Beautiful Historic Victorian Queen Anne in Highly Sought after Neighbourhood
MLS # 60-324 - $385,000
DESCRIPTION
This absolutely gorgeous Victorian Queen Anne home has been lovingly maintained and meticulously updated. This circa 1885 executive home is located on the square overlooking Victoria Park in the extremely desirable, prestigious Old North area of Woodstock. You will be just minutes from many amenities, such as highways 401 & 403, Woodstock Collegiate Institute (public high school), Central Public School (kindergarten – grade 8), downtown shopping, Woodstock Art Gallery, Woodstock Museum square, restaurants, Lions Pool, Vansittart Park, the hospital and other emergency services.
HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE
Originally built in 1885 by Helen and William VanIngen, the ownership lineage of 399 Drew street boasts an impressive collection of professional figures, including William Knowles, longstanding bank manager of CIBC, and E.P Hodgins, principal of Woodstock Collegiate Institute and is currently home to the former proprietors of Currah’s Farm Store, and Woodstock Home Hardware, and of Currah and Company Interior Design and Home Staging.
ARCHITECTURAL DISTINCTIONS
Described as the most elaborate and eccentric Victorian house styles, the Victorian Queen Anne utilizes technologies made less-expensive by the Industrial Revolution. Cut field stone foundation
Full 2-storey L shape, white brick with red brick accents above windows, horizontal parallel lines, dog tooth brick work under windows and along strung course. Gable roof with projecting eaves, decorative wooden vergeboard with center pendant post in gable end over 2 storey bay window, small floor under gable, Flat 1/1 flat double hung windows, A-symmetrical veranda, Original Stained glass window
THE CHARM OF YESTERDAY, WITH THE FUNCTIONALITY OF TODAY
You will be awestruck viewing the fourteen exceptionally large rooms, completed with pristine original trim work, unique ornate corner blocks, 10 foot ceilings, and flawless hardwood throughout. The original plaster walls have been restored and repainted in pleasant neutral tones. The building also boasts such modern amenities as copper wiring with 200 amp service, completed in 1996. Every bedroom, the kitchen, family room, and upstairs office has been wired with Telephone and Cable service. The supply plumbing has been updated with ¾" copper to most of the house. The structure is heated with a High Efficiency forced air gas furnace, and cooled with Central Air conditioning. The triple-brick design and original sash & pulley windows provide excellent insulation. You can live comfortably knowing that the entire roof, including the flat portion, was replaced in 2003. At that time, the chimney was rebuilt as well.
Forget lugging a vacuum cleaner upstairs, this house has a central vacuum system, equipped with two sets of attachments – one for each floor.
Step inside this wonderful home and be amazed!
For more information, to book a private tour, or to design a marketing plan for your own home, please contact:
Ben Sage, Sales Representative
Sutton Group – Right Way Real Estate (2007) Inc., Brokerage
Independently Owned and Operated
Brokerage: 519.539.6194
Agent Cell: 519.532.1295
Labels: Ben Sage, Listings, Moving, Ontario, Real Estate, Real Estate Advice, Residential Sales, Victorian, Woodstock, Woodstock Art, Woodstock ON Real Estate, Woodstock Ontario, Woodstock Ontario Real Estate
Breaking it Down 02 - How to buy a Bigscreen!
As Promised, here is my
Breakdown regarding Bigscreen TV's.
As a seasoned "nerd" I get a lot of questions about technology. Lately they seem to be focused around bigscreen TV's. There is some confusion about how to properly buy a bigscreen, so I'm going to try to demistify the process for you!
Big Screens, Big Questions!- Why do I want HDTV anyway? What IS HDTV?
- How Big should I buy?
- LCD vs. Plasma: Which is right for me?
Why do I want HDTV anyway?
I'm sure you've all heard of HDTV by now. The acronym stands for High Definition Television, and it is exactly that. Televisions have historically had very little innovation since the invention of colour tubes in 1940. Since then, the real advances in television have been on the supply side - Shifting from Antenna broadcasts, to Satellite, then to traditional cable systems, and new mini-dish satellites, and finally using the internet to distribute television programs.
Sure, companies such as Panasonic and Sony pushed small advances in their Picture Tube televisions (better filters for more colour display, and to cut down on "noise" generated in the transmission stage), but nothing MAJOR has changed in almost 70 years.
Televisions display information at a certain "resolution," much like a digital camera. The more "megapixels" your camera can capture, the higher the detail in the final product. The same is also true of Televisions. They display a certain number of "lines" of resolution. Traditional, old fashioned colour TV broadcasts (on antenna, satellite, or cable systems) consist of a display of 525 horizontal lines, therefore every second, your television draws 525 lines horizontally 30 times, to make up a moving picture. In the 50's, this sounded and looked EXTREMELY impressive. It was so advanced, in fact, that it lasted about 50 years, until the technology to make bigger screens exposed how poor the quality actually is at 525 lines. This is partially why all those "old" projection bigscreen TV's look fairly poor.
Then came High Definition TV. Pushed by the desire for a bigger screen, a format was invented that carries 1080 lines of resolution to your television. The HDTV format also introduces the ability to broadcast SOUND in the Dolby Digital 5.1 format (I will talk about sound in another blog entry!). This format (in its highest form - 1080p) also doubles the "frame rate" of your picture - instead of 30 images per second, it is up to 60 on HDTV - allowing for better display of sports and action packed materials, and equally important, less fatigue on the eyes. The result is a viewing experience that will literally blow you away, like the first time you heard Money for Nothin' on a compact disc, or the first time you talked on the phone in a shopping mall, or in your car. Amazing!
How Big should I buy?This is the second most popular question people ask. Most of my male friends want to get the BIGGEST set they can possibly afford. While I can identify with that position, size should be determined by the room the television will be placed in.
The general rule of thumb is as follows:
Your sitting position should be 2 - 3 times the size of your screen for maximum enjoyment.
Therefore, if your couch / chair is 10 feet from where your television will sit, you would be looking for a television of approximately 54"
8 ft. = approx 38 - 40"
12 ft. = approx 58"
15 ft. = 72"
You can sit closer (say 2x screen size) to your set if you will be watching mostly high definition content (as you will not notice the imperfections in the picture), but if you are going to be watching a lot of standard definition (many channels and programs are still only available in old-fashioned broadcast formats), you will want to sit a bit further back (3 times screen size). I've used a compromise to factor the optimum viewing distances above.
LCD vs. Plasma: Which is right for me?
This is easily the most popular question asked of me. On the surface, these two display types seem to look nearly identical - but there are several key differences that will influence your purchase.
Whats the difference?
Plasma screens use a layer of tiny gas plasma cells charged by electricity to create a picture. LCD (liquid crystal display) screens are liquid crystal sandwhiched between glass plates. The picture is created by varying electrical charges on the liquid, combined with a backlight for illumination. None of this really matters though, what matters is HOW IT LOOKS!!!
For general home theatre uses, Plasma has a distinct edge. Because LCD pictures are created partially by a BACKLIGHT (a light source shining through the sandwiched liquid crystal plates), there is always some light seepage around each pixel (individual element of colour - millions of these make up a single picture). Because of this, blacks and dark colours do not appear as dark as they could. This affects dark scenes in television shows and movies, as well as the shading of all colours on your screen, no matter what the content.
Plasma also tends to have a better wide viewing angle than its LCD counterpart. Because the LCD television uses layers of glass to create its image, you can experience a "parallax" effect if viewing it at wider angles.
Older LCD televisions had a problem with a blurring image during fast moving scenes, or sports broadcasts. This has been fixed up in most LCD models being sold today. A buying tip is to check the pixel response time on LCD televisions - the lower the number (measured in ms - milliseconds), the better the performance during fast scenes.
LCD screens are able to produce higher resolutions than similar sized Plasma televisions - That means that you can view a high definition broadcast on a smaller set if you buy an LCD television. LCD's also use up to 30% less power than similar sized plasma screens.
The lifespan of an LCD television MAY be longer than a plasma as well. LCD's are guaranteed to function for 60,000 hours, while some plasma displays only claim 30,000 - 50,000 hours. Still, either choice will most likely outlast the technology, as 60,000 hours would last you 20.5 years watching TV for 8 hours every single day.
ConclusionBuying a bigscreen should be a fun experience. By all means, shop around! Ask salespeople questions! You might find similar pricing from store to store, as most retailers of high end electronics don't make much margin on big-ticket items like Bigscreens and appliances. When it comes time to buy, make sure you get your products from a trusted retailer, with a good warranty or return program, in case something goes wrong, or you are not satisfied with your choice. If you're looking to buy a bigscreen in the Woodstock, Ontario area, send me an email, and I can let you know who MY favourite retailers are, and why!
Email me with any questions, comments, or feedback on this, or any other topic!
(sources, www.wikipedia.org)
Labels: Bigscreen, LCD, Moving, Ontario, Plasma, Real Estate, Theatre, Woodstock, Woodstock ON Real Estate, Woodstock Ontario, Woodstock Ontario Real Estate
