Enough of COVID...what are you doing to the house?

Forum Sponsor
Mad Mike said:
2 questions: Did your parents ever own the cottage while not owning a house? Is the capital gain higher on there current house or the cottage?
Click to expand...
1. No. Always as a cottage
2. No capital gain on house (bought in 1989 for 220k in Etobicoke) cottage was purchased for 75k back in 1995 / 6.

I expect it to be worth 450-500k max (if that).

It’s a 700sqft bungalow, old, all original interior with a teeny tiny bathroom and unfinished basement. On a 75 x 200ft yard 10min walk from Allenwood Beach).
 
crankcall said:
With KiTec its was a one hundred percent pipe problem , they decided it was a good idea to put an aluminum foil layer into the pipe manufacture . Add cheap brass fittings and galvanic corrosion ensues . You’ve made a bad version of a battery . I have four bathrooms and a kitchen , the gamble is does it leak at fifteen yrs , twenty or twenty five ? Cause nobody actually knows when , just that it eventually will .


Sent from my iPhone using GTAMotorcycle.com
Click to expand...
Not sure about that. I’ve replaced the stuff in a couple of places. The fittings are cheap brass with a high zinc content. The zinc corrodes away leaving a porous, brittle copper rich brass. The chemistry problem is de-zincing.

Kitec pipe can fail, but I’ve never seen that - just bad fittings. The pipes aluminum core is not in direct contact with brass, and there is no electrolyte between the fitting and pipes metal core. The poly part is not susceptible to chemical degradation.

Although replacing the fittings would remedy Kitec issues, no plumber or insurance go would touch that with a 100’ mast.
 
Last edited:
GreyGhost said:
To make things more complicated, you can theoretically pick and choose years for primary residence. For instance, house until 2016, cottage from 2017 until 2022, house after 2023. If you do that, cra allows a plus one year where capital gains on both are untaxed, consult your tax professional. You declare the pre years when you sell, I don't know if you can get retroactive assessments for the dates. That path could save tens of thousands in tax.
Click to expand...
It’s not that simple unless you have very little gain on one of your places and a lot in another. The exemption is a straight line calculation based on years of residence, you don’t get to pick specific years, and you can’t have more years than you owned (except for +1).
 
mimico_polak said:
1. No. Always as a cottage
2. No capital gain on house (bought in 1989 for 220k in Etobicoke) cottage was purchased for 75k back in 1995 / 6.

I expect it to be worth 450-500k max (if that).

It’s a 700sqft bungalow, old, all original interior with a teeny tiny bathroom and unfinished basement. On a 75 x 200ft yard 10min walk from Allenwood Beach).
Click to expand...
Your best bet is to put some effort into adjusting the cost base. Improvements count, repairs do not. New roof, well, siding, kitchen or bath Reno, landscaping, insulation, decks, driveways… yes.

Paint, repair a door, changing carpets, cutting grass, snow clearing, mortgage interest and property tax- no.

there are strategies for splitting years of ownership between house and cottage, but I’m assuming the house gain is substantially more in $$$, so that’s not gonna work for you. .
 
Mad Mike said:
Your best bet is to put some effort into adjusting the cost base. Improvements count, repairs do not. New roof, well, siding, kitchen or bath Reno, landscaping, insulation, decks, driveways… yes.

Paint, repair a door, changing carpets, cutting grass, snow clearing, mortgage interest and property tax- no.

there are strategies for splitting years of ownership between house and cottage, but I’m assuming the house gain is substantially more in $$$, so that’s not gonna work for you. .
Click to expand...
Interesting. Since the time they bought it:

New roof, siding, insulation, floor, windows and 10k or more to connect to the city water and sewers in the late 90s or early 00s.

Obviously there aren’t any receipts considering the time frame.
 
mimico_polak said:
Interesting. Since the time they bought it:

New roof, siding, insulation, floor, windows and 10k or more to connect to the city water and sewers in the late 90s or early 00s.

Obviously there aren’t any receipts considering the time frame.
Click to expand...
Photo evidence and fair valuations on work are generally acceptable.
 
Metric ton of rotten wood removed and replaced. Roof framed and reframed until the building company was happy. They wanted the tie in to the existing roof done a slightly different way so had the framers redo some bits. Really appreciated this as I wouldn’t have known any difference. Sheathed with plywood. Shingling starts tomorrow. Wrap, siding and soffits and eavestroughs and downspouts shortly after then it’s inside for spray foam, drywall and painting and then maybe I can really start my summer.

