Trollette at vancouvercondo.info March 14th, 2011 at 1:34 pm- “My office mate just bought a house WAYYY above his means in Vancouver. He did not come to work this morning. You know why? His breaker blew up!!! He could not believe how much he had to pay to have it fixed by an electrician. Apparently the wiring had been done in a rush during the pre-sale renos, and was not to code…”
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Not to code, maybe it was the place I saw where the breaker box was in the downstairs bathroom. Yup, nothing wrong with that…
I was with a buying agent at the time. I looked at the box then looked at the shower, and asked him if it was normal, as a joke. He missed my deadpan delivery and said it was nothing to worry about. I must have looked pretty wet behind the ears, but nothing compared to the condensation buildup in that breaker box…
Don’t make up a story.
if the breaker box is in the bathroom, it should not pass the inspection and can’t get the permit to occupancy.
are you guys are making the story up?
My dear sir I assure you I am not making this up. It was an older (50 year) structure with a remodeled downstairs listed on MLS. It is up to you whether or not you believe me.
The part I wish I did make up was the Realtor’s insistence it was no problem.
I can vouch for jesse regarding the fact that this does happen.
There was even an image on MLS a couple of years back, where the photos for a house for sale showed a bathroom photo with a breaker box next to the shower.
Can’t find it in archives, may have seen it at another site.
does anyone have any stats on how many suites in Vancouver are actually legal?
how many single family occupancy homes are doubling up illegally?
i only know of one buddy that actually has a legal basement suite.
See the report that was written about on vancouvercondo.info recently:
http://vancouvercondo.info/2011/02/city-coming-to-terms-with-vancouver-secondary-suites.html
jesse, awesome link, thank you
my brother has mentioned to me about how the city would rather grant developments for condos than strict rental towers , and as such since secondary suite holders are either a) unwilling or b) unable to pay prices to rent a primary suite/rent an actual property from an owner – we end up with 5 brazillian/japanese/korean girls all sleeping in the solarium of a yaletown condo, single moms commuting from abbotsford, etc.
yech
I know of 2 rewiring houses themselves to save costs and flipping them. Though they are employed in professional capacity at hydro and coast mtn, they are not in the building industry and their workmanship is bad and shoddy.
The worst wiring was a concrete SFH on W41st, just a block from Main/Ontario. The wiring cables jammed behind a small space in between the dining room and staircases; I had never seen such terrible mess. The selling agent said the house was constructed by the owner who was returning to China.
In other news….
[Reuters] – Housing starts see biggest drop since 1984
“(Reuters) – Housing starts posted their biggest [US] decline in 27 years in February while building permits dropped to their lowest level on record, suggesting the beleaguered real estate sector has yet to rebound from its deepest slump in modern history.”
http://tinyurl.com/6ho2gfs
You mean there are other costs that come with owning a house? I thought if I just maxed out the mortgage payment, I was set.
The costs are endless and they aren’t just money out of pocket. Most of your life will centre on maintaining the structure and land. I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on the opportunity costs of home ownership, as in every kind of cost.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/business/28leonhardt.html?_r=1
i know someone who was renovating his house and the contractor installed 20k of windows incorrectly – they had to go to court and wait months and months and blah blah blah. total hell..
i’m sorry, i’d rather be lying in a hammock somewhere warm, albeit alone, but not frittering away the fruit of my labor on making a nest that the wife won’t bitch about.
once you realize it’s all bullshit, you are free to move about the system
i have to interject with this anecdote from my father, a retired mining engineer
a little less than 10 years ago i asked him what it would take to become rich.
he laughed, looked around and replied in his usual deadpan
“weeeellll, don’t buy a car. don’t get married. don’t have kids.. and don’t buy a house.” he probably forgot to mention leaving canada altogether, as well.
so i think what he’s saying is to find personal fulfillment outside of the current paradigm, since, after 70+ years he can attest – it’s all bullshit.