Top to Bottom Home Renovation in Fort Saskatchewan: A Buyer’s Dream Just Hit the Market in Pineview!
All right, guys. Thanks for joining us on another YouTube video here. We’re going to be talking today about why you might want to live in Pine View, Fort Saskatchewan.
Yeah, awesome. Thanks for coming back to the channel. It’s going to be another fun little video here. And we’re going to talk about one of our biggest projects to date, which is our flip house. We got at 8920 92nd A in Pine View, Fort Saskatchewan. It’s a 1970s bungalow. We’ve talked about it a few times before, and we’re just going to have a once over again here on that property.
We’ve got an open house coming up this weekend that’s fully fully completed, ready to go, that home. So, Tom, if you can just give us the high level of the property, what what we had when we first got there and where we’re at now with it, just some of the high points on that property.
Yeah, for sure. So, we bought the property about 8 months ago and since then we’ve done a a once over on the whole place. So, we’ve got new exterior and new interior with legal basement suite. So, it’s a pretty nice little property now., some of the highlights I would say are the big backyard. We got 950 square foot yard. That’s a huge lot.
Yeah. Big pie shaped lot there. Almost 100 m square yard. So, probably close to three times the size of a traditional house in the new areas now.
Yeah, for sure. It’s got to be one of the biggest lots in all of Fort Saskatchewan, I would say.
Yeah, it’s good size for sure, especially in the Pine View area. Like, yeah, one of the biggest ones. And it also has the classic Pine View driveway, which is probably 200 ft long. It’s massive. You could park six, seven cars end to end from the tip of the garage to the tip of the driveway. So, yeah, it’s Yeah, quite quite a large driveway. And you got the double garage there as well.
So, off- street parking and all those good things that you don’t get in the new neighborhoods. So, you got to make sure and either have some really strong arms or pretty good snowblower if you’re going to live there. It’s a huge amount of driveway.
No, for sure. That is one of the things you got to take care of on those big lots. Definitely. so, the Yeah, the house Yeah. 1971 original 1,000 square ft or just under 1,000 square ft and a fully renovated top and bottom and of course with a legal basement suite that we’ve got there.
And I think it came out really nice and I’m sure we’ll cut to some pictures here. we’ve got plenty of pictures of the property and some staged photos and that kind of thing. So really exciting.
You did an amazing job. Tom really took the lead on this project and and with the team. Well, we actually had someone come through recently when you were away there last weekend and they came through to look at that property.
They loved it for the yard because they had some big dogs and that and they’re coming from Lac La Biche to move to the fort and that was one of the big features that they mentioned the yard. They were real happy with that and actually the quality of the workmanship. They’d been looking at homes all through the fort. that same day they said by far that was the highest quality work that they had seen. They were quite quite happy with that house.
So probably expect an offer or multiple offers here. We’ve got some showings here today and then of course with the open house this weekend. So likely it will be sold before this video comes out or hopefully it will be. That would be nice.
Pine View. What do you know about Pine View in Fort Saskatchewan?
So, Pine View, it’s as we said, the homes are from the 1970s. They’re all built in that area. And yeah, back then they didn’t put the houses so close together. You got nice big lots and at this point there’s tons of m mature trees, lots of schools and parks and yeah, we lived there for 17 years.
Yeah, we were. Yeah, we lived two blocks away from that property for yeah, most of our time in Fort Saskatchewan and we really loved it there. And this one’s actually a little bit quieter. We were up against Highway 15 and this one’s a row or two back, so you’re not up against the highway.
And so,, and it’s not a through road there. It’s kind of in a little cul-de-sac type situation. So, there’s tons of parking, tons of on street parking. and you could park you know, you have a a party or you want to bring your RV, there’s there’s on street parking right there that you don’t get in in the new neighborhoods.
You can got your smart car and then it’s a driveway to driveway pretty well. So in in Pine View, that’s one of the real great things about living in Pine View. And and of course this the trail system in Fort Saskatchewan is pretty awesome.
And there is a trail. I think it it connects I think one house over from us there. Actually, actually it’s against the back of our property.
You could put a put a gate there and access the the trail directly, couldn’t you?
Yep. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So, that the trail system in Fort Saskatchewan’s pretty awesome. We use it a lot. Tom’s out there running at 4:00 in the morning or whatever it is. You out running this morning?
No.
Yeah. Not this morning. Had a day off?
Yeah.
Normally, you’re out there like 4:30, aren’t you?
Yeah. 4:30 out on the roads. This guy’s crazy.
