Today I took my Playstation 3 to a store uptown to get it checked out. A few weeks ago it froze while I was playing a game and never came back. I reformatted the drive and even went and got a new drive and tried installing it. Nothing worked. After explaining my situation and all the things I’ve done to it the guys at the store told me the one thing I didn’t want to hear. My PS3 is a brick.

So after some consolation from K in the form of a great big burger from South St. Burger (which was awesome) when we got home I decided to help myself feel better by working on my motorcycle doing some home improvement.

Last weekend K went to the states and visited Ikea. First of all. Ikea in the states is WAY cheaper. She saved some serious coin and got somethings that we wouldn’t have bought otherwise.

So tonight we hung some curtain rods in the bedroom and hung the curtains on them (after K hemmed and ironed them). I also put up a mirror between the two and hung some His and Hers signs on our dressers!

I like it all. Not only that but the temporary paper blinds got moved from the bedroom to the living room which I love cause now all of our windows are covered. That makes me feel safer.

Home improvement is something that I really like. Whether it’s just decorating or building a work bench or putting up wainscoting. There’s a real feeling of self accomplishment, satisfaction and even self improvement when you do something to make where you live more useable and pretty. Not to mention more valuable.

I borrowed my brothers Kodak PlaySport and I’m going to give it a try while we’re out in Whistler.

I just took my first video. It’s of our bathroom cause I’m proud of it.

Last night we went to the Bay and picked up some matching his and hers luggage in preparation for our trip to Whistler Blackcomb in 11 days and our honeymoon in October! I’m really pumped. I also need to pick up a new board bag for the trip out west.

Our new London Fog luggage is really nice. Good heavy zippers and nice fat wheels. Mine has a really nice feature of a built in garment bag and K’s is super stylish in a houndstooth pattern.

Yesterday we also had our garbage can replaced with the medium size. In Toronto if you use a small garbage bin you get a rebate on your property taxes. $14. That’s the price of four garbage tags. We found we were filling it quite a few weeks in a row and having to buy tags. So we upgraded. With the medium bin you don’t get a rebate it’s something like $22 a year extra. Definitely worth it in the long run. The only down side is that it’s harder to get in and out of our garbage closet.

A coworker of mine blogs.

He blogs a lot.

Way more than I ever have (even when I was concentrating on trying to make a successful beer blog).

So I figure it’s probably time for me to at least TRY to start it up again. I can’t believe it’s almost a year since my last post.

I think i have some things to say. I have a lot going on. We’ve bought our house. We’re getting close to the wedding and we’ve both gotten new jobs.

My new job is awesome. Way better than my last one. It’s nice to be appreciated even if there are some corporate restrictions placed on the day to day. It feels much better being here.

Spring is coming which means I’ll be putting some work in to my bike pretty soon! I’m excited about that because (I think) I’ve finally discovered what my problems really were that were causing my rough idling and cutting out AND boggy-ness on the highway. Air filters. I’ll rebuild them soon and post a “how I did it”. Hopefully it’ll cure my issues and help people in the future searching for a cure for their problems too. Or I’ll switch to pod filters. I’m not sure yet.

I got halfway through a new design a few moths back… Maybe I’ll pick that back up too.

As she opens the door we hear this crazy eerie noise. Like a person moaning. Like “Ahhhheeeiieeeiiieeeee”. We’re all surprised and Stephanie shouts out “UMMMM Hellooo? Helloooo?”.

This is when all of a sudden this little pink slipper appears on the top step of the stairs up in front of us and this old woman that looks like something from THE RING comes CLIMBING down the stairs!

Cold sunk in eyes a scarf over her head and BLACK lips! Her hands were all knotted and lumpy and her skin was pale. She was literally CLIMBING down the stairs just like something out of a scary movie. Using the floor above as a hand hold! Scary as hell!

Stephanie, says in her cheery voice “Hi we have a showing!” and offers her card. The ring woman just waves her hand and babbles something at us and continues down the stairs towards us. We all removed our shoes and walked swiftly in to the kitchen away from the slowly advancing ghost lady. We figured the kitchen was safe I guess.

Then we find out that the wailing sound was some “music” on playing on a stereo in the kitchen it was really strange, it would be quiet for a few seconds and then there would be another “Ahheeeeeieiiieeeeeiee” then go quiet again… I suppose it could have been some kind of prayer or something. I don’t know. The stove had some toxic lookin’ shit bubbling away on it and the whole house had a slightly unpleasant smell.

By this time ring lady had made it to the couch and sat down just staring at us with those sunk in eyes… those eyes so cold… I think she tried to smile at us a few times but truthfully I couldn’t even look in her direction.

The house was in pretty bad shape and it was dirty. Almost everything looked as if it had been slightly broken and not fixed. Lots of little touch-ups were needed just to bring it up to acceptable in my mind. We didn’t make it upstairs OR downstairs. Just to the kitchen and had a look out the back window.

We were in the house for all of about 3 minutes and when we left the owners were clearly sitting in their car across the street. They didn’t even wait for us to pull away to get out of their car and return home.

We jumped in the car and took off pretty quick. It’s a little bit of a shame cause the house looked cute on the outside and had a huge garage. The neighborhood wasn’t all that great though.

One thing about house hunting though is that you never know what you’re going to come across. Even when you see the little thumbnails on the MLS listings. They never do justice to what you actually get when you enter the house (whether good or bad).

Last night we went out with our agent Stephanie Cluett and her protégé Jessica to see eight houses. Some houses that we saw last night were really cute but not us. Some were downright horrible.

With this first experience I have some advice for those trying to sell their home:

Clean up.

When I enter your house I should not WANT to keep my shoes on. I would like to show the respect that your house deserves and not want to dirty up your beautiful home. But if the floor is disgusting I will dirty the place up because you clearly don’t respect your house. So why should I? There is an exception with vacant houses. But I shouldn’t be afraid to catch some kind of communicable disease from waling around in my socks. This brings me to my next point.

Go out.

Last night there was two houses we visited where the owners were home. This just makes an awkward situation for everyone. We’re scrutinizing the building you live in and it feels rude to point out flaws in your home right in front of you. Both of said homes were filthy and our agent actually stepped in something that she “didn’t want to touch” to get off her foot. Worst of all DON’T LEAVE GRANDMA HOME and go out! Especially if she doesn’t speak English. (Check back tomorrow for more details on this).

Don’t sit in your car.

Similar to above. We know it’s you.

Make sure your agent is truthful.

Some of the listings we see stretch the truth a little and some downright lie. A garage fits a car and has a door that works. A dilapidated shed that’s falling down is not a garage!

Turn on the lights and the climate control.

If it’s hot outside make it cold inside. If it’s cold outside make it hot inside. Turning on all the lights will make your house appear nicer to the potential buyers more light is better.

That’s all I have for now. I might think of more later and add them in. Or this poor blog may just go stagnant again.