So I bought a new house and it has come with some surprises!

[Regular_John]

Great, now I'm paranoid about what it looks like under my fridge/stove.

[Madman]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

After reading all the bad neighbour threads lately, and people considering moving because their neighbours are so bad, I guarantee you everyone around you just breathed a collective sigh of relief when they saw the new guy and an empty dumpster.

Until the concrete saw and truck load full of hydroponics equipment shows up at 2am.

[GreenLantern]

Interesting story.. I can't believe these people wouldn't tour the place their kids are staying. I would insist on coming into the door way at least every time I dropped/picked the kid(s) up.

Or maybe people just don't care? Or is it incredibly tough to find day care in Calgary right now? I know a lot of places here in Saskatoon have waiting lists.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

Great, now I'm paranoid about what it looks like under my fridge/stove.

Stove is easy, pull out the drawer at the bottom and clean. The fridge is a different beast though.

[Buff]

This reminds me of a house we looked at last year. It was vacant and not kept up. We felt like we were in a Criminal Minds episode and about to be killed. It was creepy. Our realtor even told us that he isn't going to stop us from looking because he was so curious that he was going to look around but we were more than welcome to wait in the car for him... we kept looking too.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

Interesting story.. I can't believe these people wouldn't tour the place their kids are staying. I would insist on coming into the door way at least every time I dropped/picked the kid(s) up.

Or maybe people just don't care? Or is it incredibly tough to find day care in Calgary right now? I know a lot of places here in Saskatoon have waiting lists.

People can rationalize a lot of things if they're desperate enough.

Talking to some of my employees with children, it seems childcare is either an availability/affordability thing. A lot of people take what they can get and just hope to god their kids are safe because they need to get to work.

Thankfully, by the time me and the missus decide to have a kid (lol old parents) her mom will retire to watch them during the day.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

People can rationalize a lot of things if they're desperate enough.

Talking to some of my employees with children, it seems childcare is either an availability/affordability thing. A lot of people take what they can get and just hope to god their kids are safe because they need to get to work.

Thankfully, by the time me and the missus decide to have a kid (lol old parents) her mom will retire to watch them during the day.

Best situation. Neither my mom or mother-in-law worked after having kids. So they are "retired" and they take turns looking after our kids. We were obviously raised by our parents so we know how our parents will look after our kids while we are at work. Plus, with our mothers looking after the kids we know they'll not just be looked after but also loved. They aren't just another kid to help survive until mom and dad comes to get them.

[DuffMan]

Years ago, there was a house across the street that had a daycare on the go. I think it was pretty legit. One Monday morning I was leaving for work and I saw a girl with a small kid in her arms ringing the doorbell a couple of doors down from me, She looked pretty frazzled, so I asked her if she was looking for the daycare. She was, so I told her she had the wrong side of the street and pointed it out. I was kind of shocked people were willing to drop off their kid for strangers to look after without checking the place out first.

[AMG_G]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

People can rationalize a lot of things if they're desperate enough.

Talking to some of my employees with children, it seems childcare is either an availability/affordability thing. A lot of people take what they can get and just hope to god their kids are safe because they need to get to work.

Thankfully, by the time me and the missus decide to have a kid (lol old parents) her mom will retire to watch them during the day.

My MIL has been doing this for us since my first born. Now with 2 it is much harder since the eldest will be in kindergarten next month. It is really hard to pack up the 1 year old early in the morning just to walk the eldest to school and the reverse for after school. I have hired a live in nanny that follows her around to make the MIL's life a lot easier. 2 kids in a decent daycare is almost $200 I pay my nanny $2500 but she cleans my entire house as well so I am ahead because we don't have to spend anymore weekend cleaning.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by AMG_G

My MIL has been doing this for us since my first born. Now with 2 it is much harder since the eldest will be in kindergarten next month. It is really hard to pack up the 1 year old early in the morning just to walk the eldest to school and the reverse for after school. I have hired a live in nanny that follows her around to make the MIL's life a lot easier. 2 kids in a decent daycare is almost $200 I pay my nanny $2500 but she cleans my entire house as well so I am ahead because we don't have to spend anymore weekend cleaning.

