Pssst.... wanna buy a castle?

Needless to say, there are not a lot of castles for sale in Manitoba, or perhaps even Canada. Which is probably a good thing because most castles were built in the days before indoor plumbing and central heating, two things I consider essential.

There is however, a "castle" for sale right here in Winnipeg, at 494 College Ave. In around 1906, construction started on this epic building (no, I don't know details like that at the drop of a hat, there is a incredibly detailed 3 part blog post on West End Dumplings).

People have been writing about this gorgeous house since the 50s according to a piece written by The Times two years ago, AND NOW YOU COULD OWN IT!!!

Since I refuse to consider the neighbourhood to be a downside to this property (because, it isn't, get over it) I would say that the complete lack of a back yard would be the only thing that might keep you from running out and buying this. It does have a pretty great front yard though, and trust me, you meet way more neighbours in your front yard vs. the back.

According to the listing for this property, 494 College is currently divvied up into 6 suites and assuming you live on the main floor in the 3 bedroom suite, you get to collect $2275 a month in rent! To point out the obvious, that means you would be being paid to live there... (assuming you could get away with 5% down, which you actually probably couldn't because it's a rental, but assuming you could, your mortgage would be $1344/mo based on the current asking price of $299,000 - but it's now been on the market for a month so you could maybe even get it a little bit less). Personally I would slowly start reclaiming some of the suites as personal living space, but so long as you left one or two you could still basically live for free. In a CASTLE.

Living in this house would put you in great company, with some of these other notable homes in Winnipeg, as found here.

I should clarify...

342 Boyd

By no means do I think that renters can't make good neighbours. There is a house for sale near me that I keep saying things along the lines of "needs to be owner occupied" when I speak of it.

The reason I hold a current bias to it being lived in by the owner is this: in its current state (which, is technically unlivable due to the pipes being stolen, probably for drug money...) being advertised as a "Handyman special" it unfortunately will attract many of what we not-so-affectionately call slumlords. These are the folks who will do the absolute bare minimum to make the house "liveable" again and then throw tenants in there with empty promises of future renovations. One of the problems with the cycle of poverty is what it does to your spirit. The people who don't know their rights, who no longer have the energy to fight for themselves, who don't believe enough that they deserve better are the people who will most likely end up in a house like this.

Now, of course, there have been many well intentioned landlords who take a property that is in disrepair and actually bring it to a standard that almost any middle class person would be willing to live in, only to have it destroyed by bad tenants. I wish I could even say that this is the exception rather than the rule. However, if you take a property that will likely only be rented to people who are out of options, however well intentioned they might be, it's going to be hard as hell for them especially with whatever other struggles they may have, to help maintain that house.

Add to that that this house is in what I would describe as a "key location". It is in a cluster of primarily rental housing that teeters on the edge of volatility. People tend to behave in a manner that is appropriate to their surroundings - if it becomes apparent that no one in this cluster gives a f*ck then all of the houses are likely to suffer. Put one strong, community-minded homeowner (because no matter how good a landlord is who buys it, they aren't there all the time) in the middle who won't put up with garbage from the other rentals and you slowly get a shift.

In fact, the current owner, whom I'm told is being foreclosed on, is not a good neighbour and it's had an impact. So no, not even all owner occupied homes are "good".

The owners previous to the current one LOVED this house. I always felt like they got lost on their way to Wolseley and we were the lucky recipients. When I first moved to the neighbourhood nine years ago (as of March 1st!) they were the people I gravitated towards because their passion shone out of their house like a beacon. I have not had a full tour of the house, but assuming it hasn't changed much since my mother-earth loving people moved to BC (as you do when you're a full-on hippie!) it probably needs a few coats of a more neutral paint as a start; the kitchen was an interesting shade of mauve last I saw it! It might have been described as needing TLC even before the pipe stripping incident...

So. Much. Purple.

So, if you have a bit of an imagination, a bucket full of elbow grease and another one full of sweat equity you can buy a gem of a house for TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS less s than 5 years ago! Please don't let the neighbourhood scare you off, I will literally give you a run down of each and every house nearby to help you understand your new surroundings - we are only afraid of the unknown. As an added bonus, I will also come over and lend a pint or two of elbow grease to that bucket.

