Reading a four-bedroom listing in Whitby
Check where the fourth bedroom actually is. In 1980s Rolling Acres and Pringle Creek plans it is often a small room over the garage or a converted den, while Taunton North's and Brooklin's 2000s houses usually put four real bedrooms upstairs, sometimes with two ensuites. In a downtown Victorian the fourth may be a third-floor attic room with a sloped ceiling and no closet, which the listing will still count. Ask about the furnace and air conditioner age, because a four-bedroom two-storey in Williamsburg from 1998 is now on its second of each, and about the shingles on any house past twenty years. Look at the yard depth relative to the house, since later phases squeezed lots as the town grew. Families sorting by school should remember that both Durham boards draw catchments by street address, so confirm the school for the specific street rather than the neighbourhood.