Scotiabank Real Estate department. We basically deal with all the realty and operational issues of the domestic branch network (~1000 branches). Our department buys and leases properties, builds and renovates branches, audits landlords, maintain branch operations (lighting, janitorial, HVAC, fire safety etc.) and maintains related accounts.

We don't have much financial power in my department, but the way it was explained to me is that Scotia has a very strong 'cost control culture'. We will literally dispute you over 10 dollars. Its ridiculous! We didn't have record billions of profit last year from signing cheques all willy nilly. The funny thing is that what we do in real estate, even if we cut our costs in half, it wouldn't really affect the bank's profits at all since we are such a tiny sliver of their portfolio.

My real estate question: is it possible to buy property in Toronto to build a house without being a squillionaire? I'm assuming not, unless you happen to luck into something, know someone or buy a lot with a burned down house or something. I have dreams of a nice modern green home (possibly pre-fab), but I don't think that will ever be realized in this city unless they change their minds about laneway homes.

also: bicycles.

It would be fun to build a geodesic dome in yorkville just to piss them off.

I might go for out of town mtb tomorrow... anyone interested?

As a BNS shareholder, I say good job!

Depends on if I get my road bike tuned up a bit after work. It was shifting like ass last night and I'm supposed to be riding with Tempo tomorrow morning. If I can't get it working smoothly again I won't be doing a road ride and therefore will be up for some mtn biking.

It depends where and what you buy, and also luck. You'll probably have to look into an early stage gentrifying area (think parkdale or the like), but in every neighbourhood there are a few run down old houses that are being lived in by ancient recluses and an assortment of wild animals. Once they die and the government takes over the houses are often so unsafe they have to be torn down or gutted, so that would be your chance to buy it on auction. Same idea with old grow ops, that get so mouldy they have to be rebuilt, but those tend to be in the suburbs anyways.

Its debatably more green to retrofit a house as much as you can, rather than tearing down and starting over again.

Did you make it out for high park laps last night? I was tempted to join you but the timing wasn't right.

I was thinking durham forest/glen major and I can drive if that changes anyone's mind. I'm also flexible on location.

Well yeah, that's why I'm looking for a place that is either empty or needs to be torn down already. It's not just about the green aspect either, I just like the style of architecture (boxy, bright and open) in your typical green / prefab modern homes.

Yeah, I went to High Park. My bike kept shifting whenever it wanted when I was out of the saddle climbing on Ellis. Grr.

Also: I had to keep my mouth closed peddalling along the bottom of the pond.. wow there's a lot of flies/bugs down there. Guess it makes sense along the edge of a pond, but I could hear/feel them hitting my helmet/face/chest/arms every time I went past there.

The long and short of it is that if you want to buy a plot of land downtown, you will have to pay out of your ass, and then be slapped with increasing property taxes. Thats what mortgages are for *shudders*

Pretty much what I'm figuring. I think the realistic option is to buy a small bungalow or 2-story and retrofit. Of course, who knows whether I'll even still be in Toronto in a couple of years when it comes time to buy something.

Real estate in St. John's is probably pretty reasonable...

hah... It's actually changed a lot in the past 5 years or so (I think the market got better once they got rid of me), but yeah, still a wee bit more affordable than here. Plus you know, you don't have to drive for 2 hours from downtown in order to find some empty land. In fact, my Mom owns a really small plot of land alongside a river about 500m from the ocean. Perfect for a little place with a rooftop patio. Then again, do I want to move back there? Not so much. 1 week a year is enough for me!

If you want to be the most green, a green condo is the most efficient way. They have a few of them up now, but given the rising cost of enegery they will soon be the norm. You save alot of energy being surrounded by people, but then you have to be surrounded by people so its a personal perference kind of thing. I prefer a house, but if you travel alot its way easier to have a condo. Houses are a lot of work!

Yeah, not so into the condo thing. I don't particularly enjoy the thought of spending all that time waiting for elevators. Plus I want a yard. Some of those new developments seem pretty nice though.. like M5V. I'm also glad they came up with an interesting name rather than "Bohemian Embassy" or something equally ********.

lucky for me i can't afford either!

A problem we have in Toronto with green roofs is that so many of our nicest houses have steep pitched roofs which basically precludes their greening. I suppose you could slap on some solar panels though. There is going to be a clash between people mindlessly trying to protect older architecture and the people trying to create sustainable housing from our existing stock. I think it would be a great project to see how green you can make an old toronto victorian gable roofed house, while maintaining the original envelope and over all look. It would take alot of money though. I find prefabs to be a little boring and lacking in character personally.

heres a nice national geographic article on low budget greening:
https://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/108/ecohomegreenhome

where at?

Why, postal code "M5V" of course! Or, you know, you could just Google "M5V".

Also, I've been following the owner of GrassrootsModern as he does a green renovation of his small bungalow: https://www.grassrootsmodern.com/category/our-house/

Pseudo cycling content: I'm already well on my way to having a great farmer/cyclist tan and it's only the 2nd week of May. Yikes. Paris-Ancaster got me started early.

I keep forgetting safety meeting at... 5 or 6?

Shop closes at 6. So that's probably a better time to aim for.

I'm doing this ride again w/ 46/17. I'll be the one coasting down the Don w/ my feet on the chainstays, just like last year. Unfortunately, the Tour de Brooklyn is the same weekend so I'll have to do my own Tour de Brooklyn some other time complete with stops for hotdogs, cheesefries, pizza, ice cream and full sour pickles.

I still have my farmer's tan (leg anyway) from my bike trip last summer. It's a little scary that 8 months of wearing pants all day has only dimmed the tan. I can't imagine that much sun was good for me.

Growing up in Toronto, I'd always noticed that the homes were pretty affordable, especially in my old neighbourhood, Parkdale. I'd always figured I could just pick up a house for a couple hundred grand anytime I wanted and take it easy with a mortgage of about a thousand bucks a month. Was I ever wrong. The house across the street from my mother's house just sold for 700 grand and they are planning to dump in another 100 grand on renovations! I really screwed up in the 90s by not buying property, damn.

Well convince your Mom to retire to PEI and take over her place!

Paging offhoff or anyone else on the 51cm search

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