We're having no more than 1, so this likely won't be an issue.

Never let them outnumber you I say.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

We're having no more than 1, so this likely won't be an issue.

Never let them outnumber you I say.

Never have just 1.

If you have two they can play/amuse each other. We were only going to have one, and then a buddy of mine that was an only child made his case for multiple kids.


You can go up to 2, man on man D still works. The zone D is too much effort.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Never have just 1.

If you have two they can play/amuse each other. We were only going to have one, and then a buddy of mine that was an only child made his case for multiple kids.


You can go up to 2, man on man D still works. The zone D is too much effort.

Not if there's only 1 parent!

I dunno my wife was an only child and I wasn't terribly close to my sibling, 1 just seems perfect for me. Rather focus all my energies on one child than split it between two.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Not if there's only 1 parent!

I dunno my wife was an only child and I wasn't terribly close to my sibling, 1 just seems perfect for me. Rather focus all my energies on one child than split it between two.

Does you wife know you are planning to kill her and collect the insurance monies..?


To each his own. The other positive of more than one kid, is if one of them pisses you off you still have another you can hang with.

[surferguy]

Latest and new story from the house:

Just had a nice interaction with the good folks at 1-888-Junk-Van

My wife bought a deal find coupon for 35 bucks for 250 lbs and (31 c)/lbs after that.

Said they had a scale on the truck to measure accordingly so we knew where we would be at. Guy comes into my back yard and looks at the steel tub and toilet and picks up three 2x4s and says that is 250 lbs.

I told him no way but load it up on the truck we will check the scale and start loading from there. So his crew grabs the few things and loads it and then he takes me to the truck and says his scale is disconnect but it will be connected soon. That was all he was gonna take without charging me more. So I call BS on him about the weights and he then starts to argue the weights of materials. At which point he gets a bit testy and tells me the actual weight of a 2x4x8 is 38.5 lbs!

I laughed and he didn't like that. So he offers to unload it and give me my money back. So I said yep, I can deal with that, knowing this guy is completely full of it. Now he gets angry that I took him up on the deal.

Next up he will only unload to the alley. I told him to bring it back into the yard, approx 5 ft away. Then he went full idiot and starts to raise the bin and threatens to just dump the entire truck in the alley.

At this point I decided that it isn't worth it, told him to stop and signed off his paper and gave him his $1.75 (onsite gst payment) and told him to beat it.

Am I wrong to think that a standard steel tub (not cast iron) and toilet (with no tank lid) and 3 2x4s do not equal 250 lbs? Granted the 2x4s did have six nails in them... How much do these items weigh?

Perhaps I shouldn't have argued the point but the fact that his on site scale was broken kinda sent off my BS meter.

I dunno am I wrong on this one?

The guy certainly didn't like ole surferguy by the end of the exchange but I just feel like he was out blatantly ripping me off.


anyway beware of 1-888-junk-van

[Burninator]

A quick look online says a 2x4 weighs 1.28 pounds per foot. So an 8ft 2x4 would be 10.24 pounds.

[DuffMan]

I think a steel tub is 40 lbs. A toilet would be around 30 I would think.

[You Need a Thneed]

saying that a single 2x4 x 8' weighs 38.5 lbs should have had him kicked out right there.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Swanstone...N#.UhPBDZKW-5I

70 pounds. Found another one (cast iron) that was 350 pounds.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

I think a steel tub is 40 lbs. A toilet would be around 30 I would think.

both of those sound a little light to me.

Toilets on the Home Depot site are about 85 lbs.

A steel tub could be over 100, I would think.

[Flamenspiel]

If its cat pee you have to actually remove/rebuild any wood(including hardwood) in the structure affected by the pee, its not just a matter of replacing the carpet. Any prospective tenant or new owner will smell it out.

I would absolutely never allow cats in a house, I love cats but they are outdoor animals and should be allowed to roam and hunt.