Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 Good morning, everybody. My name Elliot, Pierre. This is the Mac city morning show. We're going to start off the same way we always do with a little bit of gratitude. I know there's a million other things you could be doing with your time right now, but you've chosen to spend with us. And that really does mean the world to me. So thank you. And on that note, Tanner hit him with the intro.
Speaker 1 00:00:22 Oh, she caught me loves you're listening to the max any morning show.
Speaker 0 00:00:32 Okay. And we're back. Today's going to be a good one. I know it is. I could talk to this lady for hours and hours and hours. So I know 20 minutes is going to fly as per usual. I don't introduce my guests because they do a much better job at doing that than I ever can. So on that note, can you please introduce yourself and tell everybody who you are?
Speaker 2 00:00:49 Thanks Elliot. Um, my name is Christy Stonehouse. I work with Coldwell banker Fort McMurray. I've been with them for about 13 years now going on 14 years, um, for my, my entire real estate career.
Speaker 0 00:01:01 There you go. That's a long time. Wow. Yeah. Okay. So I guess we'll start off right off the bat. What, uh, 14 years in what got you interested in real estate and what's keeping you currently engaged in real estate after that many years?
Speaker 2 00:01:16 I know. I, um, I actually worked with a company here, a Syncrude Canada limited for seven years prior to real estate, wanted to get into real estate right out of high school. Um, but I thought at that point that I might've been a little bit too young. So I went out to site as a heavy equipment operator. And as time passed, I just thought if I'm going to do it, I gotta do it. And just jump right in. I met with my broker now calling her again, way back then and, and, uh, went to school for real estate. And then I love working with people. Um, customer service is probably my, my main objective, uh, objective, helping people find their homes and, uh, just love working with the people in the community.
Speaker 0 00:01:55 Okay. Very cool. So heavy hauler. Yeah. How for seven years,
Speaker 2 00:02:00 Seven years heavy equipment operator. Yes.
Speaker 0 00:02:02 Was like what pieces of equipment were you operating? Was it strictly just those big trucks or other pieces of equipment as well?
Speaker 2 00:02:09 Iran. So the heavy haulers, seven 97, seven 90 threes, uh, the little 50 tenors. Um, I can run greater trained on a wheel dozer, dozer, Bobcat. There's quite a few I could run
Speaker 0 00:02:24 Right on. And what site did you
Speaker 2 00:02:25 Do this at? A Syncrude based. Mine was on team three. I still stay in touch with, uh, quite a few people actually that I used to work with back then. A lot of them are retired now.
Speaker 0 00:02:35 That's awesome. Yeah, no, I have the pleasure and or curse depending on how you want to describe my period of time out at site. Um, but I spent one day I was a summer student, just, I was a summer student. I spent one day driving those big trucks, um, just a ride along. And then at the end of the shift, they, uh, let me actually drive. This is back. I'm old. This is when, like, I think things were a little different, man. I, my hat goes off and I tell this to everybody. If you work out at site, nobody can talk trash to you. Like it is a, I don't care what anybody says, Oh, you only work half the year. Oh, this, that and the other. It is a hard job. That's correct. Going out to site every day is tough. It's challenging. And my hat goes off to anybody that does it. And I remember because I'm a wuss, how sore I was after that first day of like that one day and not truck. When that tar sands hits the back of that truck, you go on a journey.
Speaker 2 00:03:36 You totally do. I think after my first three days when I very first started, um, I went home and I was like, I don't know, mom, I don't know if I can do this. She was like, just stick it out. But there are so many helpful people out there. They just truly, I don't know.
Speaker 0 00:03:52 Yeah. And it is true. Like when you're out there. Yeah. I was very young. I think I was 19 at the time. Um, yeah, people just gravitate. They see you're a fish out of water. They're like, okay, young kid, let me help you through this. And that's like Fort McMurray in general. And I guess like, it makes sense. People who work out at site are in Fort McMurray, but yeah, that sense of team, like the fact that you still, you listed the team that you were on and you're like, Oh yeah, I'm still in contact with those guys. Like that kind of defines Fort Memorial right there.
