Melody Kilbank

>>>…… make a place feel like it is your own. I love the smell of a freshly painted room. It make you feel like everything is really clean! The odors from the many years of cooking, smoking and living are GONE!! Also, there’s such noticeable progress in a project once the paint is on the walls!

So this past week the unit is completely painted and the bathroom vanity and kitchen cabinets are installed. The swing doors are installed and the baseboards and casings are painted and ready too!

The delays this week have been trying to find a tub wall surround to fit and after 2 attempts, the 3rd one is going to work!!! What a learning process that was!!

All in all we are a little behind schedule, but every obstacle has had a reasonable solution!

Still aiming for August 1st!

This is REALLY happening!

As soon as the demos begin, it becomes all-too-real. Out with the old and out-dated, making way and space for the new/ newer up-graded (and income producing)!

I’ve included a photo ofour contractor and plumber, onsite. Can I just say what difference in our peace-of-mind having these trusted professionals in from the ground floor is making- even at this early stage! Again, my husband is still heaving that huge sigh of relief, and in turn my life on the home front continues, mostly, as usual…except for balancing project expense sheets, and taking photos and checking in with the progress, each day- it actually feels fun…making my daily lists and feeling the satisfaction of checking off each item, one, by one…I love to see things coming together!

Team Kilbank is at it again! Are we ambitious or just, plain crazy!? We just purchased another investment condo!

Having learned through experience, this property will be reno’d by some else (my dear husband is a bit TOO grateful), with the goal to furnish it and rent it out – a sweet little all-inclusive package for the right tenant. It is in a fantastic, central location close to shopping, transit and the Universities!

With the calculated and frenetic way I have been tracking Kijiji items each night and each morning, seeking them out, then stockpiling them and adding up my savings….maybe crazy AND ambitious – don’t judge me. 😉

In honour of this exciting venture, I would like to give away a $50 GIFT CARD for RONA – proudly, Canadian.
All you have to do is “Like” my REALTOR(R) page on FACEBOOK by August 1/ 15 – this is when we hope to have our first renter set up and living in the unit. https://www.facebook.com/melodykilbank?ref=hl

I will announce the winner here, on the blog.

Stay tuned for all of the action (no drama!) and the transformation at each stage.

All About You. Really.

Melody “Kijiji Queen” Kilbank

Keeping you informed:

This statement came from the Alberta Real Estate Association (March 27/15) of which all REALTORS® who are licensed and practice in Alberta are members!

“Budget 2015 includes significant hikes to fees paid by real estate consumers beginning July 1, 2015, including registering new land titles and mortgage documents.
The Alberta Real Estate Association (AREA), the provincial, professional association for Alberta’s 10,000 REALTORS®, was not one of the real estate association stakeholders consulted on these increases.
AREA appreciates the fiscal challenges faced by government and recognizes that, after this increase, fees related to real estate transfers remain lower in Alberta than other provinces. We have asked Service Alberta to confirm what sources they are quoting when expressing that real estate associations were among the stakeholders who identified that there was ‘room for these fees to grow’.”
Increases to fees are certainly never welcomed and the table below details the impact of these increases on the fees for a $500,000 home with a $400,000 mortgage:

Fees Prior to July 1, 2015
($50 + $1 per $5,000 increment)
Land Title Registration $150
Mortgage Registration $130
Total $280

Fees After July 1, 2015
($75 + $6 per $5,000 increment)
Land Title Registration $675
Mortgage Registration $555
Total $1,230

Though the increase as of July 1st represents a hike of more than 400% for the real estate consumer, the cost of real estate transfers in Alberta remains lower than other provinces. This can be attributed to the continued avoidance of a Land Transfer Tax in Alberta at either the provincial or local levels.”

All About You. Really.

It is a hot topic amongst most people these days…”What is the real estate market going to do with these lower oil prices?” January statistics have come out and here are a couple of noteworthy numbers for interpretation.

• There were 498 sales in the City of Edmonton in January. Compared to the 1793 new listings, the market absorption rate is 28%. This is down by 23% over January 2014. It is down 50% over December 2014. This could mean 2 things, a typical seasonal low for post-Christmas spending. Or it could be the early trending of a softer market for 2015. Only time will tell.

