Property assessment is in, and up!

I'm no expert on property taxes, but we received the latest municipal property assessment recently, and I suppose it's a mixed blessing. It's nice, in theory, that the value of our property is up: if we ever sell, that'll be good.

On the other hand, who likes to pay more tax?

So, I plugged the numbers from the latest assessment into the interweb and came up with the following graph. I don't find it especially informative, but it's nice to look at.

Of course, we could appeal the assessment, but that could backfire. I doubt the assessment assessors assessed our assessment based on a genuine inspection of our particular property. We've made some serious improvements to the property, including replacing the roof, replacing the heat recovery ventilator, landscaping, and extensive cosmetic improvements.

We suspect summoning the assessment re-assessment assessors to our home could reveal an even higher property value. That's the kind of news that'd be nice to hear from a real estate agent when it's time to sell, but not when it comes to setting how much municipal tax we'd pay.

Any experienced homeowners with thoughts on the take-home message from all this?

How To Report The News

A strikingly accurate template for doing a BBC-style (slightly more sophisticated than North American-style) news story.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Big ass doesn't mean big heart disease risk

From the BBC:

Jenifer Lopez and Beyonce may not need to worry about heart disease.

Researchers at Oxford University found carrying extra weight on your hips, bum and thighs protects against heart problems.

That junk in the trunk contains an anti-inflammatory agent that stops arteries from clogging.

Previous studies have found carrying excess fat around the stomach raises the risk of diabetes and heart disease

Windows 7 invades Casa de Big Ass, and how to uninstall Windows 7

In the week before Christmas, I spotted a good deal at Newegg: three Windows Home Premium upgrades for $199, free shipping. Sounded fabulous, so I grabbed it. Paid for it by selling two old Power Rangers toys, still in original boxes, on Kijiji for $200. Made some guy very happy.

So, let's see how it went!

Job #1: The Stallion. This is the home studio PC, which is an aging amalgamation of computers from years gone by. Asus motherboard, some kind of Athlon CPU, ATI AIW 9800 Pro graphics, and other bibs and bobs. I went the extreme route with the upgrade and formatted C: when I installed it.

Upgrade went smoothly! Windows found most of my drivers by itself. Win7 does not support the TV tuner part of the graphics card, so the AIW is just a 9800 Pro now. No biggie, 'cuz I only ever used the input part of it a few times. My webcam doesn't work -- no biggie either, 'cuz I don't use it.

The Stallion upgrade gets, well, I'll say an 'A'.

More after the break...