Speaker 2 00:04:21 Absolutely very close knit and Fort McMurray. I was born and raised here. So I absolutely love Fort McMurray. And the brokerage I worked for Coldwell banker Fort McMurray, we love YMM is our major thing. We've all loved Fort McMurray and what it has to offer, but it's all, no matter how much we've grown, it's just always staying, uh, stayed very close knit for us, I think. Right,
Speaker 0 00:04:39 Right now this happens more often than not. I think I hope people at home are recognizing how many people are actually born and raised here. Me and Tanner are born and raised. You're born and raised. It just, it's a constant theme, which I love because most people are like, Oh, you're born and raised. People actually are born. They're like, yeah, there's actually one or two of us. So one of the topics that comes up when people say that they're from here is the high school that you went to. What high school
Speaker 2 00:05:05 Did you go to? Taiwan to comps at high school and graduated from college in, uh, 2000. I believe tenor. I know we were talking about it earlier, too
Speaker 0 00:05:15 Calm. Okay. Okay. You strike me as a Westwood girl. If I'm being a hundred percent honest with you.
Speaker 2 00:05:21 Well, actually I don't think I hardly had any friends at Westwood at all. Most of my friends went to either compromise.
Speaker 0 00:05:27 Okay. Very cool. So that means you grew up in the downtown?
Speaker 2 00:05:30 Um, actually, yeah, I grew up in opposite. End on Athabaska Crescent and uh, in the aspens and yeah, and I went to father Beau for my elementary school
Speaker 0 00:05:40 And I've done a comp or Frank
Speaker 2 00:05:42 Spragens for anybody who could ever remember that before it turned into the first.
Speaker 0 00:05:46 There we go. Thanks Reagan. Nice. Okay. I was born in Afghanistan and I moved when I was five, but I went to like preschool or whatever before kindergarten. Not in the hospital. That's all the, no, no, no, no. At home birth. Yeah. For real. No, not for real awesome hospital Hill KP Wong. I'm actually, I'm going to edit that out. Yeah. That's going to be the story that I, my parents were like hippies and I was born at home. Yeah. No KP Wong delivered you as well.
Speaker 2 00:06:16 Um, he was my doctor for when I had my daughter. She's seven now, but um, he delivered my sister and my husband. Yup.
Speaker 0 00:06:22 That's right. So your husband is born and raised here as well?
Speaker 2 00:06:25 Yeah, he was born here also. He graduated from comp two.
Speaker 0 00:06:28 Nice. I got a question. We're going to get personal. Yeah. High school sweethearts. Or you started dating afterwards,
Speaker 2 00:06:34 Never dated in high school. We were friends in high school. We never dated. I think we started dating and he might get mad at me for this cause I'm really bad with remembering. Um, but we started dating when I was like 21, 21 or 22. We started dating. So we just celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary now. 11 years in January. Congratulations. Thank you.
Speaker 0 00:06:54 Awesome. All right. So comp, okay. Now I feel bad. Cause sometimes I kind of, well, I haven't done it yet, but Tanner has a segment called the Mac city minute, which we'll get to later. Um, I'm going to ask some questions and hopefully I'm not hijacking some of these questions. You've stolen a few. I just, I just fix it. You keep it to yourself. Born and raised in Fort McMurray. What's a restaurant. This was one of Tanner's question. So it was Amy's restaurant. That's not here anymore. That you wish was still here. Fable table fable table. I think Tanner too young, even old fable table was. I know what it was. I never ate that. No, that was a good one. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:07:33 That was probably, I loved it. That's
Speaker 0 00:07:34 Awesome. That's too good. So now that you're raising a family here in foreman where you grew up here, obviously tremendous change, huge, huge change. So what do you do like back in the day it was like get into the woods and play. There's so much more you can do now. What are you doing with your young family and the community?
