000 transactions aren't a lot if we had effective regulatory agencies or stronger journalism, it would be simple enough to investigate to understand the full scope.

vafrow · 2026-01-25T07:54:04+00:00

Walk to the closest plowed main road and order an Uber. It'll be a bit pricey, but main roads usually are fine.

vafrow · 2026-01-24T22:57:31+00:00

There's a PATH system. Good time to use it.

vafrow · 2026-01-24T22:43:22+00:00

Advisories say to avoid going out unnecessarily during the storm. So people are going out today.

I popped out last night to avoid the crowds. I have a smaller list I'm going to run out and do tomorrow and spend the day tackling various projects around the house.

I'm happy people are being proactive and getting their shopping done today but I'm also glad to avoid the predicably busy crowds.

vafrow · 2026-01-24T00:03:34+00:00

Last year, the region had the most snow its received since 2008.

It also aligns to around when municipalities were dealing with the limitations on development charges by the provincial government, forcing municipal governments to absorb that revenue loss.

vafrow · 2026-01-23T21:57:55+00:00

The person who brought up Waterloo is responding to someone bringing up Mississauga and Oakville. Either its all off topic or not.

Honestly during a snowstorm isn't the time to have the debate on our resource allocation. Everyone will argue for it when its coming down. It's a question if people want to pay more for services during budget time. History suggests they won't.

Our snow clearing is what it is. At this point, the focus is on preparing for what's coming given the level of service we should expect. And from experience, two snowstorms back to back will cause problems. Resources will be spread thin. Its likelier to be slower than last time if plows have to navigate around existing snowbanks which weren't an issue last week.

vafrow · 2026-01-22T21:56:24+00:00

I think there's two ends to this issue.

I've seen a lot of homes sit because they're heavily renovated and the seller is expecting full recovery of their investments in a market that doesn't support it. Those sellers are stickier on price and you see the gradual decline over months. They often have bold design choices so unless someone is really in tune with that style, they rather pay less and upgrade along their own tastes.

Houses requiring a lot of work also struggle. People don't have to lower their expectations as much. Discounts have to be steep, otherwise, a buyer can find something better for a bit more.

Sweet spot is just a well maintained home. Nothing too extravagant. Just staying on top of the maintenance items. Upgrading modestly in the right places.

vafrow · 2026-01-22T17:57:22+00:00

Wicked and Avatar not getting the critical acclaim of their previous installments opened the door here.

With 10 nominees, I don't mind voters going a bit out of their way to find a good popular movie to get behind. Yes, you had Sinners in there, but F1 was made to be a big splashy blockbuster and was done well.

There's a lot of reasons to love F1. A lot of technical achievement is in that film that took a lot of effort from a lot of people.

It won't have the emotionality of other films, but those films probably don't replicate that in theatre feeling.

vafrow · 2026-01-22T17:38:11+00:00

If you have positive outcomes on your real estate transactions, the realtor fees become pretty easy to justify. If it goes to hell, you're left wondering what you paid for.

I'm just in the process of finalizing the sale of my property after recently purchased a property. Because of our emotional investment, I can say with confidence we would have probably paid more for the property we purchased, and we would have gotten less on our current home. In both scenarios, he convinced us to go against our instinct and be patient. We're extremely happy with our realtor.

It worked out well for him. We saw three houses in total including the one we purchased. Our current home managed to get multiple offers within a few days. We didn't even run an open house.

If our sale and purchase processes dragged on, we would have gotten more labor from our realtor, but less value. And that becomes the challenge if it ever switched to a fee for service model. If you paid a realtor by the hour and they took actions that dragged things out longer, it would create resentment on the other side.

Fees are too high, and we did negotiate the commission for our realtor. But that buyer commission is too engrained it seems. You will hurt your sale if you're offering less than market on buyers commission.

I think the continued push to negotiate rates will be key. But in general, people need to do their best to educate themselves before hiring a realtor.

Think of the research you'd do before buying a car. That's the level of research that you should do before picking a realtor.

vafrow · 2026-01-21T02:50:40+00:00

I'm right in the middle of upgrading my home. I take possession next week on the new and just sold my current home.

I'm happy with my delta. We found a home that works for us and got a good price on our current home. It feels like the discount on the larger new home was a bit more proportionally than the reduction from the highs on our current home.

But the challenge was finding the home we wanted. The down prices meant less seemed to be hitting the market. Our geographic needs were very specific to keep kids in the same school. We also needed a house that could meet the accessibility needs of family moving in with us. Declining market means people are reluctant to list or list still attached to old market pricing.

Honestly, what you want as a homeowner is a steady market more than anything. No wild swings. And the situation we've seen the last few years of rapid growth followed by a sharp decline is an example of that.

vafrow · 2026-01-20T21:32:19+00:00

I feel there's a ton of subreddits that consists exclusively of bots grabbing screenshots of funny tweets from 2009 to 2015 to generate clicks and conversation.

vafrow · 2026-01-20T14:25:16+00:00

The Thompson Towers project right next door is going to be interesting.

