Home Insurance

During the time we were looking for a house, I canvassed for the cheapest home insurance that we can get. That time TD insurance was the cheapest. It was several hundred dollars less than what my preferred insurer RBC. I prefer to get it from RBC because it is where I have all my financial accounts. I was happy with the premium I paid for the first year with TD insurance.

I found out that the happiness was shortlived. Like everything else, the premium increases every year. On this third year of my renewal, I again canvassed rates from other companies I did not call before. I got a quote that was $150 lower than what I was going to pay TD so I changed my insurance provider to CAA.

There is a caveat:My Home and auto will not be insured by TD insurance, which results in loosing my multi-product discount. In effect my auto insurance will go up in which based on my calculation would total more than what I would save by transferring my home insurance. However, come December when my auto insurance expires, I can move it to CAA as well. Hopefully, when that happens, I will get a multi-product discount and realize the savings I was anticipating from this change.

Lito's House Project List - Item 1

Number 1 on the list - Shingles Replacement - completed. 

After delaying the shingle replacement for more than a year, we finally decided to go ahead and do it. Thanks to Canadian tire's 36 months equal instalment and no interest scheme. Now I no longer worry whenever it rains.

Project details:

Duration: 1 Day
Labor and materials: between CAD 5,000 and 10,000
Completion date: 17 April 2014

Pros: 50 year transferrable warranty, free inspection on the 5th and 10 year which includes fixing of issues for free, 36 months to pay via Canadian Tire Financial, 10 percent Cash back in terms of Canadian Tire money

Cons:a little bit pricey compared to smaller contractors quote. It always make you cry when you get the monthly Canadian Tire statement (LOL)

Lito's House Project List

A month after moving in our new house last August 2011, my wife and made a list of things that we wanted to:

Change/replace in the house.
Add to the house.
Renovate

Below are the things that I came up with:

1-Replace roof shingles
2-Extend roof to cover garage (currently the garage has a flat roof)
3-Stone edging maple tree
4-Emerald Cedar trees for privacy along the east side of the property
5-Stone edging for the East side of the property
6-Bathroom renovation
7-Hardwood flooring replacement
8-Windows replacement
9-Deck - connected to east side of house
10-Sliding door (dining room to proposed deck)
11-Tankless water heater
12-New refrigerator and range/oven (stainless)
13-Replace washer and dryer
14-New Apple iMac computer
15-Solar panel on roof connected to power grid
16-Room extension above garage
17-Convert 1 car garage to 2 car garage
18-Replace front steps
19-New entertainment center
20-Tool shed
21-Lawn mower
22-Snow thrower/blower
23-Upgrade A/C and heater system
24-Extend west side fence outward
25-Fence on the East side of the house (metal)

Here are my wife's addition:

1-Kitchen backsplash
2-Replace Yew tree with spiral tree
3-Extra room in basement
4-Lawn revitalization
5-Hallway Track Lighting

We'll it really is a long list and I am sure it will cost a lot. I hope that these projects or maybe dreams of ours materialize. I hope that some of my future post will be updates on what has been done or completed from the list.


NOTE:list was completed year 2011 and transferred/copied to my blog just now.

Our Lawn - 2011 September

When I saw how big the lawn on the property that we were looking at, I said "if we get this one, the kids will have so much fun playing in it!". I never thought of the other consequences of having a big lawn. It finally sinked in. I realized that I have to mow the lawn during spring. We need to get a lawn mower and an edge trimmer to make it neat. We have to buy fertilizers and weed killers to make the grass greener and healthier.

Having said that, I am not really complaining. In fact, my wife and I are excited on how we will be landscaping the yard. A couple of weeks ago she started to trim the existing plants beside the house because they have grown wild. We also have started looking at plant nurseries for plants that we would like to use. Man, they are expensive. We wanted to plant some Emerald cedar trees and we found out that the cheapest was $50.

Right now, we decided that we will wait for plants that will be sold on sale. I was told that Canadian tire and Home Depot sometimes offer cheap ones. Who knows, maybe we can score some from Kijiji or Craigs List.

Here are some photo's which we will use as the before pictures.