Not a lot to report, in most regards.
Got a haircut today, which was funny. I mean, the experience was funny: not the haircut. I've had three great hairdressers in my life, and I gleaned them all from walking in off the street, not knowing that they were pretty busy and quite well-established. My current hairdresser squeezed me in at 5.45 tonight because she knows I'm spastic. She even brought it up.
I said "I don't know what it is; I just wake up one day and look at my hair and think "this cannot stand!"" and she laughed. When I want a haircut? I want it immediately. She does her best to accommodate me, and also does a great job so I didn't mind having to wait almost two weeks to get in. I should probably just book a haircut every six or eight weeks like a normal person, but clearly I'm not a normal person.
Just returned home from a walk with Michael. On our walk we discussed a house that I found on MLS with a rental suite in the basement. If I sell my place and we both sell our first born children and can get a grand a month out of our renters, it's within our realm.
Michael balked. Taxes, heating, house maintenance, etc. I get it: owning property is expensive. But I AM DONE with this strata stuff. And I am on a good strata.
Right now I'm looking at a 16k assessment and - being on council - I know there's more to come. And it's not just the upcoming work I have to pay for, it's the things that are now costing us money because of ill-informed decisions made by prior councils that are on the docket. In most regards I am pretty passive, but when it comes to stuff like this I want to be a totalitarian dictator. The bad choices made years ago are financial bourn by the existing occupants.
Case in point: I'm in charge of building a new bike room. I asked what the budget was, and they're bandying around 2k. Okay: so that's 2k to build a bike room with a freaking chain link fence. Michael's bike was close to 3k. Is he putting this bike into a room that even I could cut into with wire-cutters? And I get that most of the people here are old and have shitty bikes that they never ride, and also most people here aren't as athletic as we are: but that will change. It's North Van for Christ's sake. When all the octogenarians move out of their suites a new guard will be here, and I see that coming, and I want to spend the extra money to build a secure bike room. But, as the only quasi-athlete on council, I get voted down.
Why do I bother? I don't want to have to work with a bunch of people that are not similarly inclined with my needs. It's not their fault, nor mine, but I'm just done with the whole "collective" thing. I want my house and I will do what I want with my house. Full stop. Either than, or I'd rather rent something and then all the upkeep and maintenance is their problem.
Blah blah blah. Rant rant rant.
Yawn.
But also: my haircut is awesome.
I've had the same hairdresser for 24 years, I always make a 6 week appt. We've been home owners for 19 years and there are times when we'd rather be renters, like when the water heater bursts and floods the house for the 2nd time in 5 years. But then when we decide to rip out a useless fireplace and install a more efficient wood burning stove that heats our whole house on 3 logs a night, we can. And we don't have to deal with The Harvey Wallbangers doing it at 2AM with their headboard up against our wall.
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