Just Listed in TMR

UPDATE: Here's the MLS listing.

Looking for a cute starter home amid the leafy byways of the Town of Mount Royal?

I've just listed this charming two-bedroom bungalow on Trenton Ave. at $543,000.
The 1950 property has 1,253 square feet of living space, including a spacious living room with stone fireplace, adjoining dining room and a cozy sun room overlooking the back garden. It occupies a corner lot facing a neighborhood park with playground.
The house has one bathroom on the main floor and a powder room with shower in the basement. The basement, by the way, is impeccable, with several windows in the combined playroom/home office, as well as a separate laundry room and furnace room. There is loads of storage and ample space to add a third bedroom, if you like.
The house has been well maintained but has not undergone major upgrades in recent years. The bathroom has classic white fixtures and tile. The kitchen is bright and has original cupboards, flexible flooring and melamine counters with a wood grain finish.
There is an attached single-car garage, and a woodworking or storage shed in the back yard.
The house is being sold with fridge, stove, dishwasher, washer and dryer, all under warranty.
At $543,000, this is the least expensive detached house currently for sale in Town of Mount Royal. The price reflects the fact that this property is being sold as part of a succession without legal warranty as to quality.
Interested? Need more information? Give me a call and I'll be glad to schedule a visit.
I'm also planning an open house this Sunday, November 22, between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Montreal Real Estate, A Return to Form in October

Housing resales in greater Montreal were up by 23 per cent last month compared to October, 2008.
A total of 3,543 homes traded hands - a notable improvement over the year earlier period, also known technically as "the beginning of the giant freakout."
In fact, real estate sales in the metropolitan area plummeted by 17 per cent a year ago, as buyers and sellers digested the carnage being visited on the U.S economy and wondered what the heck it meant for Montreal.
Not so much, as it turned out.
Still, let's not belittle last month's terrific sales numbers. It is more useful to measure them against October, 2007, the best October of record, according the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board. How did last month stack up? Three per cent more sales than the best previous October.
Condo sales were up 28 per cent compared to a year earlier and up 12 per cent compared to 2007.
Single-family home and plex sales were up 23 per cent and 16 per cent respectively compared to last year but were stable compared to 2007.
Prices across all property types were up six per cent compared to this time last year.
The median price of a single-family home reached $240,000, while that of a condo reached $195,000 and a plex (two to five dwellings) reached $350,000.

Verdun Fixer Upper, an update

I never did get around to mentioning that Amy Barratt and I sold our sweet little Verdun fixer upper in a speedy rapido eight days, fetching 93 per cent of the asking price.
Getting the deal to the notary proved a bit of a challenge but when the money and keys changed hands, the vendors were pleased and the buyers were over the moon.
The young couple have spent the last two months transforming the vintage post-war cottage into something more to their taste.
They began by removing the original brick chimney, buying themselves some extra square footage and improving the layout. In the before and after pix, you can see that a skylight now fills the old chimney opening.
The also decided to move the kitchen from the front of the house to the back. Instead of looking out over their driveway, soon they will be able to look into their garden as they prepare meals. The interior photos above, are of the old living room and a corner of the new living room back through what used to be the dining room and sun room.
The new owners are avid recyclers. They bought old solid wood doors at the local Eco-Centre for a few bucks each and lovingly stripped them. They tore out the boxy old hot-water radiators and are replacing them with old-fashioned cast-iron beauties. They've saved some of the old chimney brick for future projects and have made the local ferrailleurs (scrap collectors) very happy by setting aside copper pipes and scrap metal for them.
Best of all, they tore up the admittedly ugly flexible flooring found in all the rooms and discovered beautiful narrow-strip wood underneath. Bonus!
The work, most of which they are DIY-ing with the help of experts like plumbers, electricians and a structural engineer, is coming along.
I said best of all but that isn't really true. Best of all, the couple welcomed their first child, a healthy baby girl into the world on Monday. Mum, dad and la petite fille are reported to be doing well.

What Were They Thinking? #5 in a series

We return once more to the subject of nudes, tasteful and otherwise. I suppose that combined with the right decor (drippy candles in straw-covered Chianti bottles, swathes of heavy velvet drapes and romantic lighting) the above oeuvre might have a certain camp appeal.
The water-stained wallpaper and fleabag furniture makes me feel like I'm trapped in a Charles Bukowski novel and the only way out is through the bottom of a bottle of rubbing alcohol.