Why Fort Saskatchewan Is A Great Place To Live
So, like 30 km of paved multi-use trails in Fort Saskatchewan and I’m using them daily, too. Cycling and they keep them plowed even in the winter time. It’s pretty awesome for winter bike riding or whatever you’d want to do.
Goes right to Sherwood Park as well, too. So, going all the way to Sherwood Park and and they’re also building the bridge across a North Scan River. I think that’s going to be done this year as part of the Canada Coast to Coast Trail System. Is it?
I think so. Yeah. So, that’s going to be pretty awesome. You’ll be able to bike right into the city without being on the highway.
But that trail system, you can access it right from this property and to get down to the river, which is awesome being on the river there in the fort. And yeah, Pine View and Fort Saskatchewan’s pretty awesome that way. There’s quite a bit to it that that you don’t get in other parts of the city.
Yeah. A big thing we noticed when COVID hit was a lot of people bought older homes in more mature neighborhoods like Pine View and everyone wanted a little bit more room to stretch their legs when you’re you’re stuck on your property.
Yeah. So, a lot of people bought older homes with bigger bigger yards and they could renovate the home to their their liking and and get out of the smaller neighborhoods where you’re a lot more Close-knit with your neighbors and not as much room for privacy and yeah, you’re they’re just crammed in there.
I remember sighting a house in one of these newer neighborhoods some years ago when I was still on the tools and you know having a look from the backyard from the back of the house standing on this person’s deck and just counting the houses. You just count like 24 houses is what you could see from standing on your back deck.
This property you’re not going to have that. You could maybe you’re going to count three houses, one on either side and one in the back and that’s about it. So it’s quite private, quiet neighborhood. older people like the neighbors, senior citizen, real nice folks and all that.
So, I haven’t even met the other neighbor at all, though. Have you on the south side?
No, no, no, no.
So, it’s quiet. If you like privacy, that’s the place to be.
Yeah. Those are a few of the nice things about Pine View. There’s lots of schools around in the area as well for the the young kids. And not too far away from the the Dow Centennial Center, the the main public area there for working out and the theater and hockey.
Yeah, that’s on like this property is on 89th Street and then the Dow’s on 84th Street, so just out the back path. I guess you you’d be you can probably be there in 10 minutes by foot.
Yeah. And most of the homes are built on sand, which is pretty nice. I know a lot of the new areas they are built in over wetlands.
Yeah. So, I like I’ve heard of horror stories of people and their their sump pumps run 365. Their sumps are running, but we lived there for 17 years and we never had a water issue once.
No, I remember it’s before I knew much about eaves trough and all that kind of stuff. I remember downpipe being off for some period of time. Find that eaves trough extension down spout extension off and it been off all summer raining and oh, this is not good. dumping water on my basement for the entire summer and no issues. It’s just all sand.
Any any water hits that and it’s gone. So, it’s pretty great that way.
Yeah, I’m not so lucky. I got the clay bowl effect over on the old area. So, that makes sure your down spouts go nice and far.
Yeah. So, there’s another great benefit of living in Pine View with that sandy base. And so, yeah, that’s some of the highlights for Pine View.
Now, specifically about, you know, buying a renovated home with a legal suite in Fort Saskatchewan, you know, what are some of the benefits of buying something that’s fully renovated and ready to go?
So, some of the main benefits is just not having to do anything because a lot of people when you they buy a fixer upper, they think, “Oh, well, I’ll get in there and, you know, quickly I’ll I’ll get everything going.”
But,, I can speak from example. I’m 8 years into my first home and I still got quite a few different tasks I’d like to do around the house, but been lucky enough that I have the the contractors we work with that have helped me along the way. So, yeah, got almost there, but it’s taken 8 years.
So, definitely nice to just buy a house and be able to enjoy it, not have to do all the hard work. we put countless hours to make that that suite.
And that was something I was thinking about doing when I got my her first house was a suite. But, I’m glad I didn’t because knowing what I know now, back 8 years ago, I didn’t know enough to do it properly.
I could have done a mother-in-law suite. Yeah. But,, yeah, my house is too small for that anyways. It’s only around 800 ft, so we really need that extra room downstairs.
Yeah, for sure. But, yeah, I think some of the advantage with buying the older home, too, is it’s just they got good bones, as they say.
The Benefits of Renovating an Older Home
A lot of the new homes, they’re slapped up together. They got drywall on the outside of the homes instead of sheeting and they’re just not not built as good as they could be. Lots of vapor barrier issues we see all the time. Poor job on vapor barrier and leads to cracking.
And we’re on a job right now and it’s a newer home only, let’s say 2002 or so. Mhm. And they had a can lever on the back two forty of their house. And since the the poly and the vapor barrier and insulation was really piss poor in that area, it caused the shower drain to fail, which in turn rotted out their whole house on the the back wall.
