davidd's A DOLL A DAY 2025

[davidd]

This year, I listened in but I am so discouraged with my search for a home. . . .

When I typed "I want to move but I don't know where" in to an Internet search a TON of responses popped up. Apparently a lot of people want a change but they aren't sure what they want.

I found this interesting exercise on a Quora discussion:

Take a coin and prepare to flip it. Say to yourself, "if it's heads, I move, if it's tails, I stay." Then flip it.
Now, here's the critical part. When you examine the coin to see whether heads or tails was flipped, take note of your initial gut reaction when you see the coin. Your instant gut reaction will either be a little jolt of happy relief, or it will be a little jolt of disappointment.
That initial, instinctive reaction will give you a hint what it is you really want.

I don't know what to suggest. If I had endless money, or even "a mere" three to five mil, I know where I'd go in half-a-heartbeat: Crozier Loop in Waialua on the North Shore of Oahu. But with anything less than three to five mil (purchase price plus a "nest egg" to cover property taxes) I can't even get anywhere near where I used to live.

When I'm visiting the relatives in Las Vegas, they've asked, "have you considered moving to Vegas?" While the houses in their neighborhood are pleasant enough inside, the neighborhoods are bland and brown and everything looks the same. I mean, everything looks the same. I'm seeing that everywhere. Housing developments, condos, multi-plexes, single-family homes squeezed in as tight as they will fit, and they are all the same design and painted the same color. That seems to be what people want: everything the same. Don't stand out. Fit in. Be close to Costco. It makes my head hurt while my soul shrivels up inside. As miserable as my quasi-tent that passes for a house can be, at least it's different.

While those houses on Tiki Island in Texas are close together, at least they were all painted different, bright, cheerful colors. That's what I liked about it -- quirky and colorful.

I was going to be "funny" and ask if you've looked at Vulcan in Ontario -- just because of the name. I drove through there once and stopped at the pretty lame "Star Trek" exhibit. I figured a remote place like Vulcan would be affordable -- but noooo! I mean, what the hell:

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/27936...nue-vulcan

A quarter of a million for a "tear down?" That's crazy! Or it seems crazy to me. And that's not with any acreage, just a city lot. To get something decent in Vulcan you're looking at $600-thou, and again, that's on a city lot!

Looking at this, I think maybe I'm beginning to get a glimpse in to your despair. 

This one, on the island, looks cute. Only a half-acre lot, though, with a road on one side.

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/27798...rand-manan

Or how about this one? The power lines kind of spoil the aesthetics, but the neighbors will be pretty quiet:

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/27505...rand-manan

(Check out the last pic, the overhead "drone view," to see the neighbors.)

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1 March - A Doll A Day 2025:

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Dread Pirate Lexxi Red Sky

Body + Head: TBLeague S41
Costume: Barbie Halloween Pirate

[Alliecat]

The coin-flip exercise seems like something for people who don't actually know whether they want to move or not. 
I also see so many listings that look much the same -- entire houses where every room is the same meh shade of gray.  Fad features like white kitchens and barn doors and silly little bathroom sinks with no countertops, cookie-cutter places with no character.  (Then on the other hand, there are houses with ridiculous features like carpet on the walls (big lot and cool layout, really made me wish I could be on one of those reno shows and turn it into something), and WHY would anyone want a bedroom the colour of dried blood???  There's no happy medium.

It was frustrating that in 5 minutes' drive in any direction from my TX housesit house I saw more houses of a style I like and would want to see inside (I mean, brick ranches actually ON RANCHES!), than I've seen in 2 years of daily scrolling through Nova Scotia listings.

I missed the point about the Vulcan house, I think...  You're thinking 250 is a lot?  House prices in Canada have skyrocketed everwhere.  For anything other than a mini-home ("mobile home") 250 is probably a bargain.  That one looks much better inside than I thought it would, given the exterior.  Vulcan is in Alberta.
Here are some "average" house prices for perspective: https://wowa.ca/reports/canada-housing-market
Which is kind of silly because averaging over a whole province really tells you little about rural vs. urban pricing.

Lexxi has some pretty big boots there.  She'll be well anchored in a swordfight 

[davidd]

I missed the point about the Vulcan house, I think...  You're thinking 250 is a lot?  

I failed to eress myself clearly; and clearly I am not up to speed on home prices in Canada. Vulcan is in the middle of nowhere and as far as I know there is no major industry. When I passed through, it seemed like a "dying town." So to me, $250k for what looks like a dump (as you say, surprisingly nice inside) was a surprise. I would have eected that price to be on the upper range in a forgotten cow-town on the prairie.

