Friday, November 30, 2007

Got the lead out?

Lots of talk about lead in the water over the past few months. Some people are recommending we run our faucets for 15 minutes in the morning, or after long periods of disuse, to flush any potential lead leeching from the pipes. Great idea, but when I need water for the coffee maker in the morning, I just can't wait that long.

Several neighbors have had their water service pipes replaced by the city (at least, the city's portion, once the work crosses the owner's property line they bear any further costs). There are also options to have larger diameter pipes installed by the city for an extra fee.

Can anyone answer these questions for me:

1) Does your water pressure improve after the work is done?
2) How much do you have to pay to have your share of the work completed?
3) Is it worth it to have just the city's portion of the water pipes replaced?
4) Who tested lead levels in your home?

If anyone has any info, please comment.


http://www.toronto.ca/water/supply/water_pressure/pressure.htm

Real Estate on Langley 2007

It was another really busy real estate year in Riverdale, and Langley had many sales. I've looked up and posted a few of them, but details are limited. While visiting the open houses I noted that there were some really beautiful kitchen and bath renos. Please post the names of any contractors that did a good job for you.
Welcome to all the new Langley-ites!

Year in sales #219


3 Br List $499, sold just under

Year in sales #103


3+1 Br List $659, sold over

Year in sales #41


4Br List $849, sold over

Year in Sales #171


List $529, sold well over

Year in sales #158


3+1 br List $549 900, sold well over

Year in sales #212

List $389 000 sold just over

Year in sales #102

3 br List $509 , sold well over

Year in sales #146


4br List $759, sold well over

Year in sales #235


List $389 900, sold over

year in sales #138


2br List $474 900, sold under

Year in sales #25


Mr. Schimming's final residence: 4+2br List $549 000 Sold $664 760

Year in sales #21


Walter Schimming's estate 6+1 br List $409 Sold $495 240

Year in sales #214

3+2 reno List $469 900 sold under

Year in sales #171

List $529, sold

Year in sales #148


2+2 br List $599, sold just over

The year in sales #54



5br List $649 000 sold under

The year in sales #178

4+1 Sold for asking: $599 900

Friday, November 23, 2007

Dogs of Langley II

This is Bailey at 157. She's not really sad, she just wants something.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Sold

Sold! $645,800

54 Langley has just gone up, five bedrooms, three bathrooms and parquet floors throughout. Double garage, currently vacant. They're asking $649.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Sold

This just in: The lovely 219 Langley just sold for $493, after a few weeks on the market at $499. If I recall correctly, it was a detached 2 storey 3 bedroom stone home, nicely recessed from the street, with finished basement and 2 bathrooms. It is a great house, but it is across from Pape school, backing on to the No Frills parking lot, and very close to the train tracks, so the noise may have been a deterrent. Details to follow.

Dogs of Langley


This is Fritz, one of the residents of our street. Please send in more photos of your pets... maybe your kids would like to contribute!
Email me and I'll post your submissions.

136 Langley


We have lived at 136 Langley for 5 years. We are the 3rd or 4th owners of the house, and completely gutted it when we bought it in 2001. We recently waterproofed our basement and rebuilt out front porch and slightly lowered the wall in front of our house. We were very pleased with our contractor, Shawn Morren (www.shawnmorren.com), who did great work, both inside and outside of our house.

-Vicki

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Business card found in the wall of a Langley reno


Origins of the Langley Street Sale




The First Riverdale Street Sale was originally called “Where is Fred” street sale, named after the infamous guinea fowl roaming the west end of Langley Ave for about 6 months ending May 1990. Fred suddenly appeared, wandering about searching for a mate, calling out in a horrible rusty metal rubbing rusty metal pitch. Some people thought it was a runaway from the farm but they claimed it wasn’t, others thought a family living on Riverdale Ave which was known to have live birds used for consumption lost an inmate, but the origin of the bird was never found out.
The Riverdale Farm sent up skilled bird catchers with no luck, they even brought up a female guinea fowl from their flock but she wasn’t enticing enough for this frisky fellow. One day neigbours noticed the bird going to one spot on a regular basis and went to see what was up; they discovered Fred built a nest along the driveway of 21 Langley Ave under some bushes and than for the next 38 days laid 19 perfect eggs, one every other day. The Riverdale Farm caught the infamous Frederica sitting on her nest, the new name given to her by the neighbourhood kids and removed her to a new home at the Riverdale Farm.
Sandi Akins

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Operator, may I help you?

Back in the 50's (maybe even earlier) the telephone exchange in our area was HOward (46), as in "HOward 6, 0095" (466-0095).

Michael tells us:
The original Bell exchange was the now-condo building "Printers Row" (see http://mitchell-lofts.com/pages/AboutPRC.htm) on the east side of Logan just north of Simpson, designed in 1911 by the architect W.F. Carmichael. You'll note a blank sandstone panel at the top on the Logan side, which used to say "The Bell Telephone Company of Canada" and was "erased" by the condo developers in a minor act of vandalism. Note the height of each storey, necessary to accommodate the tall equipment racks. The exchange was later moved around the corner to the building on Simpson. The equipment in the Logan and Simpson buildings was SxS (step-by-step) until the early '80s - one of the last "step" exchanges around - when it was replaced by a Nortel DMS electronic switch.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Thanks Neighbour!



You've probably seen this nice notice from the residents at #32. Feel free to post such messages on Langley Life.


This is #52 taken in 1924.

Mystery House

What's the deal with #65? It seems to be some kind of rooming house, but the front door is always ajar. I guess Michael Moore was right.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Langley's history

I've often wondered who lived in our house since it was built. Did they work at the Colgate factory, or teach at a local school? Maybe they had desk jobs downtown, or laboured at the brickworks.
In the early days of Toronto (York), anywhere east of the Don River was considered "the sticks". Riverdale was a town until it was annexed in 1884, and when the Prince Edward Viaduct was completed in 1918, development in our area exploded.
Langley Ave. was named for Henry Langley, a renowned architect in the late 1800's. He designed some 70 churches in the city. Digging through the Toronto Archives, I found out that quite a few homes in our area were designed by Langley, Langley & Burke (the latter two partners were his brother and nephew). Henry now rests across the river at the Necropolis.
Number 157 was built a little later, around 1909, on land bought directly from the city. I haven't had much luck in finding the original plans, but I do know that Thomas Ormerod's family lived here for a few years around 1912. He was a guard at the Toronto Jail. It appears he and Mary had six children. Loretta was an operator at T. Eaton, Fred worked there too, and Serby was a clerk. Reza, Thelma and Mildred were children at the time. I wonder if they went to Withrow? Eight people in my house!
In the early 20's the Duries lived here, William was a fireman at Toronto Carpet Co. I'm not sure if a fireman was meant to put out fires or stoke them at that time. By 1930, TTC motorman George Sheward and timekeeper Melville Ridley took over.
Staring at the microfilm was drying out my contacts so I had to give up at 1940, when the house was listed as vacant. Henry Langley's descendant Elizabeth Langley Davidson is said to be an architect in the city today. Maybe I'll give her a call and see what she can contribute to our street's history.