-=> Quoting Dave Drum to Jim Weller <=-

 DD> said I was pre-qualified for U$225K I was gabber-flasted.

The banks pre-qualify people for the absolute maximum people can bear
with out quickly defualting. Prudent people take far less.

 DD> I told him "I don't need that much house."

Indeed.

 DD> this one ... went for the 25.

You live in an extremely depressed part of the world. Our smallest
mobile home plots (30' X 90') run $50K and then there are condo fees
to the barren land condominium on top. I once sold a foreclosure in
very poor condtion for $30K but the mobile home demolition cost was
$20K more.

Full size, fee simple lots are $150,000 (A large part of that is due
to our rugged terrain and climate. The developments costs are high.
Developers can get raw land tracts for as little as $120,000 an
acre. Also construction costs are high for the same reasons and so
are re-sales.

Yellowknife's average home, including condo apartments and older
mobile homes is $440,000 and the average house with garage runs
$550K to $750K. The cheapest house I have sold in recent years was a
1950s bungalow, vacant for years, and very moldy. It sold for
$163,000 and the place will be demolished to make way for a 4-plex.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
 
      Title: Gingerbread House Construction
 Categories: Info, Holiday, Cakes
      Yield: 1 help file
 
           Gingerbread

  First I made templates out of corrugated cardboard.  Two side
  walls, a front and back wall, two roof sections, two porch roof
  sections, two porch floor sections.  (My gingerbread house is a
  two-story American farmhouse with a corner porch.)
  
  I prepared and rolled out the dough on baking parchment, then laid
  the cardboard down and cut out the walls.  After the cutouts were
  cut, I removed the cardboard.  I also cut out the windows to leave
  open holes. Before baking, I poured melted sugar into the windows
  to make "glass."
  
  Then I baked the gingerbread sections. After they were baked, but
  still warm, I put the cardboard back on them to see if they were
  the same size, because cookie dough often spreads a little when it
  bakes.  Sure enough, the pieces needed trimming. So I trimmed them
  with a sharp knife, and Lynnie and I ate the bits we cut off.
  Next, I put all the house parts on racks to cool overnight.
  
  The next day, the cookie pieces were cooled and dry.  I put the
  walls together with royal icing, propped them up with mason jars
  so they would stand, and left for work. When I came home that
  night, the icing had set and the walls were solid.
  
  Next I glued the roof and porch floor in place with the icing.
  The roof wanted to slide off the pitch of the walls, so I kept it
  in place with a couple of straight pins (I removed the pins after
  the icing hardened.) Then I left these bits to harden overnight.
  
  The next morning, I put on the porch roof.  It needed to be
  propped with mason jars, too.  I also put on the porch columns
  (candy canes) to hold the front of the roof up.  When I got back
  from work that night, the house was ready to finish.
  
  The roof came first:  I buttered the roof with a nice thick layer
  of royal icing and shingled it with Necco wafers.  Shingled, mind
  you, over- lapping the the wafers like little slate shingles, not
  putting them edge-to-edge. I did that on both the main roof and
  the porch roof.
  
  Next, I piped white frosting around the windows and door, for
  molding. I piped red frosting on the windows for the window panes.
  Between the windows I glued little candy wreaths, then piped green
  frosting between them to make holly bunting, and piped red bows to
  "hold it" there. I made the foundation out of sugar cubes, and
  downspouts from candy canes. And I glued various Christmas candies
  all around the house for decoration. When I was all done, I made
  frosting icicles hanging from the eaves.
  
  From: Dave Sacerdote Date: 16 Dec 96 National Cooking Echo Ä
 
MMMMM


Cheers

Jim
     
... Neekha's very first gingerbread house looked like a crack house.

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