I have been actively looking for good photos to add to the city pages on the site.  Obviously, I haven’t been everywhere in Canada, so therefore, I don’t have photos of every place out there.   I refuse to “steal” or take photos without permission, so the process of asking people to use their photos takes a bit of time, and not everyone is agreeable.

I found some great photos recently of Smiths Falls, Ontario, and asked the gal who took them if I could use them. She was thrilled, and she has been sending me some great photos of other towns too.   I am really excited when people let me use their photos, and I always give them reconition on the site.  Hey, maybe Life magazine will come calling some of these folks?

Anyways, Noemi is my new “official” photographer for a good part of Ontario.  She has been great to work with so far, and I’ll be posting more of her photos this week!

I have to write about my recent plumbing experience. I have always been leery about hiring contractors for anything, as my experiences have always been less than good when dealing with these folks (I’ll write about my scratched…or actually gouged wood floor during a dishwasher installation at some point). Plumbers, however, have always made me twitch the most.

I am a plumbing knucklehead – at least I thought I was. We had two leaks that were getting to be pretty annoying. One in the kitchen sink, and the other in the bathroom sink. Leaks – pretty standard stuff. I don’t have a lot of spare time on my hands, and time is money. So I decided I would call a plumber to get my leaks fixed. I was prepared that the bill would probably be a few hundred bucks.  That was ok with me at the time.  I just needed the stupid leaks fixed!

I called a company that had a good website, and they were at the top of the search.  They said that they would charge $60 to just show up and diagnose the problem, regardless if work was done or not.   They said they don’t work by the hour, but by the job.  That should have been red-flag number one for me.   Ok, whatever, I thought.   Just come fix the leaks.

The guy shows up, and he is polite enough, and even puts on slippers over his shoes.  The truck he drove up in was pretty nice, so all is good at this point.   He looks at the two leaks, and says “these should be easy to fix, and I have the parts in my truck.”   Great, I thought.   Easy, and parts available – I like the sound of this.   So he says that he needs to draft up an estimate, and it will take a few minutes.   He spends a few minutes working his magic on his calculator, and looking up the “prices” of the parts in his catalog book.   Again, I would have been happy spending a few hundred bucks on this job  – even knowing that this job would take this guy only an hour or so tops.

He comes back at me and tells me that the total would be close to $900.   I almost lost my lunch on that one.  Seriously – leaks.  We aren’t replacing a water heater or having a root canal.   Leaks!

He then comes at me (has the gall) with “Well, if you sign up for our monthly service plan, I can knock it down to $600.  The “service plan” was $25 for a monthly priority response, or something that I knew I didn’t need within the first 3 words of his explaining it.   How many people need a friggin plumber every month?

The whole thing was a sham, and most of my friends say they have had a similar experience.   I know that a lot of plumbers take advantage  – not all of them – but I do believe that many of them play their pricing like they are throwing out bids on the Price is Right.

I let the guy go without getting the work on and I told myself that I just need to put on my thinking cap and fix it myself.  I went online and found some great tutorials with photos on how to fix a leak.  The parts cost me a total of about $10 (a few O-rings, some teflon tape, and a new cartridge).  I got home from the hardware store, followed the steps, and fixed the leaks (both of them) within an hour.

I will now attempt to fix anything in my home that breaks with my own hands before I ever call a contractor again.  I encourage anyone who has plumbing problems to look online first and give it a try (assuming you don’t have water or sewage pouring into your home – at that point a professional is probably needed).   There are plenty of resources online, and most problems aren’t too difficult.

The only tools I used were a pair of pliers and a Phillip’s head screwdriver….and my thinking cap.

Yes, I know. I really do. I get asked about once a day why Canadarentals.net isn’t more automated. Well, believe me, I am working on it. When I started the site way back when, I had no idea that it would take off as much as it did. Within just a month or so, listings started pouring in and since the site isn’t fully automated, and since every ad is looked at by a human, that has amounted to a fair degree of manual labor every day. It’s all good, though. I love looking at ads. It gives me a great way to keep up on the Canadian Rental Market. At first, it took only about an hour a day. Now it is taking a good part of the day just to manage the listings.

The automation process isn’t as easy as you would think. You have to make it “bulletproof” since there are always “bottomfeeders” as I call them – people who love to dump spammy links into your listing submission form. This takes away from the user experience, and can also get your site “dinged” by the search engines if they see that you are linking to a bad neighbourhood.

I am hoping to have the site automated by late spring/early summer. I am trying to make it as painless and hassle-free as it is now.  The way I have it set up now works ok.  I get few complaints, and listings seem to be added quickly.  I do honor any removal request, and I try to have those listings off within 24 hours.
I will keep you posted on my progress!

Capricorn (December 22 – January 19)

If reality is demanding that you stop your forward progression, then you likely have something important to learn before you can continue along your way. You aren’t necessarily eager to slow down, but you understand and respect the need to get it right before pushing further along. Your disciplined approach now is exactly what is required to take your life to the next level.

>>Today is one of those days where it is really hard to get anything done. Guess I’ll stop worrying about it and go outside..

When we hear the term ‘Curb Appeal’ it is usually used in the context of properties and homes for sale. Curb Appeal is defined as “The attractiveness of a property and its improvements to prospective buyers viewing it from the street as compared with other such properties on that same street, neighborhood, or development.”

However, Curb Appeal equally applies to rental properties as well. Anyone who has gone on the apartment search in their life has most certainly turned away from a complex that has weeds in the front, or perhaps garbage or trash in the common areas. I remember a time where I went to a highly regarded complex, took one look and left without even seeing the unit. The grass in the front was unattractive and had dead patches everywhere. The common mailboxes were falling apart and shoddy. There was a definite ‘smell” that penetrated the area – a combination of musty carpet and smoke.

This was unfortunate for them. I have heard that the individual units are very nice, but the condition of the outside left a first impression that I couldn’t shake. I ended up moving into an apartment that was cheaper, but was well cared for. There were flowers in the pots outside, the paint and trim were fairly recent and with attractive colors. Dogs outside were on leashes, and the common areas were attractive.

A pretty happy few years there, I must say!