By comparison, your island, with obvious appeal ("quaint" fishing village charm and ocean glimpse from nearly everywhere) seems bargain priced.

But then, I live in the middle of nowhere, and $250k will get you a tear-down dump less than half the size of the one in Vulcan on a lot less than half the size of the one in Vulcan that looks like the meth lab junkies moved out and left their dogs behind to fill up the house with urine and feces.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhom...0609-46224

Apparently a "real house" here now commands $600k and up. Mostly up.

Now I understand your despair even more. Even if I could sell what I currently have, what could I do with the money? A run-down crack-house that probably smells like the last dog that died there?

(The one with carpet on the walls sounds kinda cool! Do you have a link?)

In other weirdness: the US government is considering bringing back pirates; or, more specifically, privateers.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/gover...r-AA1zIkRw

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2 March - A Doll A Day 2025:

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Dread Pirate Ella Stormhaunt

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Dread Pirate Ella Stormhaunt

1/6-scale action figure

Head: unbranded 1/6-scale head sculpt

Body & Costume: largely a stock TBLeague / Executive Replicas Vampirella figure embellished with belts and a hat.

2 March - A Doll A Day 2025

[Alliecat]

Ooh, yup, that’s a fixer. I’ve seen worse in Nova Scotia and BC. Ceiling pieces falling in, debris everywhere, water damage, holes in walls…  I can never quite decide whether to be angry that someone let a house get into that condition when there are people sleeping in tents under bridges, or to be sad because sometimes you can read the story in the pictures – some elderly person couldn’t keep their home up anymore and it fell down around them until they finally either died or had to be removed.
And I always want to smack the realtors with their “endless possibilities” and “loads of potential”.

Nope, I don’t have a link to the funky house with the carpeted walls. I watched it until it sold. Would be interesting to see what the buyer did with it. Too bad, because it was a decent size lot and not far from water, if I recall.

Vulcan does look like middle of nowhere, on the map, but it’s only 135 km from Calgary.

In other weirdness: the US government is considering bringing back pirates; or, more specifically, privateers.

Bahahaha!!! This genuinely made me laugh. I don’t suppose one senator making a random suggestion counts as “the government considering it” but hey, you never know – all bets are off these days, aren’t they?

That’s a cool photo. Which of the gang did the wheel come with? Nice little detail that they put steering ropes on it. This reminded me of the Bounty … which had them and was a b^gger to steer.

[davidd]

... or to be sad because sometimes you can read the story in the pictures – some elderly person couldn’t keep their home up anymore and it fell down around them until they finally either died....

In other weirdness: the US government is considering bringing back pirates; or, more specifically, privateers.

Bahahaha!!! This genuinely made me laugh. I don’t suppose one senator making a random suggestion counts as “the government considering it” but hey, you never know – all bets are off these days, aren’t they?

That’s a cool photo. Which of the gang did the wheel come with? Nice little detail that they put steering ropes on it. This reminded me of the Bounty … which had them and was a b^gger to steer.

Yes, the pictures of deteriorated houses used to leave me feeling angry or frustrated, but with costs rising I understand. As people get older and their income decreases while their physical abilities decline, the costs of home repairs are simultaneously rising and the jobs needing to be done are more physically challenging. After retirement, people simply cannot afford to tackle the major repairs that, coincidentally, start needing to be done when a house is 30 or 40 years old. And people no longer have the physical stamina, strength, and mobility to be crawling under the house or climbing up on ladders.

What's really cool -- I think, anyway -- about the "one senator making a random suggestion" is that the guy is the senator from Utah! Woo hoo! I live in the Pirate State!

'Kay, what's genuinely cool is that you've had the ex-perience of steering a sailing vessel using a massive wheel via steering ropes!

The wheel was an accessory included with the bargain-priced Captain Jack Sparrow figure I found via eBay a while back.

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3 March - A Doll A Day 2025:

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Dread Pirate Margot'chelle Rumscupper

Dread Pirate Margot'chelle Rumscupper, a 1/6-scale action figure assembled using bits and pieces from a variety of sources. The body is a Jiaoudoll 10E. The head sculpt is a SuperDuck SDH021B. The costume includes elements from 1/6-scale action figures (TBLeague Red Sonja, DiD Colonel MacKenzie, BBK Pirate Sophia), Hasbro GI Joe figures, and Barbie.