Look at that loft!

Oh, and if you do buy it as a rental, you can be sure I will let you know if your tenants are up to no good. Or, even scarier, if you have good tenants but you treat them badly, I will help them find their voice to fight for their rights because I value all of my good neighbours, tenants most definitely included.

*All photos from original listing from 2011 - I haven't had a chance to see the house but I get the feeling that you might need to go into it with some positive images in your mind.

Hallowe'en (sour) Apples!

Tonight is Hallowe'en. You might be wondering why I have enough time to write a blog post when I should be answering the door for 100's of little ghosts and goblins. It's because I'm sitting in my room with the rest of the house lights turned off. Especially the porch light, which stays on the other 364 days of the year. Although I suppose to be technical, this year it's 365 other nights...

First, lets get a few things out of the way. Do kids today (good lord I'm old) realize how good they have it? It's above zero and there is no snow. There was not a costume I owned that didn't go over a full snowsuit and Sorels were the mandatory footwear for the FOOT OF SNOW we had to wade through. Oh, and there were no pillowcases and giant reusable bags for collecting candy in. No no no, we had these:

This meant that inevitably you had to return home several times (losing precious candy gathering time) to dump out your haul and start again.

Moving on. So, I was feeling a little guilty for not handing out candy yet again this year. This is my 7th Hallowe'en here in the North End. I missed my first one because I was working in Churchill, MB (where, as an interesting fact, they have volunteers circling town on snowmobiles keeping an eye out for any polar bears looking for a seasonal treat) but in 2007, look out world, I was prepared!

I laboured over my candy choices and when I finally felt I had the perfect variety I spent time putting together little perfect Hallowe'en themed ziploc bags full of candy. I was prepared.

What I was NOT prepared for was to be overwhelmingly disappointed.

Instead of adorable little kids (yes, me, I just referred to children as adorable. I'm unlikely to do that again so maybe mark this down) in costumes I got sullen teenagers in hoodies and masks from Dollarama holding open pillowcases. Generally not even a "Trick or treat!" or "Hallowe'en Apples!" just a doorbell ring. The small children who did (sort of) come to the door were usually under about a year old, fast asleep, being pushed in a stroller by their teenage mother who was not in a costume. Call it a hunch, but I don't think the candy was for the babies. The even cheekier ones would hold out a second bag "for the other kid, who's at home". Yeah. Right.

I seriously almost cried when it was all over, this was not the Hallowe'en I had dreamed of! Now, I am very aware that my neighbourhood has some economic constraints. A six year old in a mask from Dollarma (or no costume at all) will of course get candy. Hell, a 47 year old in a full costume will get candy - the trade off for spending my hard earned money on candy is getting to see the costumes; I have my own economic constraints too.

I decided to go and evaluate my block, perhaps I could be shamed back into giving out Hallowe'en candy for next year?

Not likely. For shits and giggles I counted how many houses on my block had the "I'm home vibe". FIVE. And one of those is borderline. I think maybe their sheets as drapes just didn't block out all of the light from their living room. 5/40. I suppose to be fair, one of those 40 is boarded, and another one is the abandoned one with the rear section of the house caving in, but that doesn't really make it much better.

So, while Hallowe'en only seems to get even more popular (how that's even possible I'm not sure) it seems as though at least my street has basically given up. This makes me feel less guilty but more sad.

Set the counter back to zero

Sigh. Well, we almost went a year without a murder on my street. Actually, I suppose if I want to be technical, it sounds like the 15 year old who was murdered a couple weeks ago was ultimately stabbed on my street as well, but the media was kind enough to primarily report the incident as being at College and Aikins; although, I suppose with my obsession with the media labelling neighbourhoods correctly in their news stories that is a touch hypocritical, but hey, my blog my rules ;)

Now, the police are being extraordinarily tight lipped with further details regarding the incident on Saturday night, and in one article I read apparently the RCMP had also been by the crime scene. I wonder if this means it's tied to one of the big gangs, with Canada wide ties, rather than the kid stuff we normally see in the North End? When the police were going door to door earlier in the summer to advise folks that there were gang members in the community, to which my reaction was along the lines of "Really??? Oh my goodness, I had no idea!!" (*insert sarcasm font between quotations), I learned, that apparently we actually do have "real" gangsters lurking about the neighbourhood - not just the kid and misguided barely-adult gangsters. The kinds that ride on motor-bikes instead of pedal-bikes.