I’ll be skint though so activities will need to be low cost. At least for the next 15 years.
 
I sent the drone up. I think it's looking pretty good so far. Guys shingled both roofs in about 4h. Installed ridge vents etc. Cleaned everything up. Just the siding and soffit etc to do now. The tie in to the main roof looks great. They had some very weird angles to work with.
0ffbbb9b1aeb41bb8977da3264f8398b.jpg
06160be2b8fe7928f66f4430a5d8b26d.jpg


Sent from my SM-S938W using Tapatalk
 
That's a good looking R2D2
 
JC99 said:
I sent the drone up. I think it's looking pretty good so far. Guys shingled both roofs in about 4h. Installed ridge vents etc. Cleaned everything up. Just the siding and soffit etc to do now. The tie in to the main roof looks great. They had some very weird angles to work with.
0ffbbb9b1aeb41bb8977da3264f8398b.jpg
06160be2b8fe7928f66f4430a5d8b26d.jpg


Sent from my SM-S938W using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Looks good. Why the slope in the middle? That’s an unconventional way of joining a gable to a hip roof, usually a hip to gable change. Or hip to gable connection.
 
Last edited:
Mad Mike said:
Looks good. Why the slope in the middle? That’s an unconventional way of joining a gable to a hip roof, usually a hip to gable change. Or hip to gable connection.
Click to expand...

Not sure. I trusted the guys that came up with the drawings and the engineers to do it right but I know what you mean. If you look at the extension lines of the roof to do it that way it would be a bit more complex than what has been done though. I know there were issues with the relative heights and slope and intersections of the two roof sections which is why we needed the architects and engineers to weigh in. They needed enough slope to shed snow or something and that has roof height implications and thus tie in method issues. The whacky angles everywhere also didn’t help.

This is a million times better than what was there before. The city are coming to inspect it soon so they will need to sign off on it too.
 
Next project. I’d like to build a ground level deck that has an uneven shape with a few different angles etc over a set of uneven pavers. The problem is that I can only really have this deck just under 4” in overall height as there’s a door threshold that I need to tie in to. How can I frame the deck if I’m going to use normal 2” deck boards for the surface? Can I use those deck boards flat side down for the frame too giving me my required height? If I do how do I get any rigidity in that frame?

This isn’t a huge deck, 140” x 160” is the largest dimension.

I don’t really want to pull up the pavers if I don’t have to. They are a nice solid base and weed control plus they are heavy suckers.

Edit: I’m a dumbass, I can make this a lot cheaper if I can use 2x2 pressure treated for the frame and 5/4” deck boards. Would that work?

Edit 2. 2x2 is a bad idea for framing it seems.
 
Last edited:
JC99 said:
Next project. I’d like to build a ground level deck that has an uneven shape with a few different angles etc over a set of uneven pavers. The problem is that I can only really have this deck just under 4” in overall height as there’s a door threshold that I need to tie in to. How can I frame the deck if I’m going to use normal 2” deck boards for the surface? Can I use those deck boards flat side down for the frame too giving me my required height? If I do how do I get any rigidity in that frame?

This isn’t a huge deck, 140” x 160” is the largest dimension.

I don’t really want to pull up the pavers if I don’t have to. They are a nice solid base and weed control plus they are heavy suckers.

Edit: I’m a dumbass, I can make this a lot cheaper if I can use 2x2 pressure treated for the frame and 5/4” deck boards. Would that work?

Edit 2. 2x2 is a bad idea for framing it seems.
Click to expand...
Considering your clearance is only 4"...then even a 2x4 would be tough as that allows for a 3.5" clearance.

I'd find some way to mount it to the pavers and just run off those.
 
mimico_polak said:
Considering your clearance is only 4"...then even a 2x4 would be tough as that allows for a 3.5" clearance.

I'd find some way to mount it to the pavers and just run off those.
Click to expand...
I'd just use something like deck tiles over the pavers. Any framing short enough will just warp to follow the pavers anyway. I don't like decks at door level, I want a step to keep water/snow from easily making its way in.

 
backmarkerducati said:
I would just level the pavers, yes a PITA but likely the best solution height wise.
Click to expand...

These pavers are in rough shape too. I was hoping a low level floating deck would just cover everything up and look good and negate the need to do a ton of hauling and lifting. There are Tuffblock deck footings that are low profile but even those would mean a deck that is 6.5” above grade. If I didn’t have an outward swinging door I’d get a bit more height.

I’ve seen ground decks that are built on sleepers but frame rigidity is still an issue.
Forum Sponsor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom