Hammer Reno's

[raisethehammer]

welcome fairhamilton. where do you currently live?

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

What the frig is that stupid angled stucco thing in front of the building????

Looks like they tried match/complement the elevation of the buildings roof at the rear of the courtyard.

I don't dispute the need of putting some type of control barrier on the courtyard (control street noise, provide privacy, etc.) but it was a poor architectural design choice.

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

welcome fairhamilton. where do you currently live?

Thank-you for the welcome.

Currently, we live in Toronto (North York). I'm a native Toronto resident and my wife is a Hamilton native.

[DC83]

Welcome to the forum AND Hamilton, FairHamilton!

It seems (to me anyway), that Torontonians moving to Hamilton are choosing the inner-city over the mountain or suburbs? Any reason why a North Yorker would wanna live in the wonderfully-gritty East End? To be honest, I know a few ex-Torontonians who have chosen this area recently (one just east of the Delta and one couple down by Centre Mall). I also have a good friend who moved from Upper Stoney Creek to just down the street from Main/Sherman and bought a house on a wonderful boulevard!

I personally love the central east end and can't wait for it to boom. King St between The Delta & Wellington definately needs some great businesses in the great streetwall along the north side of the street. There are already some newer stores, but I bet the best is yet to come for this whole area!

[raisethehammer]

nothing will boom in central Hamilton until we get rid of these stupid one-way streets. sorry, but it ain't gonna happen otherwise.
This area is a really fantastic neighbourhood though...great homes, big trees, Gage Park nearby is amazing. You'll learn to love Ottawa Street too.
Welcome to the Hammer.

[FairHamilton]

Thanks DC83!

Originally Posted by DC83

Any reason why a North Yorker would wanna live in the wonderfully-gritty East End?

Here are a few reasons;
- Twice the house for half the price. Meaning it would cost us at least 4x as much to buy the same house in Toronto. Good luck finding pocket doors for less than $700K, even for $1M in Toronto.
- Wife's family is in Hamilton, Hess Village area and Corktown area. We are sick of my family in Toronto so need a break from them
- We hate the suburbs, and shudder every time we drive through places like Whitby/Ajax and the one time we were in Binbrook new sprawl (not house shopping). We've always been a 1 car family and often rely on public transit which makes an urban location more attractive. We are both TTC Metropass holders, so I'll guess we'll be trading those for HSR passes
- We like a little grit

I think many Torontonians move to the older areas because of the older homes. And why not! They don't build them like that anymore.

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

nothing will boom in central Hamilton until we get rid of these stupid one-way streets. sorry, but it ain't gonna happen otherwise.
This area is a really fantastic neighbourhood though...great homes, big trees, Gage Park nearby is amazing. You'll learn to love Ottawa Street too.

I agree one-way streets are the death of storefronts and street life. Other cities seem to have been very sucessful in reverting back to two-way streets. I'm a firm believer that one-way streets should only be used selectively, not as a traffic flow cure-all.

I'm looking forward to exploring Hamilton and my wife is looking forward to reacquainting herself to her home city after being away for 8 years.

[DC83]

^^ Sweet! Well I know you'll love living in this city. You have GREAT transit access in the area you're in.

Thanks for the clarification. I fig'd as much re: housing prices. To me, I thought that was the only reason Torontonians would choose Hamilton. But hey, Pocket Doors are a great reason too! (one of my favourite architectural features in ANY home).

If you're not familiar with the HSR and/or it's routes, check out the site: http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/...vices/transit/ and if you email/call them, I believe they'll even send you a package with all bus schdules and a System Map! ... or you could save a forest and just study the online maps

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by DC83

^^ Sweet! Well I know you'll love living in this city. You have GREAT transit access in the area you're in.

Thanks for the clarification. I fig'd as much re: housing prices. To me, I thought that was the only reason Torontonians would choose Hamilton. But hey, Pocket Doors are a great reason too! (one of my favourite architectural features in ANY home).

If you're not familiar with the HSR and/or it's routes, check out the site: http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/...vices/transit/ and if you email/call them, I believe they'll even send you a package with all bus schdules and a System Map! ... or you could save a forest and just study the online maps

GREAT transit access??? let's not get his hopes too high! haha.

[FairHamilton]

Hijack over, let`s back back on thread, Hammer Reno`s.

And we`ll be doing some reno`s on our place.

[BrianE]

I also bought a house in the Sherman - Gage corridor 2 years ago, but mine is on the south side of Main St.

We're also doing some renovations which is not surprising since every house we looked at in this area stopped decorating circa 1975.

Welcome to the neighborhood and might I suggest you spend as much time at Gage Park as you can when the weather is nicer. It's an excellent, excellent park.

Coincidentaly, there is a public meeting about Gage Park on March 3rd at 6:30 at Adelaide Hoodless Elementary, on Maplewood Ave. If you want to be kept informed on what changes will be made to the park in the next couple of years.

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by BrianE

We're also doing some renovations which is not surprising since every house we looked at in this area stopped decorating circa 1975.

Nothing wrong with 1975 it all now back in style. It's the 80's decorations which gets me. I always feel the need to put on a tennis shirt and tie the sleeves of a pink cotton sweater around my neck. Unfortunately no amount of work on what I have left will allow for the return to big feathered hair lol

Originally Posted by BrianE

Welcome to the neighborhood and might I suggest you spend as much time at Gage Park as you can when the weather is nicer. It's an excellent, excellent park.

Coincidentaly, there is a public meeting about Gage Park on March 3rd at 6:30 at Adelaide Hoodless Elementary, on Maplewood Ave. If you want to be kept informed on what changes will be made to the park in the next couple of years.

Looking forward to the park and doing some bike riding around town. I figure we are only about a 9km ride to the trailhead of the Hamilton - Brantford Rail Trail. So a round trip to Brantford will be just over 80km.

Unfortunately, won't be able to make the 6:30pm meeting on Monday, but I am interested in the announced changes.

[DC83]

Ok I stole this post from the "Main Street of Canada" thread in the Canada section, and I know it's not 'under reno' but it NEEDS to be...

Originally Posted by matt602

Hamilton's busiest "main" street that I didn't have a proper picture of until yesterday, King St:



There's proposals to turn this street into 2 way or reduce the lanes. Yah... I don't think that's gonna work well.

The old Kresge's Dep't Store aka Delta Bingo is in some serious need of TLC.

[matt602]

Yah, I noticed that the building itself is incredibly un-altered. All the old exterior detailing is still there. Beautiful building.

[the dude]

the interior has certain limitations given its vastness - a grocery store would fit the building very well. i can also imagine some sort of vertical addition to it. but as is the case with so many buildings downtown, it's falling apart before our eyes.

[Millstone]

I wish the side exit of the building wasn't doubling as a bus stop.

[DC83]

The tiles from the pyramid-shaped window decor have all fallen off, a portion of the wall has fallen off, the glass display case at the far east of the building was smashed and they've had those pieces of plywood up instead for MONTHS.

WTF is happening w/ that property standards bylaw? This is disgusting!