Spring is coming? Hawks are stopping by

Saw a hawk perched on the light post outside my unit the other day. Grabbed my camera and managed a couple shots before it took off. I think it will be exciting time this spring (when it finally arrives) watching the birds on the pond.

Building Update

I have been away lot recently so the blog is a little behind.

We had a recent Owners meeting in the building where about 16 owners showed up to find out what is happening with the Performance Audit and Reserve Fund study. Basically, as required by the condo act, we are hiring an engineer to validate the builders work as well as determine our Reserve Funding for the next 25 to 30 years to help ensure we have enough funds to cover new roofs or other significant maintenance that will occur years form now. This study will be done my around August.

Spring (I hope) is finally coming so we should start seeing each other outside and on our balconies. Please get to know your neighbours and say hi. Also remember that throwing cigarettes, water or anything off your balcony is not permitted (in addition to not being nice for your neighbours). Check your condo papers for what is allowed on the balcony - no BBQs for instance or Cable antennae's/satellite receivers or storage items. Likewise, remember that sound travels even more so outside so respect your neighbours by keeping your noise within reason so as not to unduly disturb everyone nearby.

With the snow disappearing the garage entry will likely be dug up to fix the heating system in the driveway some time this spring and the outdoor lights will be repaired.

Garage Doors

We need to work together to make sure our garage doors close properly. There are a few door fobs that are not properly programmed according to maintenance folks, hence these few do not allow the door to close properly after they enter the garage.

In the last notice you received from TAG there was mention of the garage door fobs and what to do.

Please remember to check behind you to see if the doors are closing after you enter. They should close within a few minutes, if not then try and press the garage fob numerous times next time you enter and see if the doors close once you have entered.

If they still do not close then please contact TAG and get your fob replaced.

Working together we can reduce the times the doors stay open. Thanks

Winter and Humidity

With winter here many of us might not be realizing that the building is very dry and we most likely need to run humidifiers to protect our wood floors and walls etc from drying out.

The flooring people New Horizon used were here today and found one unit had only 15% humidity. This is not nearly enough as you need around 35-40%

I strongly recommend buying a humidifier and running it all winter.

We Survived the Ice Storm - furnace filters soon!

Thankfully, Haven condos was not effected too much by the storm, no power loss anyway. The ice, while troublesome for many, offered a photographic opportunity. The building signs look nice:

Furnace filters:

I have found a source for our furnace filters in Bolton and will be talking with them as soon as they open after the Holidays. I will let you know how it goes and how we can order from them - information I have so far seems to indicate they typically deal with the corporation and not individual units, but as I said, I will get more exact data soon.

Happy Holidays!

Tax Bills are arriving

This is both good news and bad of course. The bad news is that we have tax bills to pay around Christmas time! LOL
It is good that we are getting the bills though, because as you know taxes started being our responsibility as soon as we moved in and so the amount has been collecting over that time until the City got its act together and issued our bills. You need to pay the bill you just received and then ensure you start saving for the ongoing amounts. If you look at your assessment for 2014 and multiply that by the city tax rate of 0.00939605 you will know how much to save each month for next years taxes.
Arguably, this is better than some new places where you do not get a bill for a year or more and then have to try to pay that back tax and your regular taxes all at once.

Water -HOT water issue now

The water is off in the building today due to an emergency that needs repair. TAG expects it to be back on by 5pm. Building management is sorry for the inconvenience and last minute notice but it could not be helped. It may be turned back on a lot sooner if possible

UPDATE! 5:30pm. You may find getting HOT water a problem. It is rectified but we all need to run the taps in all units to flush out the cold. Let 'er rip until the hot starts coming, but we all need to do it together, it will take far too long for single units.

On another note, this blog has surpassed 10,000 views! Hopefully many or most were from owners and residents. A new haven web site from the management company will likely be up soon so this may be the end of the blog.