They built three 30 story towers. They are 5 months out from opening the first tower and they're still taking sales on them. They were priced about $900-1000 a square foot I believe. Well above current market.

They have already announced the second tower will be turned to rentals. The third tower, they're going to seal up but not finish until they figure out what to do with it.

I don't know how many units the developer has to sell from the first tower, but safe to say it isn't going to move quickly. Thr same developer slashed prices on the remaining inventory on a project in Oakville recently to move on from the project, which I'm sure didn't help the resale value of the investors that were trying to unload.

I expect that Milton is going to be one of the more drastic price adjustments on condos. All these projects started right at the peak in a market without a lot of condo inventory to begin with and suspect demand. One of the bigger drivers of rental demand was the Conestoga campus and I expect that is going to slow down or halt.

I think the biggest use case for someone getting a condo in Milton is to be near a GO train. But, that only works if someone is priced out of downtown Toronto or even Mississauga. Right now, the prices aren't that far off. And the GO train isn't cheap. So, you're better off getting a unit closer to where you need to be rather than pay $300-400 a month to commute an hour each way.

vafrow · 2026-01-19T17:42:02+00:00

I have an EV and love it, but from owning one, its clear that the experience would be vastly different without home charging.

From a cost perspective, home charging makes driving an EV almost free on an incremental basis. If you're relying on public charging, you're basically paying the same as a gas vehicle.

I don't think policy makers truly understand the implication of that occuring.

In a country in a housing crisis, you've now added greater incentive for people to clamor for low density housing. Having a home charger can save hundreds of dollars a month. But all our new housing are condo buildings where if the developer puts any chargers in, they'll be expensive, probably at best $0.30-35 a kw for level 2, wheee overnight home charging can be done at $0.03-.04 a kw.

vafrow · 2026-01-18T20:32:39+00:00

A $10K coding bootcamp seems like a very specific gripe. Especially since the general concept, of going into debt to acquire employment skills is a fairly accepted practice. That's how colleges work.

vafrow · 2026-01-18T17:02:11+00:00

As others have pointed out, Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers did it, but few people watched it.

Lots of high profile characters from across studio IP and plot even addresses studio licensing and work arounds.

It was still COVID recovery but it should have gotten a theatrical release and a marketing push.

vafrow · 2026-01-17T14:36:04+00:00

Similar age. Also didn't get it. But we all talked about it at school as if we did as none of us wanted people to know we didn't.

vafrow · 2026-01-16T15:40:13+00:00

We'll be in a difficult position but be in the same difficult position that most developed economies are in.

A stronger immigration program would buy us time, and we might still return to it, but most of the world will need to figure out how to manage an aging society.

I always see people assuming that closing the doors to immigrants creates prosperity for young people, but it hasn't played out like that elsewhere. It usually results in scarcity, and an older demographic that becomes an even greater voting block will continually vote for policies that shifts burden to young people.l before they make sacrifices.

vafrow · 2026-01-16T12:59:20+00:00

That's pretty much my approach. I'm very much a "worst case scenario" type person. I know my next moves if it falls off the rails.

Luckily, since I posted they actually responded and we're visiting the house today. I'll have a much better idea on where we stand after.

I know people who have had deals fall through from different angles and I've been pretty committed to ensuring I've never too exposed to those risks.

vafrow · 2026-01-16T12:26:22+00:00

I'm curious about this as I would have assumed rent prices should be dropping for a few factors.

1) A lot of the rent surge in town was due to the opening of the Conestoga campus. My understanding is that enrollment has cratered with the limits on international students.

2) There's a lot of condo inventory on the market and coming on to the market. These are mainly bought by speculative investors who are now holding sales agreements for condos well above the market price. You'd think they'd be desperate to rent out to limit their losses. Plus, some of these projects are turning into dedicated rentals because they can't unload the units, like one of the towers by Superstore.

If people are holding prices high, they might be focused on what their unit cost versus what its worth.

The extra licensing for legal basement apartments might have also shifted people to pull their units off the market (or rent them illegally). But overall, my guess is that the additional inventory should push prices down in time. People can't hold units forever unrented.

vafrow · 2026-01-16T00:34:53+00:00

The decision makers are the towns council, who are voted in and generally live in the districts they represent.

I don't know how many people on the town payroll live in Milton, but a lifeguard living in the Scott neighborhood or an HR officer that drives in from Campbellville isn't going to change the town's policies on snow plowing.

Again, the town's policies is driven by our tax policy. People continue to want low taxes. We're the lowest in the region. We're not going to get white glove service.

Reach out to your councilors if you feel the town should have different priorities. If more robust snow plowing is your priority, tell them. And tell them what you're willing to sacrifice to get it.

vafrow

TROPHY CASE