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9| W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,O ctober 18,2018 w aterloochronicle.ca Last month's column I focused on seniors consid- ering rightsizing options as they plan for the golden years. When these (often larger) family homes come on market, there is a home- buyer pool ready to move in. These buyers are often young couples either fami- ly planning, or those who have recently traded in the Dodge Challenger for a Dodge Grand Caravan. The decision to "take on more house" involves careful consideration and plan- ning. Before taking the plunge and calling your Re- altor to tour homes, chal- lenge yourself with the fol- lowing few questions: 1. Are we ready to take on a larger mortgage pay- ment? 2. Why does my family need more house, and how do we plan to utilize the ex- tra space? 3. What's the state of our current home? Have we maintained the property, and realistically can it be "show ready" with a quick turnaround time? A move up is essentially a lifestyle shift. If you need more house because your current home space cannot support your growing fam- ily, that's one thing. It's an entirely different situation if you live a social lifestyle, because taking on more home will probably re- quire a redistribution of your disposable income. A move up means more ex- penses beyond the mort- gage payment. Property taxes, maintenance of a larger property and higher utility costs are just a few items that will require a greater financial commit- ment. Also, worth noting is any transfer of property in Ontario means you pay land transfer taxes, closing costs and likely last-min- ute home improvement bills to get your home ready for sale. If you are moving up, space is likely the biggest factor. The great thing about Waterloo is literally every neighbourhood in town presents an opportu- nity to move up within the neighbourhood itself. This may mean you're ready to jump from a townhome to a single detached residence to attain the extra space de- sired. When considering extra space, it's worth eval- uating your current home and seeing if opportunity presents itself where you are. If all you really need is an extra bedroom, is there a chance that space can be created in your unfinished basement? Perhaps it's worth calling a couple rep- utable renovation contrac- tors to quote for an addi- tion? If you love your cur- rent neighbours, street or commute, what value does that play into your deci- sion? Talking to your mort- gage broker about refi- nancing could allow you to stay put while achieving the extra space you need. If it's truly time to move on and up, how prepared are you to list your current property? Your Realtor will give you the best ad- vice (depending on what you're looking for) on whether you should buy or sell your home first. If it's a hot neighbourhood, chanc- es are you'll be in a multi- ple offer situation and a "sale of a buyer's property" condition may put you out of contention. A move up shouldn't be a daunting decision, but rather a very exciting mile- stone. That said, carefully considering your finances, space needs and current home marketability must be factored into your move forward. Paul Stickney is a life- long resident of Waterloo and local Realtor with experience in residential home and condo resales. He can be reached at paul@kwhouseand- home.com. MOVIN' ON UP! FROM STARTER HOME TO FAMILY CASTLE, THE MOVE UP REQUIRES CAREFUL CONSIDERATION SAYS PAUL STICKNEY I'm a collector of horror comic books from the 1950s, with titles like The Haunt of Fear, Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror. That's why I was excited to pick up a new anthology of horror comics titled Hogtown Horror at Fan Ex- po Canada in Toronto last month, featuring 17 stories of the macabre written and illustrated by over 25 To- ronto-based indie artists, just in time for Halloween. So I struck up a conver- sation with Hogtown Hor- ror editor Nelson Da Ro- cha, who, like me, began collecting comics in the third grade. "It amazes me how many great Canadian folk tales there are, and one of the main reasons I wanted to do Hogtown Horror was to bring these stories to light and share a part of Ca- nadian history with those who wouldn't otherwise know about it," said Da Ro- cha. "For example, people as- sociate witch trials with Salem, but many are un- aware that they were also a part of early French-Cana- dian history," he said. "First Nations have many wonderful legends about hauntings and wandering spirits that go unheard, and I think these are sto- ries we should be celebrat- ing and sharing." I told Da Rocha how my favourite story in the col- lection was Mooncake Madness, by Derrick Chow, a terrifying and poignant tale that reads like a classic episode of The Twilight Zone. It's the story of a lonely woman, named Mei Ling, longing to see her self-cen- tred and distant son, as she stumbles across a mysteri- ous vendor selling moon- cakes in bustling China- town during the mid-au- tumn Moon Festival. "And the baker promis- es her that eating one will grant her deepest wishes. Let's just say it gives her ex- actly what she wants," said Da Rocha. "In Mooncake Madness, there's just enough unspo- ken to allow the reader's imagination to run wild. I distinctly remember call- ing my mother after I read this story just to check up on her." I asked Da Rocha what he thinks makes for a mem- orable and chilling tale in horror comics. "From talking to read- ers, I find people are drawn to stories about isolation and loneliness," he said. "And sometimes people just want a good old-fash- ioned monster story where a lot of people die. "It's amazing how eclec- tic people's tastes are, but if I had to pick one thing that works best - and this goes back to Mooncake Mad- ness - is a memorable hor- ror story always leaves just enough for the reader's imagination. There needs to be hints that there's always more beneath the surface, and it isn't pretty." I recommend Hogtown Horror to anyone who en- joys imaginative and atmo- spheric twisted tales of ter- ror reminiscent of the great horror comics of yes- teryear. At this time of year, let your inner child be spooked by ghouls for a while, as a diversion from the scary aspects of the real world. Marshall Ward is a freelance writer and artist. Email is welcome at mar- shall_ward@hotmail.com CANADIAN TALES OF TERROR NEW ANTHOLOGY IS REMINISCENT OF THE GREAT HORROR COMICS OF YESTERYEAR, SAYS MARSHALL WARD MAYORS' VOICES ALONE CANNOT REPRESENT AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL Dear editor, In the Sept. 27 issue, in your editorial, "We should look at reducing the num- ber of elected officials," you wrote: "The cost-saving poten- tial is substantial. We are talking potentially mil- lions of dollars saved by cutting a few local politi- cians." It is not convincing if we do not know what per- centage of the budget is a cost of elected politicians. If it is, for example 0.5 per cent, it is not worthwhile to be discussed. There are other ex- penses, which weigh much more, and they should be discussed first as a potential source of savings. On the other hand, if local politicians cost us, say, 10 per cent of the budget, then it be- comes very important to try to reduce these costs. In another part of your editorial, I found: " ... cutting regional council ... leaving most of the decision-making to the mayor of each city." I have no doubts that each mayor will try to make best decisions ... but best according to him/ her. He/she will not know various opinions regard- ing his/her decision and its various aspects and consequences. Proper public consul- tations could compensate for it, but we do not have a mechanism, tradition and practice of wide public consultations (like Swit- zerland), and until we de- velop such ones, repre- sentatives of community cannot be replaced by best intentions of any best mayor. JERZY BULIK, WATERLOO PAUL STICKNEY Column MARSHALL WARD Column OPINION Don't be a LitterBug! Please keep our community clean.