So $20,000 later, we’re almost back together. But just because you buy a newer home doesn’t mean you’re free and clear.
Sometimes it’s good to get an older home that’s lasted the test of time and they’re not so complicated designs back then too. Cantilevers are never really a good idea.
Even in the older homes, they can be pretty cold, typically not insulated well underneath them. And if you don’t know what a cantilever is, it’s just an area on your house that sticks out proud of the main wall. So, lots of issues arise from that.
But yeah, buying a house that’s been renovated from the right contractor is a good investment. You got to be careful of the the people who get in there and flip it and put lipstick on a pig because there’s a lot of stories of those that goes on.
Yeah. A lot of a lot of things that get covered up that really should not be covered up.
But not this house. We really made sure to cross our tees and dot our eyes.
Yeah, 100%.
And yeah, just to speak further to your observation on the newer home being not constructed quite so well. I’ve seen that and I’m sure you have have as well.
I remember doing eaves trough measurements on some of these older homes and it’s probably one of the only times that I’ve ever seen this on a house and it was a house from you know the late ’60s early ’7s. And those craftsmen were a different breed. They would really they were exacting.
So I remember measuring the eaves trough on a cottage roof house. So So the eaves troughs going all the way around the four sides and every measurement was like within I think even an eighth of an inch. It was like bang on and this is like a 45y old house.
You don’t see that. You don’t see that new construction. You go to new construction and the fascia boards waving like this and up and down both and it’s just slap them together with the air tools and it’s all about speed.
You know, back in the day, those guys were using hand tools. They probably handnailed that whole house probably has been hand nailed.
So, they come from a previous generation of craftsmen. You know, it wasn’t anyone can frame. Now, back in the day, I think they were much more exacting, higher higher standards. And so, that’s what that’s what we see in some of these older homes.
yeah, some other reasons to buy fully renovated home would be yeah, move in ready as you stated. Okay, it took us eight months. It wasn’t it wasn’t 8 months steady because it was a filler job for us, but we’re you know we’re fully experienced contractors, 18 years in the business.
We we kept our regular jobs going all throughout, but we put quite a few resources. Yeah. And it still took us all that time.
So, if you’re a homeowner, if you’re just an average Joe or kind of a handy guy or I laid some floor and painted a little bit, you better quit your job.
Well, you think you’re going to be able to do this and any kind of time, you won’t?
No. Not unless you have all Monday to Friday to work on it. 10 hour days. No. And lots of you need lots of outside help, too.
You know, you need to get the quartz guy. You need to have the cords connection. You need to get your egress window guy.
Yeah. You’re going to pay premium price for all that stuff.
If if we would have charged someone to do this, we it would have would I would say $300,000 probably. It’s complete renovation, complete top to bottom, right?
So, it’s probably probably pushing that, you know, it’d be our price times the 1.67, which was our factor that all of our jobs are priced that.
So, what what did we put into this house?
About one It’s close to 150. 150.
Yeah. So, it’ be another h 100,000 on top of that. $ 250 $250,000 worth upgrade is probably what we would have charged for this this project.
So yeah, that would be very difficult to undertake yourself if you’re just a handy person. Probably not going to happen and it definitely wouldn’t be as clean as what we’ve got it because we we’ve got journeyman carpenters and we’ve got all the right people, all the right trades. So that’s definitely a plus there.
Why Add a Legal Basement Suite While Renovating
We’ve got all new appliances on the main floor. Right.
Yeah. the basement. We got some new appliances down there. What do you have for—
So, main floor, we got main floor, we got all new appliances. did the overhead range, microwave combo, and new stove, new fridge, new dishwasher. no, washer or dryer upstairs, but that’s easy enough.
Yeah. And then downstairs, we got a decent stove, a decent fridge, but we got brand new microwave. Again, it’s over the range. Nice slim unit there. and brand new dishwasher, right? And washer, dryer, older units downstairs, but they’re still in good working condition.
Yeah. And then brand new HRV and stuff like that. Lots of lots of new materials and and whatnot.
Yeah. Newer furnace.
Yeah, for sure. So, it’s it’s ready to go that way. And then, of course, you got your income potential.
So, I did a bit of Google search and and some prep for this video here. So yeah, average price for one-bedroom basement suite in Fort Saskatchewan somewhere around $12 to $1,500 a month is what people are paying for rentals for a basement suite. So that would be an awesome little money maker for you.
Yeah. Mortgage helper. Mortgage helper.
$12 to $1,500 a month. And vacancy rates anywhere from 1 to 3% vacancy in Fort Saskatchewan. And there’s always a high demand with all of the industry that’s there.
You know that you’ve got, you know, you could do an Airbnb if you wanted. you can have temporary, you know, and then temporary housing., people come in for projects, you know, 1 2 3 4 6 months a year and they, a lot of the big companies will pay for their their lodging as well.
So, you know, you can charge 120 up to 150 bucks a night on an Airbnb. That’s some good that’s some good money. That could be up to three grand a month if you had that thing booked out.
And it also increases your mortgage approval rating by that around $1,500 can increase it by let’s say around 100 grand approval rating 75 to 100.
Yeah. It gives you Yeah, it’s an extra 45 is it $45,000 up from 75 to 100 grand extra if you had a 1,500 month income.
Okay. Approximately somewhere in there. So, it opens a lot of doors for you and what you’re able to look at and get approved for.
Yeah. Good benefits here for the buying a fully renovated home and with a legal suite.
Of course, we’ve got the open concept. You know, we we didn’t stick with the original wall structure inside. wasn’t a loadbearing wall on the main floor, so we’re able to open up the kitchen living room. And so, it looks really nice now. So much light in that room. It’s quite nice. modern modern look to it and the nice lighting and whatnot.
Quartz countertops in the main floor. so we’ve got also the energy efficiency with the triple pane windows. Got a little bit of insulation on the exterior as well. And we’ve sealed it sealed it all up nicely as well. So spray foam rim joist. We added spray foam rim joist.
And then you’ve got the soundproofing also between the floors.
So yep. Yeah. Soundproofing and separated the heat systems now. So, we got an electric baseboard heat in the basement with the HRV to keep the air flowing and the and the shower moist air. Get that out of the house.
Yeah. And then the furnace just serves the upstairs now. Furnace and the AC is upstairs only as well.
AC is upstairs only, but actually there is one vent in the common area in the house.
So, Oh, is there?
Yeah. So, we still get a little AC and a little force air heat in the basement as well at the bottom of the stairs. And
Okay. When you first walk in, there’s also a heat run there, which so the the basement will still be cool, right? Obviously, cold air goes down, so
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it’s a really nice little suite. I love that place. Someone’s going to have a real nice little home there.
of course, you got the versatility with a private entrance for the back back door.
Yeah, the independent heating system you mentioned. So, this kind of home suitable for investors, first-time home buyers, or multigenerational. There’s a lot of people that you know want their parents to move in with them or those type of things. So so that’d be pretty pretty nice as well.
aside from that with that suite you’ve get better resale value because it’s legal. There’s not a lot of legal suites.
No, I think for the appraisal comparison they had to go to Sherwood Park to find a comparable basement suite. So we’re one of the first people I think in Fort to get that done.
Yeah. And it was appraised at I believe it was appraised at 545.
545 and that’s our current asking price.
Yeah. Yeah.
Why This Renovation Was Done Right by Fort Sask Reno
It was of course one of the final reasons that I could speak to about why you should buy a fully renovated bungalow in Fort Sketch because it’s been renovated by Fort Sask Reno and we are the one of the premier renovation companies in the greater Edmonton area.
We just passed 160 five-star reviews and so there’s very few contractors that can compete with us. I think there’s there might be one or two others in Edmonton that have got us at this point but 18 years in business or 165 star Google reviews mult multiple time chamber of commerce business award winners and so you know it’s done well.
Yeah, family business too. A lot of people like that. So you’ll be in business talking to a lot of family and then you get the care and quality that the family is after.
Yeah, for sure. It’s it’s really important to us. Every job that we do, it’s super important when you’re in a small community like Fort Saskatchewan still is.
You know, everybody everybody knows you and you got to do good work or you won’t be in business for 18 years and have 165 star reviews. You just won’t you we would have been out of business long time ago.
That’s why you should buy this house.
It was an awesome project. I’m sure it’s it’s going to be nice when we get the the sold sign put on there and and whatnot, but we’ll be looking forward to doing some more like this.
And but yeah, Tom, you did a really awesome job and I thank you for your efforts. It’s been exceptional exceptional experience and I’m super grateful to have you on my team and my son partner. Can’t be better than that. So, thank you.
Yeah, my pleasure. It’s been fun. I think everyone misses it a little bit. It’s kind of nice working for yourself.
Yeah. On the projects. Like, as much as we love working for our customers, too, it’s nice having the final call sometimes and and whatnot. So, I think everyone starting to miss the flip a little bit. So, we’ll be looking for another one to do.
Definitely will.
Yeah. So, thanks again, guys, for joining us and don’t forget to like and subscribe. Very good. Until next time. Thanks so much. See you again.