Of course they found the neighbour to quote for the paper who wants to move because now they are too afraid to leave their house and so on, that's good, I always worry if they haven't found that person, although the other neighbour who "always hears gunshots" didn't seem to be quoted (as per almost every murder story, especially those involving firearms), I sure hope that wasn't the person  that was found dead. More sarcasm aside, right now I just feel a little curious about the who and if we're lucky enough to find out, the why.

I don't think the incident makes me feel any less safe on my street, I guess I don't really know what it would take for me to feel less safe. When I was searching to see if they had released any more information on the crime or the victim, I came across a story from 2007, also a murder on my street, and that one was random, with the police saying that it was a case of mistaken identity. It's odd that I don't remember that event, and I wonder why it didn't stick in my mind. At that point I hadn't even lived on the street for all that long. Perhaps I naively believe I'm safer because I think it's extremely unlikely that anyone would ever mistake me for a gang member, a gangsters girlfriend or the girlfriend of a rival gang member; except when putting my garbage in the autobin whilst in my pj's I generally look very generically lower-middle class So no, incidents like the one a few weeks ago, this weekend, or even in 2007 don't really frighten me. If I was going to be completely honest, my biggest fear that might actually come true is getting mugged, but since although I dearly love my handbag, genuine leather and all (I'm cheap and it was a treat to myself!) I would likely give it up in exchange for my safety. I also of course realize that sometimes that's how murders where a victim and culprit don't know each other start out - something as simple as a mugging. I also admittedly take slightly more precautions when out for a walk here than perhaps I would in the 'burbs, no more cash than I need for wherever I'm walking to, heck, I usually just bring my trusty friend Visa, no sense needing to replace my whole wallet if something happened.

Of course, part of the not necessarily bringing the purse thing is because do you know what a pain those things are??? Seriously, I miss my teen angst days with my chain wallet and when the only key I needed was a house key - now, between work keys, car keys, other car keys, house keys... and then there's the phone. Back in the day I had no cell phone, so I didn't need somewhere to put it; I think that is half the reason I ended up with a purse. I met a 6 year old with a purse the other day - if only the poor girl knew the half of it; what's fun and playing grown-up now will just end up being a catch all for everything and anything and likely holding all of her husbands stuff too (oh yes, you men do that - mock our giant handbags and then give us stuff to put in them for you!). Of course if I was ever in a roving edition of Let's Make A Deal I would likely have whatever they were looking for.

Speaking of purses, I actually know two people who fell victim to having their purses stolen while at cemeteries this summer - those are thugs that will hopefully get what's coming to them. Yeesh. Well, I'm off to reset the Boyd Ave. murder counter, so long as I don't keep it in my purse I should hopefully be okay.

Cheap river tour, Picnic in the Park

Well, we all know Winnipeg Girl is a fan of things that are cheap, or even better, free! I present you with both. Thanks to poor advertising done by the MS River Rouge (and people looking for the Paddlewheel Queen, which no longer exists) it seems from the stats that I am the go to place for information river tours. So, may I (not me of course) offer you - half price weekday river tours! I'm a generous sort. Click here to go to the Swarm Jam site. You might as well, you were looking for their hours anyway. Oh, coupons, how I love thee.

As for FREE! check out Picnic in the Park this Saturday at St. John's Park. It starts at 11 and there is entertainment throughout the afternoon, and even better, FREE food! Although, probably best not to get me started on the hundreds and hundreds of water and juice bottles that will be used. I will most certainly be at Picnic in the Park, since it's a hop skip and a jump from my place. I might actually walk there. Crazy talk, I know.

For my dear suburban readers, St. John's Park is the park on Main St. just north of Redwood Ave, and next to the Ukrainian-Orthodox Holy Trinity Cathedral. The park is way bigger than it looks from Main St. and actually quite a little treasure.

As a random coincidence note, this park is also roughly where you catch the River Rouge (but the coupon is only good for weekdays)
See you there!