Speaker 2 00:07:54 So my daughter actually does, um, competitive dance, uh, with generation dance. Um, she's been, she was also in gymnastics for, since she was 18 months old till she was probably four or five and she did come, uh, comp gymnastics. We switched over to dance and now I feel like all of our extra time is spent there, but the group is so good. All the children she does is with, it's really like a, a family, I think. Um, and we're getting ready for the comp season, which I'm hoping COVID and everything doesn't really change that. Um, so we spend a lot of time with them and when we're not doing that, we do a lot of outdoor things. Actually, we like doing hiking this week. We're going to go down to winter play. Um, and we're going to hike to the waterfall behind thick blood. I don't know if you've ever been there. So we're excited to go do that mean, bring a picnic there. Um, and we, we have, um, a cabin down by Lac LA Biche. So we do like ice fishing and squatting a lot of outdoor stuff.
Speaker 0 00:08:47 That's awesome. So you still are doing pretty much the same thing then, although like it's changed that's right. The fun stuff is still the fun stuff. That's awesome. So what kind of dance
Speaker 2 00:08:59 She actually does? Jazz tap. I hope Ms. Hurley doesn't get mad at me for forgetting something, but she does jazz tap ballet, lyrical, contemporary acro. I think she does about 11 classes a week, 10 or 11 classes a week. So she does all of them. Pretty much all of them.
Speaker 0 00:09:16 That's awesome. Good for her little shout out to my sister, Alicia, Pierre. Um, she went through, um, the dance studios here in town. I think it was Taylor dance. I could be wrong. I'm going to I'm wrong. I don't know what it was called anyways. She, uh, is a certified tap teacher and still teaches. Oh wow. Yup. And so she started here and one summer, very brave girl. Um, she didn't want to work at site, so she's like, I'm not doing it. So she arranged to do a tap dancing course down in South America and like raise the funds so that she could do it and got tap shoes and everything and told my dad, yeah, I'm going to live in South America. And I'm going to teach, tap dance for the summer. And he's like, no, you're not. And she's like, well, that ship is already moving forward. And this is how much money I'll make, which is equivalent to site. So see you later. And she did. And she did it. She went down to where my parents are from Guyana, South America. And so she stayed with my uncle, but yeah, she organized this whole thing and it paid her. And like, you can't argue with that in regards to like, I want you to work outside. You gotta make money to pay for university. Don't worry. I got the money I'll pay for next semester. I'm good dad. So
Speaker 2 00:10:29 Good for her. What an experience. That's so exciting. Actually. I'm really hoping like Sierra now seven years old, my girl has like a six pack and I'm like the least athletic person you probably
Speaker 0 00:10:40 Ever meet.
Speaker 2 00:10:42 Um, but she's, she's very, very competitive and very, not hard on herself, but she pushes herself to strive for better, I guess. So I it's exciting to see and I always want to tear up and I embarrass her. I'm sure.
Speaker 0 00:10:55 Yeah. As opposed to, yeah, that's awesome. Proud mom, nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2 00:11:01 You're very exciting, but I'm, uh, I'm excited to see what this next year brings and see if any of the, there are competitions moving forward, but it will be virtually. Right. Um, so I'm excited to see those as well. And I make some of her dance costumes.
Speaker 0 00:11:15 Nice. That's awesome. You're good with the sewing machine. I don't know about that. So you, uh, put your daughter into some embarrassing situations. Hopefully we're not about to do that to you, but we're at the part of the show called the Mac city minute where Tanner is going to ask you five questions. They're pretty random, but they're always Epic. So Tanner hit her with the Mac city minute question. Number one. What is one thing about selling houses you use in your everyday life?
Speaker 2 00:11:46 Oh my goodness. Um, I would probably say just trying to relate to people. So I'm, I'm open people tend to open up to me a little bit. So yeah, I would probably say, just trying to get to know, people relate to people, meeting new people and sometimes having to think outside the box.
Speaker 3 00:12:06 Question number two. What is it like selling houses that you grew up around?
Speaker 2 00:12:11 Oh my goodness. That I grew up around
Speaker 3 00:12:16 Grew up in Fort McMurray. So you've seen all the houses.
Speaker 2 00:12:19 Yes. Well, that's true. That's so true. Um, you know what I think probably the biggest thing for me is we used to do a lot of quoting and ATV over in the timber area and probably seeing all the developments and everything go up there. And sometimes when I'm walking into a house, I'm like, man, we used to Skidoo here. Um, so the new book, new development areas, I think just seeing them change.
