Wrote a long diatribe about an old friend who's rented a place for 29 years, settled in and retired with 2 big dogs and began breeding kittens. She got evicted.
Listened to 3 months of how they can't, I'm gonna do that, I took them to Rental Board, I'll be buying a prefab home to put on a friend's lot in the Valley next June, blah blah blah. Actually thought it was so newsworthy that Global and BCTV would take up her case.
So reality set in and she's in an RV on that friend's lot half her belongings gone as she spent so much time plotting and getting angry she didn't even get a storage unit.
I heard voice in my kitchen and went to see, turns out the dog barking made the stupid Google thing start playing a podcast! By the time I figured that out and reprogrammed the the thing my post timed out and I lost it.
Plan for your future! Don't plan on retiring in someone else's house. And karma for those years ragging on me because I won't give up my totally paid off home in the real boonies and rent in the Big City.
Her RV is way nicer than the one our family had, but worrying about water, sewer, gas hookups and land use permits is all too much for that city gal. I mean she was absolutely disgusted when I told her what a Blue Boy tote and black water were...
Time Out
Re: Time Out
Got a notice that my home insurance will not be renewed next year plus a 50% increase this year. It is 'policy' not to insure mobile homes over 50 yrs old.
The 'mobile home' was redone 12 years ago with a floating steel roof on self supported pilings and beams that covered it and the addition. The addition was enlarged and is also on pilings, half the yard was dug up as they must be 6 ft deep rather than the previous 4 feet.
The entire place was covered with fireproof waterproof rockwool insulation and vinyl siding. At the time of the new construction the pilings under the original mobile were inspected, some replaced and the mobile levelled, outside cladding beneath replaced with treated wood, more rockwool insulation and matching vinyl. All was inspected, passed and fully up to code. The original 'mobile' is now simply 4 rooms with no load bearing whatsoever, the steel roof extends past the entire house and has a steep pitch so any more than minor snowfall simply slides off and lands about 2m from the house itself. In the event of forest fire, sparks and debris would also bounce off and land at least that distance away. During the last fire we evacuated only because of smoke and my wife's asthma, not due to fears of fire itself. My lot is also less than 75m from a hydrant and < 1 km from the main firehall.
The insurance company will not look, will not accept pictures and permits, a mobile is a mobile is a mobile and policy is policy.
Fortunately for me the local agency has already rounded up alternate insurance companies, even did that before I received the letter and called me beforehand. They're used to that and it's happened to many people here. Small town bonus as opposed to big city companies. Like the online sellers that won't deliver to Box numbers out of policy when all of rural Canada relies on post boxes at the local Post Office as there is no home delivery.
The horror of living rural, eh? Like the horror of having a 10 year 6%, $600 a month mortgage for a 1280 sq ft 3 bdrm home paid off ears ago. And home insurance that's only double what I paid in Langley 40+ years ago.
The 'mobile home' was redone 12 years ago with a floating steel roof on self supported pilings and beams that covered it and the addition. The addition was enlarged and is also on pilings, half the yard was dug up as they must be 6 ft deep rather than the previous 4 feet.
The entire place was covered with fireproof waterproof rockwool insulation and vinyl siding. At the time of the new construction the pilings under the original mobile were inspected, some replaced and the mobile levelled, outside cladding beneath replaced with treated wood, more rockwool insulation and matching vinyl. All was inspected, passed and fully up to code. The original 'mobile' is now simply 4 rooms with no load bearing whatsoever, the steel roof extends past the entire house and has a steep pitch so any more than minor snowfall simply slides off and lands about 2m from the house itself. In the event of forest fire, sparks and debris would also bounce off and land at least that distance away. During the last fire we evacuated only because of smoke and my wife's asthma, not due to fears of fire itself. My lot is also less than 75m from a hydrant and < 1 km from the main firehall.
The insurance company will not look, will not accept pictures and permits, a mobile is a mobile is a mobile and policy is policy.
Fortunately for me the local agency has already rounded up alternate insurance companies, even did that before I received the letter and called me beforehand. They're used to that and it's happened to many people here. Small town bonus as opposed to big city companies. Like the online sellers that won't deliver to Box numbers out of policy when all of rural Canada relies on post boxes at the local Post Office as there is no home delivery.
The horror of living rural, eh? Like the horror of having a 10 year 6%, $600 a month mortgage for a 1280 sq ft 3 bdrm home paid off ears ago. And home insurance that's only double what I paid in Langley 40+ years ago.
Re: Time Out
My rural address was wrong in Canada Posts DB, so people would correct me all the time.
I sometimes get a bit rude and told them 'I fucking know where I live."
I sometimes get a bit rude and told them 'I fucking know where I live."
Re: Time Out
Where I live they only made you put up house numbers 10 years ago so emergency services could find you. Many people still haven't! I just repainted mine flourescent green this summer as the wife repainted before in black, on brown carport post. Couldn't even read it myself parked in my own driveway.
Part of daily life is going to the Post Office to get/send mail. You can send it around town with just BOX XXX, LOCAL.
You get your amazon by a card in your box you bring to the counter. If the item's too big, it goes to the DollarStore and they call you, Purolator, UPS, etc pay them a slice to do that.
For the last few years, the lineup for parcels at the Post Office is bigger than the lineup at SaveOn.
There's a stack of boxes called RR#2 about 10 miles from the next town, if you have a parcel notice there, you must drive all the way into town to get it.
We don't have posties in a right hand drive Jeep dropping things at a mailbox on the end of your driveway like on TV
Part of daily life is going to the Post Office to get/send mail. You can send it around town with just BOX XXX, LOCAL.
You get your amazon by a card in your box you bring to the counter. If the item's too big, it goes to the DollarStore and they call you, Purolator, UPS, etc pay them a slice to do that.
For the last few years, the lineup for parcels at the Post Office is bigger than the lineup at SaveOn.
There's a stack of boxes called RR#2 about 10 miles from the next town, if you have a parcel notice there, you must drive all the way into town to get it.
We don't have posties in a right hand drive Jeep dropping things at a mailbox on the end of your driveway like on TV
Re: Time Out
I'm lucky that I still have mail delivered to my doorstep.
Sometimes even parcels! But sometimes I have to walk 10 blocks at -30 to get it from a grocery store. I'd take the bus, but it's faster just to walk.
Sometimes even parcels! But sometimes I have to walk 10 blocks at -30 to get it from a grocery store. I'd take the bus, but it's faster just to walk.
Re: Time Out
My sister lives in a new subdivision with a stack of mailboxes on the culdesac. That's a PITA enough to her.