I took a look at this house on Friday. I was quite excited to view it, (as were six or seven other people), because it was noted on the West Vancouver Survey of Significant Architecture. It's a Lewis home built in the mid 50s. Unfortunately, when I arrived there was a For Sale sign out front. In West Vancouver, a For Sale sign translates to, 'You need to tear this house down because it's not big enough to show other people that you think you're really rich and therefore really important.'* A For Sale sign usually means the house is vacant as well. By the state this one is in it has probably been so for at least a year. There were dandelions growing out of the hot tub cover, Lynyrd Skynard and Van Halen spray painted on the walls of the 'den', the living room carpet squished water out of it when I walked, the bathrooms were straight out of Trainspotting and it stunk like raccoons had been living in it. All this for $2300 a month. I feel like dropping a note to the realtor who showed it giving him a piece of my mind.
On Saturday I took a look at this haunted house. It's located right across from Dundarave Beach. It had a self contained 'suite' downstairs which would've been perfect as one of our fellow apartment building dwellers is interested in leaving the building with us if we can find the right place. Gross, not this one. The first floor was workable, although the kitchen cupboards did have 74 years of grime on them. The other two however, oh my cat. Let's just say, if I was in university again (ie I was 19), had ten friends, lots of incense and hippie blankets, no lovable fluffy senior cat members in my family and only a back pack of possessions, I'd be moving in this week. So, for $3500 a month I'll have to decline as I've already been down that Nag Champa road.
What makes 'landlords' think that because you're a renter you automatically have low standards and are not worthy of a clean safe home to live in? I love architecture and I would love to live in a home that I could proudly point out and explain its architectural significance. It's a shame so many sit vacant and uncared for when there are probably 100s of people in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland who I'm sure feel the same way I do.
I posted some photos of some North Vancouver West Coast midcentury homes we visited last summer on the Bijou Living Facebook page.