Speaker 3 00:12:40 Question number three. What is your favorite place to shop in Fort McMurray? That is no longer open.
Speaker 2 00:12:47 That's no longer open. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 0 00:12:53 I wonder if this has come up a few times now and uh, it's been the same response. I think every time I wonder if she's going to say that.
Speaker 2 00:13:00 Oh no. I'm curious to see what you think. And that's no longer open that I love to shop. My favorite store is still open, so, um, I'm, I'm not sure. Maybe blocking Cole. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:13:16 There we go. Lock and Coke. Okay. I'll tell you what the other one is. After the questions are done.
Speaker 3 00:13:20 Mine is Zellers.
Speaker 2 00:13:22 Oh, I love sellers poutine. The restaurant they had in there. Those are my favorites.
Speaker 3 00:13:28 Question. Number four. How did working at site help you in the real estate industry?
Speaker 2 00:13:33 Um, mostly getting to know people, I think. Um, and in a very big group setting, I used to be not an introvert, but I was a little bit shyer and it got, it just got me out there and getting to know people. So I think that helped me a lot.
Speaker 3 00:13:50 And your last question, what is one guilty pleasure you have that people might not know?
Speaker 2 00:13:57 I'm a huge chocolate fanatic. I love candy and chocolate. Like actually I'd eat it for breakfast, much suffer. I'm sure. But that's probably my biggest guilty pleasure. Those have been your five questions that wasn't so bad.
Speaker 0 00:14:12 Horrible. The, uh, the place that's closed. That's no longer that people miss. I think it's come up three times now. It was campus. Oh, I loved campus campus has come up and Bob Barry came up one time as well. Bob
Speaker 2 00:14:27 Barrett's. But that was like for my husband. So
Speaker 0 00:14:30 Lisa said the same thing. Yeah, she did. She said the same thing for, uh, uh, brothers husbands. Like she didn't buy clothes for herself, but for gifts, Bob Barrick was the
Speaker 2 00:14:39 Kids love Bob Barretts and sellers. Man. I love their restaurant there. Yeah. Who didn't
Speaker 0 00:14:45 Yeah. Eddie, the bear
Speaker 2 00:14:48 Or hate, or they used to do these huge balloon. Um, I don't know, drops or whatever. So either you caught a balloon or whatever, it'd be like 10% off or whatever.
Speaker 0 00:14:56 That's right. Yeah. Very cool. That one question that Tanner asked is a good one in regards to, um, I'm addicted to real estate. I just am. I love to look at it. I love to go visit it. Um, and I bought a number of houses in Fort McMurray, but uh, when I'm buying houses in Fort McMurray and my agent is taking me to the different houses. Sometimes you walk in, you're like, Oh, I know who lived here and you have a backstory of the house. You're like, no, no, no, I can't get this house. And they're like, why not? Well, I know who lived here before. And I know the things that we did here. So this house is off the list.
Speaker 2 00:15:32 I've walked into a few, actually I've walked into quite a few. I bought my first house when I was 19 years old, up here in <inaudible> actually. And we used to literally we'd get on our quad and Skidoo or whatever. And we'd go back into the back walking trails now, I guess, but we'd go up what we called hogs back and head out almost like radio transac for something to eat or whatever, and then come back. Um, but there was tons of my friends houses and stuff that I still walk into now. And I'm like, Oh, it hasn't changed a bit
Speaker 0 00:15:59 Bit. It's crazy. When you live here, you can be like, Oh wow. And you see the progression. It's, it's a, it's a cool thing to have. Like, I, I don't know how it's you, I don't know how unique it is to Fort McMurray, but when you grow up in a small town and it develops like how it has to witness that and to be a part of it and then, but still be able to go back and reminisce on certain things that are the same. It's kinda cool.