Spring has sprung

For better or worse (mostly better) I think it is safe to say that spring has arrived!  It looks like 3 of the 4 mini lilacs that I planted last year survived the winter, the fourth may still pull through, so that is nice. The trees have wee little buds on them and although not really a huge fan of rain on the weekends, the snow/rain of the first weekend in May and then the rain of this past one seem to be doing wonders for greening things up.

A big heartfelt thanks to the folks who came out on Saturday for the St. John's Clean-up; two of the people I coerced into coming out won prizes (besides the obvious prize of my charming company) for their valiant efforts. I was also able to make sure my street probably got the most thorough cleaning, although that being said, it took 5 people two hours to clean just the front of about 6 blocks - the back lanes didn't even have a chance to get touched.

Spring is a great season because there is so much hope in the air; you see folks who you never normally see out in their yards cleaning up, wanting a fresh start and you can't help but feel like this is the year it's all going to be different. Sadly, in a few weeks, once the grass starts to grow much of the hope gets abandoned and too many people just give up again. With absolutely no scientific evidence behind this statement I think spring is the best time to suss out the absolute rottenest apples in the neighbourhood - if they can't be bothered in spring, if they don't have that initial burst of pride in their surroundings then there is basically no hope.

The house I was having a bit of a dilemma with has sprouted two broken windows since my last post, which can only lead to trouble. That being said, if only arsonists took requests.... It's one in a cluster of no so great houses, but there is hope on the horizon - I hear through the neighbourhood grapevine that the owner is thinking of tearing it down to build a nice shiny new house. Combine that with the other houses that are hopefully going to get some fix-up orders from the City and Voila! all should be good with one little section of the North End again.

Spring also means flowers. Oh how I love flowers! If you need flowers, please skip the Home Depot's and Wal-marts of the world and pick them up at a little family owned garden centre - I suggest the Jolly Green Thumb at 6905 Roblin Blvd - it's only about 100m outside the Perimeter, but there are dozens of them all around the city. Since Mother's Day came about as early as it can and spring has come about as late as it can come this year I didn't have my flowers out in time to have them stolen re-gifted to someone's mother. I know flowers get stolen in all part of town, if I had better googling skills you'd have links to the articles that have made the papers, so this isn't just another plague of the North End, but let me tell ya, it sucks when it happens.

Spring also means the neighbourhood gets a little rowdier. I'm at an awkward age - I'm very much an adult but not so old that I don't still almost remember what it's like to be a teenager. Being a homeowner makes the fist shaking "kids these days..." old person come out a lot but I try to remember that some of the stuff the kids are up to here is no worse than what we got up to in the suburbs. It doesn't make the petty vandalism or theft feel any better but I know that most of the kids I grew up with turned into mostly functioning members of society regardless of if they stole a garden gnome or two when they were young. 

Firecrackers were going off with abundance this weekend, which I hate mostly because they always turn into tales of "gunshots all the time" by "a neighbour who didn't want to be named" in the paper later on when they are reporting on some other crime. We used to do that in the suburbs a lot too, it was a big thing in the late 80's/early 90's to bring a bucketload of firecrackers back from the States (was it legal then? I'm so confused, because EVERYONE seemed to have them but now you can't bring them back, what gives?) and we'd shoot them off. So I mostly hate them not because life has come full circle and I am now the cranky adult but because every time I hear one I see a quote.

I am also excited for spring as it means outdoor projects can get underway for the year. Last year I painted the house (still hoping Google street view will come back for a new shot of the place!) and this year I am putting in a new sidewalk. One of the best things about living in the North End is that I got double the house at half the price so I get do way more projects than if I had bought elsewhere. Even with how property values have skyrocketed the North End is one of your best bets for value for money and a chance to be able to afford to personalize.

So now that spring is here, bring on summer!

Meet Winnipeg Girl this weekend!! (and other interesting things)

I know, I know, it's finally here - try to contain your excitement. This Saturday is the big cleanup in my neighbourhood! I know you all already have it in your calendars from when I first told you about it in procrastination post, but in case you *forgot* here are the details again: Meet at Ralph Brown Community Centre, 460 Andrews St. (but better directions would be at the corner of Machray and McGregor, it faces McGregor) at 10am this Saturday. There you can opt to pick a street/back lane to help clean or randomly be assigned one. Winnipeg Girl would love it very much if you would pick Boyd or College Ave. Hint hint.

