No fear of upped mortgage rates

By BRENDA DALGLISH

VANCOUVER (CP) — There are some mortgages holders who don't fear Can- ada's escalating interest rates — their mortgage rate is set at an enviable to-per- cent a year.

They are the people living in government-assisted co-op housing units created since 1978.

In 1975, the federal gov- ernment first introduced its co-operative housing pro- gram and provided mortgage money at an interest tare of eight per cent, said John Nicols, Vancouver branch manager of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

The program was revised in 1978 so that co-ops borrow money in the conventional manner from chartered banks but continue to benefit from low rates. Through the housing corporation, the fed- eral government provides a monthly cheque to the co-op to effectively reduce its in- terest rate to two per cent, said Nichols.

Since the program began in 1975 there have been 26,000 co-op units created.

This year in Vancouver, where the housing crisis is one of the worst in North America, about 1,000 co-op units will be built. The demand for such units app- ears almost insatiable — there is a waiting list of more than 3,000 people in Vancou- ver alone.

Right now Vancouver's In- ner City Housing Society, one of several societies in the city established to help co-op groups, has. 1,300 people on its now-closed waiting list. It will supply 200 units this year.

If that seems like only a drop in the bucket, consider that B.C. got about half of the total national quota of co-op units for the year.

But, says Mark Bostwick of the Columbia Housing Ad- visory Association, co-op housing is not for everyone.

GEARED FOR FAMILIES

It does not work for people who move a lot, it’s designed for families and it certainly isn't for someone who con- siders his home an invest- ment, says Bostwick.

Unlike regular housing,

Winning Provincial

number

The Nov. 27 Provincial winning ticket number is 8007401. This ticket, with its complete number, wins $500,000.

Additional prizes are $50,000 for the last six digits; $1,000 for the last five digits; $100 for the last four digits; and $10 for the last two

s. The next draw takes place this Friday.

CASTLEGAR NEWS, November 29, 1981

which is often treated as an investment, co-op housing is not meant to turn a profit. Although individuals own the units they live in, when an owner leaves the co-op, the unit is passed on to someone else for the same costs as the original owner paid. Owners are reimbursed

for their original buy-in pay- ment and for the cost of moderate improvements to their units.

The lack of a profit motive is a key part of the govern- ment's intent in establishing the co-op housing subsidy — to make low-cost housing available at the lowest poss-

—CasNewsFoto by Linda Holl

ible cost to the government. The same legislation also requires that a co-op have residents with a mix of income levels. Those with higher incomes pay more for a unit than a lower-income family would pay for the same unit — the richer subsidize the poorer.

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includes unbelievable

By DEBRA CRAINE

LONDON (CP) — Harold Welling has handled millions of umbrellas, thousands of tennis rackets and hundreds of passports — all of them lost.

As head of the biggest lost-property office in the world, Welling has tried to find owners for everything from glass eyeballs to a bag of human bones, all left behind on London Transport buses and subway trains.

So many things are mislaid

on London's public transit system that it takes 82 people to run the office and 26,000 square feet of storage space to accommodate the racks of handbags, cameras, radios, books, baby carriages and all kinds of clothing found by passengers and dri- vers.

Now, after more than 20 years in the lost property office, Welling is retiring as superintendent.

He has a fund of stories about his years in the

crowded basement corridors on Baker Street.

“You name it, we've seen it,” he says.

“Last Christmas we had a large stuffed gorilla came in. We also get, now and then, invalid chairs and I often wonder what has happened to the invalids.

“We get crutches, We even had a very large surfboard that belonged to an Aus- tralian lad.”

Weaving transparencies

Fourteen members and two guests attended the Nov. 18 meeting of the Selkirk Weavers’ Guild at the Resker Hall in Robson.

Guild president, Ritva MacLeod, reiterated her re- quest that members arrive at precisely 10 a.m. so the group can get down to business promptly. It was agreed that library books should be selec- ted and signed for after meeting have adjourned.

A weekend workshep on weaving transparencies has been scheduled for April 23-25. Mieneke Mees of Cap- ilano College will instruct. A $40.00 fee will cover regis- tration and cost of materials; $10 of which in the form of a non-refundable deposit, is due by Feb. 17.