3 March - A Doll A Day 2025

[Alliecat]

I reeeeallly want an ongoing photostory, or short films, or something, with your pirate crew   Their names are great and given how much effort you've put into the action-figure tales, I bet you'd come up with something fun.  Of course, you need a nautical setting for them wannabuyahouse??   

.... And people no longer have the physical stamina, strength, and mobility to be crawling under the house or climbing up on ladders.

And you can't get people to do the work.  It's not too awful here, but on some of the move-to-NS pages I hear tell of people waiting months for plumbers and electricians -- let alone actual reno/repair people.

'Kay, what's genuinely cool is that you've had the ex-perience of steering a sailing vessel using a massive wheel via steering ropes!

Yup.  They squealed like a sick seal.  There should always have been 2 people on the wheel, and there never were unless the weather was really bad.  Little me had to step up onto a spoke, stand on it and ride it down, repeatedly, to move the dang thing.  Not sure what arrangement the Rose had but it was 'power steering' compared to that!

[davidd]

And you can't get people to do the work.  It's not too awful here, but on some of the move-to-NS pages I hear tell of people waiting months for plumbers and electricians -- let alone actual reno/repair people.

Yes, that's what it's like here. If you can find anybody, be prepared to pay their hourly rate for travel time, usually 1.5 to 2 hours each way. Thus, the most tenable option becomes: learn to do it yourself, or figure out a stop-gap measure.

That's hard for older folks who may not be computer savvy. YouTube how-to videos are amazing once you find the right one. It takes a lot of searches and refining those searches to find useful content.

And then, even doing it yourself comes back to physical ability, stamina, and money. Always money. And having a truck or trailer to haul supplies. I imagine where you live even getting supplies is problematic. Do you have to go to the mainland -- with 2-way ferry fees -- every time you need a trailer-load of lumber from the hardware store? That makes my 1.5 hour (one way) drive to Home Depot seem simple. Depending on where one lives, even simple repair or maintenance projects can become major undertakings.

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4 March - A Doll A Day 2025:

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Dread Pirate Sofia Shoalskimmer

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BK017 Caribbean Pirate Sophia - 1/6-scale Action Figure

Original jointed soft-bust body replaced with a TBLeague S25B seamless flexible body.

Original blouse replaced with a 1/6-scale "western" shirt (VCF-2061) from VeryCool Toys.

Original trousers replaced with unidentified faux leather (vinyl) doll trousers.

Added bracelets: 12mm jewelry jump rings

[Alliecat]

My Sofia says hello, and wants to know if the lederhosen are hot, sailing in the tropics

Agree about the Youtube videos. Sometimes it takes longer to find a good one than it does to watch them. Why do people make how-to videos if they're not going to show it well, ex.plain it well, or speak clearly??

We have a hardware store & lumber yard. Doesn't always mean it will be good lumber, but, that could be the case anywhere. I got my porch railing kit away, after several attempts to get what I wanted here and getting either silly advice or they didn't have the materials. But I remember going through the whole rack to find enough rails that weren't warped.
The store has "some" things, but you often have to order, (in which case you have to deal with the glitchy website and know what you want; there isn't much in-store to browse) and they very often either don't have, or have only one of, the thing you want. I bought their one tube of grout, and weeks later when I needed another, they hadn't restocked, and I had to order and wait.
There is indeed lots of running back & forth to the mainland for stuff, and "everyone" shops online. Package depot is always busy.

[davidd]

My Sofia says hello, and wants to know if the lederhosen are hot, sailing in the tropics.

Anything Sofia wears instantly becomes "hot!" 

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5 March - A Doll A Day 2025:

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Dread Pirate Aisha Shroudwraith

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1/6-scale action figure

War Story WS018A Pirate World: Spirit Captain Aisha 1/6-scale action figure. The original jointed body has been replaced with a Jiaoudoll 10E flexible seamless body.

5 March - A Doll A Day 2025

[Alliecat]

Wow, you have been doing a LOT of re-bodying!

[davidd]

Wow, you have been doing a LOT of re-bodying!

Yes, the eight girl pirates are all on flexible seamless bodies now, the five nuns are on good-quality jointed bodies, and three (or maybe four) seamless flexible bodies retrieved from the nuns (where they weren't really needed) have been kitted out as temporary or unnamed figures.

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Dread Pirate Sargasso Jack Darktide

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Hot Toys "Pirates of the Caribbean: Captain Jack Sparrow" 1/6-scale action figure

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Also....

Away From Keyboard

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The first of two AKFs in March commences today. I anticipate returning on Monday, wind and tide permitting.

[Alliecat]

Around the world in 80 4 days??
Safe travels.