After spending a mere two hours cleaning up, bags/gloves etc., provided, head on back to Ralph Brown at noon for a free BBQ and a chance to win some great prizes! Tips for how to make cleanups fun:

- Note the places where the most garbage comes from (McD's, Timmies, Dollarama, etc.) and mention it to their manager next time you visit the establishment. Or even better, write their corporate office
- Spot the by-law violation! Careful, this one is easy to get distracted by.
- Name that gang! This is a fun one for graffiti in back lanes - that being said we've cleaned a lot of it up. FYI, if you do ever find yourself with new "artwork" on your garage/fence, just pop on down to any police station and request a voucher for a free gallon of paint to paint it over. Unless you have biceps like tree trunks do not take the graffiti removal wipes. They require more elbow grease than you have. Trust me.
- Meeting new people - the cleanups really are a great way to meet some of your neighbours (or my neighbours if I'm dragging you in from elsewhere!)

Now, if garbage isn't really your thing I haven't been able to guilt convince you into coming out for the cleanup then maybe you're more up for a Jane's Walk. Although the timing and locations work out very nicely if you come to the cleanup and then head to one of the afternoon walks with a belly full of free food. Just sayin'....

Now next weekend also holds some exciting things, like the Giveaway Weekend, three cheers for free stuff! I mostly use it as an excuse to drive around my favourite neighbourhoods looking at the houses but free cool stuff is an added bonus. In fact the chair that my butt is currently plunked down on, and my knees for that matter (it's one of those fancy kneely chairs) is from the giveaway weekend last fall.

See you all on Saturday morning!!

Procrastinators of the world unite....fail?

I think they might kick me out of the procrastinators club.  I actually got a bunch of stuff done off my "to do" list this weekend.  The garage door now locks (probably should've done that one a bit sooner!), frosted the glass on the bathroom door (why it was clear in the first place I'm not sure, house came that way - that one has been on the list for, ahem, 5 years), took some pictures of stuff and put it on kijiji, put an owl on the roof so that the freaking pigeons might actually stay away, watched a movie that I had borrowed from a friend.... there were other things I'm sure but it was such a busy weekend I don't even remember them all now!

Example of what gets left by bins

Moving day

I suppose one other thing that I usually do in bits and pieces but I decided to do a blitz on (as inspired by A Day in the Hood) was to report some by-law infractions. I went down two back lanes in my neighbourhood (about six blocks worth of each) and came up with THIRTY FIVE separate addresses to report to 311, many with multiple items/violations. Now, this wasn't me getting all picky and looking for the most minor of infractions, this was mostly bulky garbage in back lanes or piled up in back yards. A total of 15 couches/loveseats, 36 mattresses and about 8 extremely derelict cars (broken windows, up on blocks, sunken into ground etc).  All of that from just two back lanes (about 12 blocks total). Can you imagine if I was looking for dangling eavestroughs and peeling paint?!

Since I think I may have invited folks over for a BBQ when I visited the Winnipeg Internet Pundits show last week, let me revise that invite slightly - I will be taking part in the St. John's Community Clean-up on Saturday May 7th and I would like to ask you to come.  The clean-up starts at 10am (varying start points, TBA) and will have a wind-up at noon at Ralph Brown Community Centre (corner of McGregor and Machray) that will have a BBQ or some other sort of food goodness.  How does this tie in to my post you ask? Simple. Do not procrastinate and think "oh that sounds good, I should do that, I'll remember this" or "neat, what a great idea to get to see the North End and meet Winnipeg Girl, it's so important I know I won't forget". Stop. Take out your phone and go to the little calendar function. I'll wait. Okay, now put in an event or whatever you call it with your phone and put in an alarm for 9am on Saturday May 7. It should say this: Get butt out of bed, explore Winnipeg and help clean it up - go to North End to help Winnipeg Girl and her community. Now.

See how easy that will be? For those of you who don't use a mobile phone (?!) get out your pen and write it on the calendar on your wall that you got from your insurance place or wherever it is that people still get wall calendars. DON'T PROCRASTINATE!!  If you're good and show up maybe next time I'll have the BBQ at my place (and my place has steaks and beer and Bailey's, mmm.... Bailey's)