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Since my parents are visiting Toronto, I am kind of obliged to be with them whenever I can. So today I followed them to Casa Loma. I had heard about Casa Loma before but I didn’t have a chance and enough reason to visit the place. It’s like when I was in Seoul I hadn’t been in Han River cruise when all the visitors from non-Seoul area went on it.

Unlike my relatively low expectation, the castle was pretty impressive. Casa Loma means “the castle on the hill” in Spanish. The castle was built in 1911 for 3 years by Henry Pellatte. Mr. Pellatte was not only a rich man but was also very interested in the newest science techniques so he filled the castle with all latest techniques such as the first and oldest elevator in Canada, telephone, electricity, and shower system, etc,etc. The inside is so spacious and lavish with a wonderful Toronto downtown view.

Wow, what a house to live in… but I can’t imagine having such a huge house for myself. What if I saw Kate Hudson, Sikander’s current favourite actress, on T.V and had to call him. How do I know where he is? by the time he is in front of T.V, she is gone.

We got out of the castle and went out to look around the garden that Mrs. Pellatte loved so much. The view of the castle from the garden was like a picture in some postcard. It would have been nice if there is more space to walk around, but at the same time Mr. Pellatte wasn’t a king, but one rich civilian. So it was impressive enough to see what a landmark he made for his city.

My parents were very happy to visit all the attractions in Toronto with enough time and freedom. Even though they have visited Toronto before it was a package trip and they had to hurry all the time to go here and there following what their guide said. I asked my parents for a tip for guiding them but they refused to tip me for the reason that I had been a very crappy guide with no information about the places at all. Ugh, parents are all the time so hard to satisfy. Too much parents in my life in these days :(

After being on the market since this past winter, the Pickering house is finally sold. It was an overall loss but I am glad it is no longer our responsibility. We spent so much time and effort last year cleaning up the house and fixing it as best as we could with the limited budget we had to spend on it. Thrawn helped with mowing the front and back yards. I am allergic to grass, especially the strong grass smell that lingers after one mows the lawn, so I usually get away with not having to mow anything :)Lunato and I painted the front door, entrance hallway, living room, the stairway leading to the basement, and the corridor connecting the three bedrooms and washroom. The washroom was absoluetly disgusting. We shouldn’t have rented the place to three male college students. I hate all of them and I hope they burn in Hell. We vaccumed the house, cleaned the carpet, cleaned all the appliances, and finally cleaned out the garage. The garbage in the garage alone rquired more than a dozen big garbage bags. Ugh.

The backyard of the house is huge and it has a few pear trees as well. Lunato was ecstatic when she first saw them and we cut a few pears and ate them. Delicious. The actual value of the house is really in the backyard but the city of Pickering has some sort of lein on the backyard of the property because they are going to build a road to connect this plot with the other three plots south of this one. The city will also hook up all four houses with a sewer line and only then will the value of this property jump and only then will the property actually be profitable. However, those plans are still just plans and the city is in no hurry to implement them. I can’t afford to keep the house until then and I am sick of horrible tenants so the best solution was to just sell it and walk away.

Lunato had to give her consent to the sale. As my spouse, I have to legally get her permission before I can sell any of my properties. She was so happy and demanded numerous favours before going to the lawyer’s office to sign the documents which essentially said: “I give consent to my spouse, Sikander, to sell the property located at ABC for XYZ amount of dollars.” What the… no one told me about this when I signed on the marraige license. What other suprises are there?

After multiple offers, multiple interested parties, and an unsuccessful closing date of 27th of April (which caused a lot of other problems… and I also had to get Lunato’s permission again for the 2nd Offer of Sale), the house is finally no longer my headache. The last name of the new owner? “Crooks”. Hah!