Want to buy a townhouse?

We want to move into a home with a yard, ideally nearer to where I work, so the townhouse is now for sale. Great opportunity to get into the Victoria market with three bedrooms for under $300K.

Here's the MLS Listing and our Realtor's listing page.

This threatdown is getting serious....

This summer, there were many bear sightings and several bear attacks in Greater Vancouver -- heck, my brother was annoyed by a "gift" of bear sh*t on his front lawn in Port Coquitlam.

Then there was the bear with the bucket list -- Bystanders rescue man from bear (Times-Colonist 11 Sept 08) -- and the armchair sportsbear who ambled up to get a waterside seat at the dragon boat races in Kelowna (sorry, can't find an online story).

The threat is actually real enough that RCMP are now being trained to deal with bears.

But at least we haven't seen this problem here yet: a Montana cyclist collided with a bear. Ouch.

linkety-links

The staging is done-diddley-un, our Realtor seemed impressed with the transformation, and I merrily took many photos this morning-- missing several buses in the process -- but still got to my desk by 8:00! Lucky for you, I have collected them into a set on Flickr called SeaTerrace:


On the awesome side of the links scale are two designs whose times have come: the modular-compartment fridge (for shared accommodation situations) and the flat sink (most useful in public washrooms).

On the opposite side of the links scale is this horrible story (warning: likely disturbing to most readers) that makes me want to track down the idiot responsible and send him to a prison that the UN has condemned. >:(

Finally, this album cover at LPCoverLover had me looking for tell-tale photoshopping signs, but it appears to be legit; sorry grrrls.

And so it begins....

staged_bedroom
Originally uploaded by triviaqueen

What do you think? Does this look like one of those HGTV/TLC home makeover "after" shots? Is it generic enough without looking unlived in? (Well, the cat on the bed helps, I guess...)

So the breakdown:

We already had the sidetables, the bed, the duvet, white pillow cases, and blanket. We bought: two lamps ($99.96), sheets ($14.99), accent pillow ($10), curtains ($35.76) and art - which I wanted to do anyway - ($92). So, $252.71, plus taxes. Phew! Of course that doesn't include the cost of paint or carpet.

We should be done the rest of the staging tomorrow... hopefully. We spent most of our day today getting the deck cleared and prepared (Cthulhu is in his new temporary home -- Hubby rented a truck and toured him through town on the way; I planted $150 worth of plants...) as well as tidying things up and cleaning. The carpet, btw, was successfully installed yesterday. Hooray!

Into the Home(finishing) Stretch....

As the fifteenth approaches and our time-line narrows, our activity is a flurry of ticking things off our To-Do list.

Yesterday we got the replacement for the broken window (only $78!! Thanks, Pino-Lite!) and I signed off on the proof of the print for the bedroom -- being re-done at Island Blue since it looks like pickets will be up around the SUB for some time yet.

The fences are painted (yay!) and we got a cheque yesterday reimbursing us for earlier damages. We will be using that cash to pimp our deck in the next few days. Unfortunately, one of our containers collapsed when we tried to lift it (the wood frame was very bug-eaten) but we will re-organize and rearrange to compensate.

Cthulhu will also be getting an un-subtle ride across town to a temporary location until he is sold or we move into a place where we could store him again.

Aside from the patio pimping, the last major thing to be completed before "staging" is the carpet installation, set for this Friday.

Once the place is staged, you'll get to see some before and after shots -- I promise! -- and of course, you can have a look at the listing once it's up.