The Selkirk Weavers’ Guild announces that their annual Exhibit and Sale on Nov. 13 and 14 was again enormously successful. The volume of sales was up

substantially and quality was, predictably, first-rate.

In honor of the Year of the Disabled, items donated by S.W.G. members were raff- led. The proceeds enabled a contribution of $80 each to the Clay Castle of Castlegar and the Silver King Work- shop of Nelson. Winners of the items raffled are as follows: wall hanging, Rita Morrison of Castlegar; bag, Leslie Killough of Castlegar; pine-needle basket, Alan

Notes minor earthquake

SEATTLE (AP) — A’

minor earthquake occurred Thursday beneath Kitsap Peninsula on the west side of Puget Sound, said scientists at the University of Wash- ington. No damage or injur- ies were reported. The 4:30 a.m. tremor measured 3.4 on the Richter scale.

McKinnon of Castlegar; cush- ion, Joan Tuck of Castlegar; and goblets, Don McKessock of Rossland.

For next year's sale, the idea of holding a fashion show was proposed, and the suggestion of holding a two- day sale was discussed. No resolutions were made on these subjects at this time.

For the November pro- gram, Mrs. J. Smailes read a brief biography of Mary Meigs Atwater, weaver, author and founder of the Shuttle Craft Guild. Ingeborg Thor-Larsen demonstrated the Sprang technique.

There will be no December meeting. The next regular meeting will take place on Jan. 20 at the Resker Hall in Robson at 10 a.m. sharp. A nominating committee will submit the names of those willing to become secretary, so members are urged to attend and vote.

items

That was shipped back to Australia by air freight at a cost to the owner of more than $300.

Welling has often won- dered how people manage to lose the most unlikely ob- jects, and occasionally he has had the chance to find out.

“Returned some dentures to a lady that lived locally to me in south London... and I said: ‘How did you lose them?’

“She told me she just got them from the dentist and they were hurting so much that she took them out and put them on the seat by her in the bus.”

Apart from 300 to 400 per- sonal callers a day, the office also gets letters of inquiry, like the one from a man in northwest London.

“The other day while trav- elling from Baker Street to Piccadilly Circus,” runs the letter, “I lost my trousers. There was I stuck on the Underground with nothing on but my short underpants

embarrassed expres-

‘slo!

Unfortunately, London Transport was unable to help.

Then there was a letter from the press secretary to the Queen, thanking the lost property office for returning the list of the Queen's engagements which had been left on a Nov. 6 bus.

Thousands of items that are never claimed are sold by auction. Proceeds go towards running the lost property office, which has to be sub- sidized to the tune of $630,000 a year.

STORE HOURS:

Monday to Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Thursday & Friday

a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

While the world talks of using other sources of energy, Terry Tuck has done something about it with his earth-

sheltered home.

ithe interiot is very com

Ie you

This coming summer Terry Tuck will have a garden on his roof. His wife Joan is going to plant tomatoes, pep- ers, lettuce and corn on top of their house.

Terry and Joan Tuck's

" house is covered with almost * two feet of dirt and, since

July, they have been living in

the only earth-sheltered home in the Kootenays. Why did you build it? 1 asked him. “A, it's different; B, I like to try new things, and C, it’s energy-saving.” The outside walls of con- crete are covered with a layer of sprayed-on foam i sulation. And on top of that is the cheapest and most plen- tiful exterior siding in the

LINDA HALL

| Getting to Know Your Neighbor

world — good old mother.

earth, I was surprised to learn

that the earth does not act as {

an insulator in the Tuck home. “It's a moderator,” he said. Down 20 feet, even 10, the temperature of the soil

remains constant year round, {

50 degrees. As anyone knows who retreats to the basement in the heat of the summer,

it’s a lot cooler with dirt all |

around you. In the winter this principle is reversed. The temperature of the outside of most regular frame houses is very close to the temperature of the air. And that can sometimes be

CASTLEGAR NEWS, November 29, 1981

erry Tuck: living underground

counted some of the experi- ences they had trying to get the house up. 5 “The simplest things you don't think of, like how do we get the dirt on top of the