• Average prices are still up year over year. The average price for single family homes was $435,908 which is up from January 2014 by 3.4%. Condo average is 246,611 which is up by 5.3% from January 2014 and Duplex/Rowhouse average is 409,936 which is up 15.4% from January 2014. So, one month does NOT a trend make!

• Based on the City of Edmonton’s overall inventory and January’s sales we have 6.2 months of inventory which is typically moving from a balanced market to a buyers market.

So if you are thinking of selling, NOW is the time if the trending is softening. If you are thinking of buying, NOW is the time because there is a good selection of inventory and the mortgage rates have dropped due to the Bank of Canada’s lending rate dropping to .75%.

Call me for any of your real estate questions or valuations!

Video tour of 4 13450 Fort Road

We’ve come a long way…..I just reviewed the Day One photos and almost laughed as I had forgotten some of what the unit looked like! I didn’t think I would ever forget the garbage bags of wall paper we peeled off, the gross bathroom vanity and the panelling from the dining room! Seems I had.
So here’s a glimpse of the listing photos! Check out more information under “featured listings” on my home page!

We are coming down the home stretch. This week there has been much more noticeable development.

The ceiling is finally closed in a mudded.

The stringers on the stairwells are painted.

We have got the counter tops installed with sinks and faucets.

All the trim is painted ready for install.

The room doors have been hung with the 2nd coat of paint applied.

The special DIY cabinet project for the fireplace has been painted and ready to install the electric fireplace!

Maybe…. 2 more weeks????

Well, we are finished week five. The good news is….we have our engineer report and the fix was quite simple. Our contractor was able to sister the joists and as of last night the drywall is on the ceiling.
This delay did cost us in time and money and availability of our crew! But it is resolved and we can now push forward to completion.

The only dramatic difference noticeable this past week was the tile around the tub is installed and ready to grout. Now to pick a grout color…not easy when you are working with contrasting color tile.

When we got possession of the condo there was an electric heater/fireplace which is fully functioning. I’m working on a DIY project to transform a corner cabinet which I purchased at ReStore into a gorgeous corner fire place. Check out the before pictures! I’m hoping this will add some “bling” and increase value of the unit if not in dollars in quicker sale/rent.

Counter tops have arrived and look awesome!

This week our plan is to paint the stringers, hang doors, get the ceiling drywalled and painted.  I ordered the trim for delivery on Friday so we need to be prepared with space on the main level to paint this.

Still hoping for a September 1st completion, but probably more realistically mid September!

Progress is a beautiful thing!

This week the flooring is finished as far as we can go for now! Its is done from the top of the unit right down to the main level concrete floor.

All the baseboard heater covers have been scrubbed, sanded and freshly painted!

The cabinets are installed and waiting for counter tops. Counter tops have been ordered.

We had to pull off the tile surrounding the tub to fix the leaking tub taps! So there is an added expense we didn’t anticipate. However the upside is the tiling around the tub will be brand new and look awesome!

Got some great deals on a kitchen sink through Kijiji and a kitchen faucet from Rona’s tent sale.

We are still patiently waiting to hear about the report from the structural engineer regarding our joist repair. This is holding us up from completing all the drywall and painting. We are continuing to finish the areas we can and trust it is not going to present a problem to the contractor.

Well, it looks and smells sooooo good in this unit now. All the stale odors are covered with fresh paint…every square inch, including ceilings! I always think when doing a renovation the most dramatic change is when the painting is done! It makes a place feel new!

The structural engineer came today to review our sagging joists. The news is likely the best we could hope for. He has concluded it was likely caused from the original build. The remediation we think will be fairly simple. But the engineer had to consult with another colleague for what actually needs to be done to repair/reinforce it. Hopefully we will have an answer later this week.

In the meantime we can proceed with flooring the upper level and doing our finishing upstairs! WAHOOO!!!

Our original target date for completion was August 1st.  I’m speculating if the joist remediation doesn’t take too long, maybe August 15th!