Speaker 2 00:16:24 Exactly. Exactly. And I also walk into houses and think, Oh man,
Speaker 0 00:16:28 Yeah, yeah. Remember a party here too. That's right. That's exactly it. So yeah, it's a, what'd you do is pretty cool. Like you get to go into some pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 00:16:40 I love it. And I love helping people, especially, and when you meet a not especially, but when you meet like a first time home buyer or something and they're going out, it's just so exciting. I find, and you're able to help them find their dream home or start her home, helping people upgrade and downsize it's no, I just, I really take pride in it. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:16:57 That's awesome. And I think that comes across in regards to like yourself, your personality and like the content you put out, like there's pretty genuine. You like what you do. Well, we do for our living. So, uh, this doesn't count as work. This doesn't count as work whatsoever. I get to sit on comfy chairs cross-legged and just talk to people. So it makes cookies. So I know it's a problem. It's a problem. He, uh, kind of have some really good ideas. And that was in theory, one of them outside of the fact that I can't stop eating the cookies. So it's a bit of an issue, but everybody else likes it. And obviously I like it too. Cause I don't stop eating them. So
Speaker 3 00:17:43 It makes me feel better about his morning workout every day when he comes down and has a cookie, I feel like it makes an even playing field.
Speaker 0 00:17:51 I'm going to have to step up the morning workout though. Cause I have easily crushed three, four of those cookies a day now.
Speaker 2 00:17:58 Oh yeah. See, I like, yeah. I love, I love chocolates. Oh I truly, every day, like I think I eat a chocolate bar day. At least my doctor usually Christie and I'm like no chocolate bar and a Pepsi. I just have to have at least one a day.
Speaker 0 00:18:12 Let's talk about, uh, chocolate bars then. What is your go-to jam for chocolate bars?
Speaker 2 00:18:17 Uh Snicker's Mr. Big or, um, wunderbar or those are my three favorites kid. But if you remember special crisp, you ever hear him? My favorite chocolate bar of all time. And you think I could find any nothing? They don't sell them.
Speaker 0 00:18:31 No, not even on eBay. Not even. Oh wow. Okay. Thought that was my favorite. Okay. My favorite candy bar hands down. I'm not a huge chocolate fan. I love food, but I could go without chocolate, but obviously I'll eat anything is what it comes down to. Um, coffee crisp. I also love a coffee, Chris. I do, but it's not in my tops are not in your top three. Yeah. Eat more as they're pretty bang or too. Those are good.
Speaker 2 00:18:58 I'll eat any chocolate bar except for probably big Turk. I don't know.
Speaker 0 00:19:02 Oh, my mom loves those. They're terrible. I'm addicted. And it's a problem. And I go through spurts, uh, gummies, gummy candy, gummy bears, whatever you want to call them. I can't stop if and like, it won't be like, Oh, I ate like a pound in a day. It's like, no, I'll go on like a one-week bender. So yeah, we all have our thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:28 So yesterday in the office, actually my daughter came down with me for a couple of minutes and we were eating gummy worms, but we also had them stuck on our faces, sending my husband pictures of her, sticking out of her nostrils like boogers, but
Speaker 0 00:19:41 Awesome. That's so cute. Well, listen. That's 20 minutes. Wow. I know it's, it's horrible, but it's, it's designed that way. Cause obviously we could talk for way longer and uh, people will want to hear more about you. So 20 minutes gives you more than enough time to come back in the future and talk to me some more. I'd love it. Elliott, please take me up on that offer. I will absolutely awesome. Now before we let you go, uh, please shameless, shout out, tell people who you are, how they can get in contact with you so you can promote yourself in your business.
Speaker 2 00:20:14 Oh, thank you so much. Um, so again, I'm Christy Stonehouse with Coldwell banker Fort McMurray. Uh, my phone number is (780) 880-5571. Uh, you can also reach me by any kind of social media outlet. Um, so just at Keystone house or Christie stone house, real estate. And uh, I feel free to call me anytime on any kind of market updates. Uh, if you'd like, um, market evaluation or price proposal done on your home showed up.
Speaker 0 00:20:40 There we go. Sweet. All right. Well on that note, once again, everybody tuning in, may it be live and or watching it after
Speaker 4 00:20:48 It airs live on the recorded versions and or the clips. Thank you very much. It does mean the world to me. I'm shocked every day when I see the numbers of people engaging. Thank you. I know you could be doing so many other things with your time, so it really, really does warm my heart on that note. Have a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. <inaudible> talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