; house? We just never thou-

ght of that. I tried wheelbar-

; rowing it load by load, but

Cat and ‘bulldozer opera-

}. tors were incredulous when

mighty cold. But the outside © temperature of Terry's home |

is always 50 degrees. “This isn’t a true earth-sheltered home,” Joan reminded me. “A true earth-home is built into the side of a bank. We couldn't find a bank so we dug in and pulled the earth over us.” i

Besides being earth-shel- ~

tered, the 2,500-square-foot home is also a solar home. The dwelling faces due south

with floor to ceiling windows ©

spanning its length. Nice for winter, I commented but wouldn't that get rather hot in the summer? At this Terry rose from his chair and called me over to the wide living room window. “You have to get the overhang just right.” I looked out and saw that the roof extended over the window, almost two feet.

It was explained to me that

In May one bulldozer ver looked skeptically at solar collectors that T

dri- the

* had set outside. “Y

going to heat your house these?” He was not im

air outside, instead the moist, warm air is sucked into a nylon stocking to catch the lint, and excess moisture is gotten rid of by the heat ex- changer.

Parts of the house are not quite completed and the gray

pres sed, that was until he lestied solar

against one and came ste, with a painful burn. In a mat ter of hours the sun

: heated them to.190 .

One.person Terry tioned who did help a deal in the construction of tHe: home was Nick Ogloff.

_ was fantastic,” recalls T

TERRY TUCK . . . his hobbies include photography, gun

collecting,

udying up on solar and alternate energy

source heating systems and wine making.

to allow the sun to shine just to the bottom edge of the window and no more. As fall

‘approaches and the sun ‘is

farther down in the sky more light comes in. In the dead of

on June 21, the summer. ‘vinter, the sunat its lowest

equinox; the sun.is. atthe

highest point in the aky. The

The property was dug six feet down the whole width scooping up enough dirt for seven house foundations.

sh The

: Sha Tucks couldn't find a ban!

on 7

k so they di

Next summer the roof will become their garden.

lug in and pulled the earth over themselves.

T also learned that the con- crete floor acts asa thermal mass. Sun shines on the floor, heats it up, and as a result some of the heat is trans- ferred to the house.

Terry also has 20 solar. collectors sitting on the south wall waiting to be hooked up, but so far the Tucks haven't needed them. Their souther- ly windows and an airtight enclosed fireplace are keep- ing them quite warm so far. They use an electric hot water heater but Terry even- tually plans on converting that to solar.

The sun shines on these

black rectangular solar. col-.

lectors and heats up the fluid in the coils beneath. Through aseries of pipes, blowers and ‘exchangers, this ferred

uu might inside of the house to look rather space-agey with all sorts of odd gad; and

kind of house anyone could live in and enjoy, and you certainly don’t feel. like you're sitting in a cave.

Is this sort of house cheap- er or more expensive to con- struct than a: regular frame

1? I was curious. “Cheap-

have shaved one-third of the cost if we knew then what we know now.”

Constructing the house has had its frustrating moments for the Tucks. I laughed with Terry:and Joan as they re-

cook's tour of the place. TRS. Tuck home is almost airtight; and must make use of hés we

hours a day or can be ally switched on. Outlets located above’ the stove,=

‘erry came to Castlegar ¥, Penticton in 1966 to

: working with nt E: up so much time, that Terry eventually had to drop much

of his “extra-curricular”. ac- tivities.

‘His hobbies include photo- graphy, gun collecting, studying up on and

ing systems, and wine mak- ing, to name just a few. He

F and Joan have two dach-

strange-looking pipes and SOLAR COLLECTOR impressed one bulldozer operator wires, but it is very com- after he leaned against it and came away with a pal

fortable and ordinary, the

a

ful burn.

oe

Calculations for the roof extension on the wide front re very critical. The overhang gives shade when the sun is at the highest point (summer equinox)

and allows the rays

shunds Otto and Helga, who roam through the house and really like it up on the'roof.

Terry collects wooden masks, bringing them home from the exotic places they have visited and they are . hung on the north hall in his

‘as the sun travels further down

in the sky as fall approaches.