Ah yes,  the Friday before a long weekend!

Some of you are mailing it in at work today.

Some of you are being grinded like crazy to get everything done before your workplace closes down for three days.

And some of you are working all weekend, so you don’t even want to hear about Thanksgiving.

So for all of you, here are some of the funnier, stranger, and more questionable things I’ve seen so far this fall…

Let’s be serious for a moment, folks.

Who doesn’t love a good hoarder house?

For the person living next door, or across the street, this is awful.

But for those driving by at 40 KM/H, it gives you 0.8 seconds of amusement, and that’s what really counts…

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I checked with the seller here, and he does have faster internet than what I get from Rogers at home:

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Maybe the worst “den” I’ve seen in a long time?

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Or what about this den, which I found on a floor plan for some new condo development?

Seriously, since when did a hallway become a “den?”

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Worst backsplash you’ve seen in a long time?

I know what you’re thinking: “Is that kitchen backsplash, that’s supposed to be installed horizontally, on the wall of a bathroom, installed vertically?”

Yes.  Yes it is…

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Wait.

I think I’ve found a worse backsplash.

I mean, this isn’t exactly kitchen backsplash on the wall of a bathroom, but it’s pretty bad:

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Kitec!

We should cover this in a future blog post, but for now, a photo will suffice.

“Kitec” plumbing is the new “knob-and-tube” wiring, if you will.

Insurance companies are starting to charge massive premiums for homes with Kitec, and condominium Status Certificates are disclosing the existence of Kitec in the executive summary.

Here’s what it looks like:

Kitec was used in both houses and condos from about 1995 to 2007, but is no longer in use.

The problem, so say the many litigants throughout North America, is that the pipes corrode at a faster rate than intended, and that leads to “pipe failure,” or pipe bursting to be blunt.

HERE is a great article from 2015 by Bob Aaron.

We’ll talk about this more in a future post.

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Here is a “lockbox wall” at 75 East Liberty Street that rivals “the lockbox pole” at 50 Lynn Williams for “worst lockbox situation in the city.”

This is the designated location for all three condos at 65, 75, and 85 East Liberty.

Nearly 1,200 condos, and one location.

The unit I was showing had the following showing instructions: “LBX in P1, code 1972.”

No business card on the back, no identifier, no ribbon, nothing.  My client really wanted to see the place, so we tried about forty lockboxes before we found it.

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I love pot lights.

Who doesn’t?

But this family room ceiling had twenty-five pot lights on the ceiling, not including the extra ten on the bulk-heads.

I really don’t know why crappy and/or first-time builders try to think outside the box:

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Why am I showing you a photo of hangers?

What’s so interesting about this?

Well, this was a vacant condo, and the agent clearly did the staging himself, as evidenced by the crusty old blue couch in the living room, and the mattress on the floor of the bedroom with linens from HomeSense – complete with the packaging in the bathroom vanity.

But staging a CLOSET?  That’s really something.

“Those are staging hangers,” I told my client…

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I’m not an engineer.

I’m not a nuclear physicist.

And I’m not a qualified home inspector.

But I don’t think this is the proper way to secure a fence that’s about to fall down and crush your child:

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And last but not least, if you love feet as much as I do, maybe you love using other people’s greasy sandals!

I mean, I’m sure you understand…

Have a great long weekend, everybody!